Fitz says link between players and the public could be better

EAMONN Fitzmaurice denies that there is a growing disconnect between Kerry’s senior footballers and the strong Kerry support base, but admits that there could be a better link with the general public.

Speaking ahead of Kerry’s Munster title defence on Sunday, the Kerry manager was asked about the lack of hard factual knowledge about the Kerry team ahead of Sunday’s semi-final and if that is feeding into a sense of alienation between the players and the supporters.

“The closed training thing was just something that had to happen (and) the unfortunate thing about it is that bit of a link is something that we have to work on between the supporters and the players in particular. Don’t mind the management, the link between the players and supporters has to be grown again. That grows through success (and) if you’re winning things, particularly with new young players, new young heroes coming to the fore.

“It is important to have a tight ship. I think that there is so much coverage now and it’s so easy for stuff to get out on social media and every fella has an opinion and it’s easy to get the opinion out there very quickly that I think it is important to keep it tight,” he said, before being asked if the connection with the Kerry support is being lost?

“I don’t think it’s been lost. There’s a hardcore of support there. Kerry’s supporting group that go to every Kerry game there is a great link between them and the lads. You can be at a National League game, wherever, and that group are there and there’s a real link there. In terms of a link with the general public it’s something we have to work on. I think it’s something that we need to get a small bit better. I’m not sure what the answer is but you know success helps it there is no doubt about it but it’s something that we have to try and improve on.

“The only thing is a thing that I find funny... about the club month in April. I just thought it was a great success and I though the format was a success, but the thing that I did find surprising for such a football mad county was that the crowds were very disappointing at some of the games. I was at a share of the games and the (selectors) were at a lot of games, some of the games there were crowds there but overall they crowds were very poor.

“There was only a couple of hundred people at (Senior Club final) for a big game. It wasn’t a great game on the day but it was a nice day and it was an attractive game and you would have expected a big crowd. I don’t think there was a whole lot else on tv or anything so maybe it’s a societal thing. That’s my point, I’m kinda beating us up about a link with the supporters and I’m just wondering is there a societal thing that people aren’t going to games as much anymore.

“In terms of that link for us to have with supporters, I think it’s important to develop it but then you kind of see the apathy that was there to some of the club games and I was really scratching my head at some of those games. I was saying this is an attractive game and I was saying ‘what are people actually doing? What else is going on this evening that you wouldn’t go out for an hour and support your club.”

TICKETS ARRANGEMENTS FOR MUNSTER SEMI-FINAL

TICKETS are available via gaa.ie/tickets and in participating Centra and SuperValu outlets and in the Kerry GAA store, Killarney. Adult: €15 general admission, U-16s are free of charge all areas, Student/OAP: Concession of €5 with valid ID prior to entry at the designated stile. These are pre-purchase prices, applicable until midnight before the game. All adult ticket prices increase by €5 on the day.