O’Connor has the

T’S a well-trodden path for Jack O’Connor. Big game, big expectations, everything on the line. There’s pressure certainly. Of that there’s little doubt, but it’s the type of pressure that the Dromid man thrives on. He might not put it that way himself. His track record, however, speaks for itself.

O’Connor delivers. He delivered as senior selector and senior manager. He delivered as minor manager. Indeed he has delivered as Under 21 boss before. No manager in the modern game has the breadth of experience as he does and that is Kerry’s ace in the hole.

Developing an Under 21 side is a notoriously difficult thing to do, but if anybody can pull it off it’s O’Connor. What he and his players would have learned from the two games they played over the space of seven days is invaluable. Flaws exposed and lessons, hopefully, learned.

“It’s a common theme with a lot of Kerry teams when teams run at us, because the style of football down here is more kicking I suppose in Kerry football than there is in other counties,” O’Connor reflected.

“So maybe our defenders aren’t used to dealing with fellows running at them, but we worked very hard in that sense and we will be hoping that we will improve because Cork will be at another level.

“They have some really strong runners, the likes of [Sean] Powter, and Michael Hurley and these guys, and, they opened us up last year, so, we will have to work very hard to ensure that it doesn’t happen again.

“Waterford obviously had very little done, but just getting used to the logistics of travelling in a bus, and, travelling to an away game was important, because you have a similar type of journey the next day, so just getting fellows into the routine and getting the times right and stuff like that, when they eat, and the warm up and all that is important, so from that point of view it was a good work out.”

In terms of preparation Cork he feels have and have had an advantage and the statistic which confirms that they have won eleven of the last fifteen provincial titles would seem to give some credence to his assertion in this respect.

“It’s notorious really [the logistics involved], it’s difficult to prepare an Under 21 team down here, that’s why they probably do better at Under 21 level than they do at Minor level because the vast majority of them are at college in Cork.

“They are right under their hands up there, whereas, fellows have to come a three or four hour round journey if they are to come training with us midweek. So, it’s difficult from that point of view, but look, we won’t be using that as an excuse if we don’t get over them on Wednesday.”

When it comes to team selection Kerry have a lot more options with the return of the Dr Crokes players.

“For the first time this year we have a full squad to pick from. We had some injuries for a few weeks, but, thankfully everybody is back