White rearing to go again in 2019 with Dr Crokes and Kerry
GAVIN White says he is energised by the prospect of working with Peter Keane when he returns to the Kerry football squad later in the spring.
White says that “all eyes are on February 16” and Dr Crokes’ All-Ireland Club semi-final against Mullinalaghta for the time being but he has been doing some gym work with Keane and the Kerry squad in recent weeks and he’s looking forward to working with the new manager.
White missed out by a year playing under Keane with the Kerry minors, and he made his senior debut last year under Eamonn Fitzmaurice.
“For me I’m still kind of new to the whole set-up but Peter will take it to a new level over the next couple of years. There are fresh faces in there from players to selectors and the manager so it’s an exciting time, I’m definitely looking forward to the year and hopefully we can improve and bring back more silverware,” he said.
Speaking after picking up his second East Kerry All Star award White, who turned 22 on Saturday, reflected on a great 2018 with his club.
“It’s always nice to look back on a successful year with the team and to get rewarded with such big awards, it’s a massive privilege for myself and family and the club. Within East Kerry it’s really about getting back to grassroots. When you start off playing football you start playing in the East Kerry division, even before county championships and all that you learn your football through the East Kerry system and competitions, and the O’Donoghue Cup is the pinnacle of football in the district. So it’s always nice to be recognised close to home and it’s important to enjoy nights like this with your club mates and friends,” he said.
“An O’Donoghue Cup medal was the only medal I didn’t have up to this year so it was definitely a medal I wanted to get. Rathmore had a great run at it there for a few years but it’s a great competition in the county and we fight massively every year to try and win the competition because it’s where we come from.
“I keep coming back to it but we grow up playing football in East Kerry and you know it’ll be a regret in the back of your mind if you finish playing and you don’t have that medal. There have been a lot of brilliant footballers from East Kerry who’ve won nearly every honour in the game but don’t have that O’Donoghue Cup medal. And now to get rewarded with an All Star on top of that is very special.
“It was a massive year for us and it was a busy schedule right up to Christmas. The O’Donoghue Cup for us became very condensed at the end of a long season and the body was tiring and things like that but at the end of the day we’re here to play football. It would be a different story if we were here complaining saying there were no games but with Crokes we’re lucky enough to have a massive panel of players so we were able to put out teams on certain days and keep some other guys fresh on the line. But we were just delighted to win the O’Donoghue Cup and make it five trophies out of five that were on offer to us last year.”