Spell on the sidelines worries Keane
Kerry minor boss Peter Keane is naturally cautious and feels Roscommon’s extra game time will stand to them
AMID this rather hectic period of inter-county activity, the Kerry minors have been the ones on the sidelines the longest with a total of five weeks between their Munster Final success over Clare and this Saturday’s All-Ireland Minor quarter-final with Roscommon in Limerick.
Not that the minors have been idle as the opening rounds of the County Minor Championship have been keeping them occupied in the meantime.
However, minor boss Peter Keane does have some worry about the later conclusion of the provincial championships elsewhere creating somewhat of a disadvantage for the Kingdom.
“Roscommon will have played three games in the five week period since we last lined out and there would be somewhat of a concern that we are coming in cold to this.
“We’ve only had the players for a 10 or 12 day period in the build-up to the game because of the County Championship so challenge matches are hard to come by especially with the other provinces in the thick of things and other counties knocked out for the year,” the two time All-Ireland winning manager said.
It’s another facet of the debate about the Munster Minor Championship on top of the view on ‘backdoors’ that leave the competition pretty much up for review when the other three provinces are only coming to a close in the build-up to this stage of the competition.
The route is simplified now for the Minors, however, it being all straight knock out from here as Keane reflected on a Munster Final win where he felt the final scoreline was somewhat misleading.
“I know winning is all that matters in finals, but two of our goals were fortunate ones that came off the post and down into our paths for a finish afterwards. While it’s easier to judge what you can expect in Munster each year, All-Ireland level is a different story because you don’t know what you are going to get in a given year.
“I remember back to Galway this time last year who were favourites probably for the All-Ireland Final and lost to Cavan in showing how much it can change,” Keane said.
The County Minor Championship games have given the management a chance to view the players in a different light but Keane doesn’t anticipate any major changes to the thirty man squad with the match day twenty four still to be decided by the management.
“The drop in age this year creates a different level of maturity but we still have a very honest group this year that are working very hard and keeping up the commitment that we have asked of them in training and the other preparation that is required.
“I think we have a nice all round team with players that are changeable and have a lot of versatility in how they play,” the Cahersiveen native said.
What makes for more caution this year as well is the fact Roscommon beat Kerry in the once off All-Ireland Under 17 semi-final last year as Shane Cunnane and Aaron McDermott remain from the side that defeated Kerry in Ennis last year by 2-15 to 1-13. With this being Roscommon’s sixth competitive game of the year due to the Round Robin in Connacht, Keane has seen a toughness and resilience in their ranks.
“There are very honest team and even though they were seven points down at one stage against Galway in the Connacht Final, they kept battling until the end to make it a competitive encounter right until the final whistle,” Keane said about what he has learnt of Roscommon.
The minor boss is happy with Limerick being the very from the point of view of travel with a day journey and no overnight stay required as he said says preparations have not been unduly affected by the warm weather of recent times.
“We’re lucky to have the facilities we have in Fitzgerald Stadium, Austin Stack Park and Currans to train and they are all pitches holding up well, the same as the Gaelic Grounds appears to be judging by its condition for the Under 20 game between Kerry and Kildare,” he said.
When it comes to the issue of possession at Minor level, Keane is very happy with the Kingdom’s performance on that front so far in their matches.
“We broke even against Cork in the Munster semi-final on kickouts while we won the majority of them against both Tipperary and Clare in our other games. While everyone wants to win kick-outs it doesn’t always happen that way when teams are working just as hard to try and stop you but I do find kick-outs are slightly skewed when a team decides to use a sweeper and you win an uncontested one,” the minor boss believes.
A desire to see the same effort that has been put in up to now is what Keane hopes for on Saturday.
“I think if they can put in the effort we want to see out of them on the day like there has been up to now we won’t be far away from it, but we are expecting a very tough game on Saturday from Roscommon.”