Munster U20 FC: Stefan fits the bill at full-back
Stefan Okunbar’s emergence as a full-back over the last couple of months has many in the Kingdom excited, writes Damian Stack
THERE’S something about that number three jersey, especially the Kerry number three jersey. It’s almost an article of faith amongst a certain section of Kerry football supporters that the last man who truly made it his own was John O’Keeffe.
Now that’s patently unfair on a lot of very good footballers who’ve held the position in the meantime – Barry O’Shea, Seamus Moynihan, Tommy Griffin, Mike McCarthy to name a few – but it’s also true that, for one reason or another, nobody has held it down for longer than two or three seasons at best.
Sometimes it’s been a case of needs must and horses for courses. Marc Ó Sé and Aidan O’Mahony, who did their best work elsewhere, have both featured at full-back in the last five seasons.
That’s the reason why any time there’s a potential new full-back on the horizon people around these parts get very excited indeed. Even as everybody else was waiting with bated breath for the arrival of Seán O’Shea and David Clifford, there was almost as much talk about Jason Foley before this year’s National League.
After a league campaign at full-back Foley has had two good games in the Munster championship under his belt. On both days, though, he played in the number two shirt. It could be, despite all the hope, that the Ballydonoghue player is a more natural corner man than a full-back and, so, attention has turned towards Stefan Okunbar.
There were whispers for a few months that he was Jack O’Connor’s preferred choice at full-back for this Under 20 campaign. When he lined out there on a couple of occasions with his club Na Gaeil – the Premier Junior Final against Beaufort especially – those rumours were given substance.
Two games at number three in the Munster Under 20 championship confirmed them. A seal of approval from Jack O’Connor to take a position as important as full-back is no small deal.
Having seen him play at midfield for Kerry at minor level he seemed to have a lot of the attributes required of an inter-county midfielder. He’s big, he’s strong, he’s got good hands and works well with his colleagues. The Under 20 management team saw all that and thought of him straight away as a full-back in the making.
“Stefan actually came into training on a few occasions last year and we actually tried him at full-back in those training sessions,” Kerry selector Eamon Whelan explains.
“He was actually marking big Matthew O’Sullivan. He used to have some outstanding battles with Matthew in that. He didn’t make the panel, but he was actually quite unlucky not to make the panel last year on that going.
“And this year when we were getting players together it was always our intention to try Stefan at full-back and it was from seeing how he was doing there
in training that Na Gaeil actually followed suit and played him at full-back in a few games.
“On paper he looks as if he can be a really good full-back. Everything that’s been thrown at him so far in training and in challenge games, competitive games now, he’s answered and he looks like he can be a really good player for Kerry in the fullback position.
“Personally I think full-back is his ideal position, because he sees everything that’s going on in front of him, he’s quite strong, forceful, attacks the ball well, good hands, quick on his feet.
“I just like him as a full-back, but we still have to be careful, he’s still a novice in that position. I think potentially he can be very good there.”
One thing that strikes you about Okunbar in the last couple of years is just how much better he’s become in a short space of time. It’s not as if he wasn’t good when he was on the minor panel – that 2016 squad was an exceptionally gifted bunch of footballers – but he’s kicked on in a major way.
That’s what a summer of coaching from Peter Keane and Tommy Griffin will do for a young footballer we suppose and then, after a year with those boys, he was straight into Jack O’Connor’s orbit. An education worth its weight in gold.
More than anything Whelan puts Okunbar’s improvement down to confidence and having seen him play for Na Gaeil in that club final you can could that confidence surging through him.
He was a real leader that day, the driving force behind a brave, if ultimately doomed, attempt to bring a county title back to Killeen.
“I just think that’s the confidence of playing at full-back and playing regularly,” Whelan says.
“Where he was a bit of a bitpart player with the 2016 team he made a couple of appearances off the bench, mainly at midfield, he really enjoys the challenge of playing full-back, which is unusual in Kerry, because most people like to play out the field where they can express themselves more.
“He likes the challenge of playing full-back where he has a good physical challenge with other players.”
Just about the only thing we have to worry about is that we’ve not seen Stefan in a competitive game as of yet. The games with Limerick and Waterford were walks in the park compared to what’s coming down the tracks.
That’s no fault of his – beat what’s in front of you as the cliché goes – but it’s almost certainly the case that the Tralee youngster has played his best games at full-back in challenge games before closed doors, in A versus B games and in games against the Kerry juniors.
That he’s come through those games and that football men like Eamon Whelan and Jack O’Connor have the kind of confidence they do in him, probably tells us all we need to know.
Friday night should tell us a whole lot more.
I just like him as a full-back, but we still have to be careful, he’s still a novice in that position – Eamon Whelan