Under 20s make it a clean sweep with brilliant victory
IT’S amazing how calmness can descend so quickly on matters in the aftermath of a game.
That’s how it felt on the pitch anyway as the media made their way to speak to Jack O’Connor after a pretty intense battle with Cork. The Kerry Under 20 boss felt that while the match might not have been an all-time classic he was just glad Kerry came up trumps in the second period.
“It didn’t look good for us at half-time especially with Cork having the aid of the breeze, but I felt we were far more controlled in the second-half. We gave away too much ball in the first-half which normally wouldn’t be our style, but I think the lads were working so hard that they didn’t think about how to work the ball through the lines better.
“We’ll learn a lot from this though, as the first two games we had did us no favours and it took the entire first-half for us to get those two games out of our system,” he felt.
O’Connor made two important substitutions in the second period with the introduction of Eddie Horan and Seán O’Leary as the former’s introduction came at the expense of first-half goalscorer David Shaw. In general O’Connor was happy with the impact the changes had on proceedings.
“I think it shows you how good a player like Seán O’Leary is having played corner-back for the Kerry Minors last year that he has developed into an effective player further out the pitch.
“He gave us great legs and you need a ball carrier like him in heat such as that where legs are crucial. Eddie [Horan] had a great side step for his goal and Brian Friel made an impact again when we brought him on so we’re delighted that there is such competition for places coming from our bench at the moment,” the Kerry Under 20 boss said when asked about the second-half substitutions made.
O’Connor didn’t dwell too much on Dara Moynihan’s second-half black card only saying the Spa player was ‘mystified’ by its awarding.
“At a stage in a game like that there’s no point in feeling sorry for yourselves about incidents like that when you are in the thick of it. That was a damn good and athletic Cork team that we played here tonight though who just seemed to run out of ideas near the end,” he said.
The Dromid Pearses clubman agreed that the water break during both halves was a good idea enough if it didn’t allow the management the chance to do some work with the players. However, in looking ahead to the All-Ireland campaign, O’Connor had some thankful words for the Austin Stack Park Grounds staff.
“Every year is different regardless of what people might expect from these players with what they won at minor level. This is something we desperately wanted to win [Munster] and we are happy with the schedule of games as it keeps the players going and you don’t do a lot of hard training with them only to stay fresh for your next match.
“I just want to say well done to Ger O’Mahony and the team here at Austin Stack Park for the tremendous condition of the pitch. How they got grass growing here with the drought there has been I don’t know but it is a great credit to them.”