Harmon excited at where one more big effort can take South
HIS involvement with South Kerry all started with a tap on the shoulder from John Sugrue nearly three years ago at a National Coaching Conference but William Harmon has a pretty distinctive involvement in Gaelic football otherwise.
A native of the Milltown/Castlemaine club, Harmon soldiered with the club on the playing fields before married life brought him to Firies where he currently resides. Harmon is involved in coaching his children’s teams at underage level with the East Kerry club but his day job sees him work as a National Development Officer with the LGFA, a role that led to a personal clash for him on the day of South Kerry’s quarter-final win over Rathmore as he was contracted to be in Croke Park for the All-Ireland Ladies Finals at the same time. It’s a job that Harmon is quite passionate about.
“Even though I work from home, a lot of travel is required but it’s exciting work in terms of making and implementing policy for the Ladies game around the country especially when there is such a growth in it at the moment,” Harmon said about the day job. Back to South Kerry and Harmon said he was not sure initially what John Sugrue wanted when he approached him at the conference. “We weren’t able to talk for long that day but agreed to talk the following day and it was then John asked me about getting involved with South Kerry. It was something that I thought would be very exciting and it was great to have the success that we did in 2015 even though it wasn’t expected by a lot of people at the time,” Harmon said of the last South Kerry Bishop Moynihan Cup success.
Despite Sugrue stepping away after one year, Harmon stayed on to take the managerial reins with Willie Power and Humphrey Shanahan as selectors and while success was expected with the St Michaels/Foilmore players returning to the fold, it didn’t quite work out as planned.
“I wouldn’t say there was any issue with integrating the St Michaels/Foilmore players back into things last year; that happened quickly enough. I would say the biggest issue was the 18 weeks we had between going through to the Quarter-Finals and then waiting for it to be played because we weren’t able to get what we needed to done before the Dingle game,” Harmon said of last year’s exit in the last eight.
While the defeat did create a drive to do better in 2017 it wasn’t exactly the start South Kerry would have wanted back in May when they lost to Kerins O’Rahillys in Strand Road.
“We were very disappointed to lose that match but in hindsight it was a good thing because it sharpened everyone up and it was easier to ask the players to give their commitment when you knew there would be a game in July if we won our second match and not a long wait to see when we could be playing again after Kerry were finished in the All-Ireland. We got the opportunity to do more work with the players before we played Dingle and as a game itself it was one we took a lot of positives from,” the South Kerry boss said.
Rathmore posed a formidable challenge when the draw was made but when it became apparent the actual scheduling of the match would create a problem for him personally, it was both the players themselves and a revered player from South Kerry’s recent past who stepped into the breach.
“It says a lot to me about Declan O’Sullivan that pretty much at the drop of a hat he had no problem in coming on board for the Rathmore despite the fact he was understandably busy himself trying to get Dromid Pearses ready for the Premier Junior Final. I think what he brought to those sessions and the game itself that day is something that has rubbed off on us all. It’s a similar situation with Killian Young and the input he is having despite not being able to play but as I said earlier in the campaign we want to develop new leaders now especially for the situations we have had when Bryan (Sheehan) and Denis (Daly) were not on the field,” Harmon reiterated.
In his three years involved South Kerry have played all bar one of their games, the 2015 semi-final against Kenmare District, against club sides and Harmon agrees that the toughest challenge on the club front is now at hand for the district.
“Crokes have a great set-up within their club especially with Pat O’Shea at the helm at senior level. What’s stood out for me is despite the fact they achieved what they wanted in winning the All-Ireland club title, the players look hungrier than ever and the fact they haven’t lost a game since that win tells a lot about their ambition,” he said of Sunday’s opponents in Tralee.
Harmon’s view of the state of play in advance might surprise some with South Kerry’s own pedigree but it can also be viewed as a sign of the momentum Crokes have carried forward since March.
“We’re the underdogs coming into this and we have to play above ourselves if we are to win. At the same time it’s just once more you are asking the players to give it their all and leave it out on the pitch. If we can manage to do that I would be very excited about where it could take us at the end.”