O’Callaghan: We have to hope our experience will negate their pace

DR Crokes selector Niall O’Callaghan has been around football teams longer than he might care to remember, but he never tires of it. He reckons he has been directly involved with Dr Crokes teams of one sort or another for the best part of 20 years; he’s been immersed at the sharp end of the management for much of that time, and has been directly involved “either as water boy or as a selector” for all seven of the county finals Crokes have reached and won in this decade. And he never ceases to be amazed by the players’ hunger fo success and their willingness to always improve.

For much of the last decade and a half, ‘Botty’ has been involved with the Kerry senior team as kit man, logistics guy, and all round mover and shaker. As much as anything he has been a confidant for countless Kerry players before his departure from the inter-county set-up at the end of 2018, but O’Callaghan sees plenty of comparisons between that scene and the club one with Dr Crokes.

“I’ve been involved in all of them [county finals since 2010], either as water boy or as a selector, for the last ten years. I’m just in awe of them. It’s a bit like being around the Kerry dressing room and seeing your leaders, seeing Declan O’Sullivan or Paul Galvin, Colm Cooper, Darragh Ó Sé, those leaders, seeing Aidan O’Mahony, and then you see the same thing in a club side, with Crokes. You’re seeing Johnny Buckley and these guys...,” he trails off, but he could have listed off ten names who fit that leadership role.

O’Callaghan appreciates the talent in the Dr Crokes dressing room - several have worn the Kerry jersey during his own time in that environment - but it’s the lack of ego, and the willingness to be self-critical, are the keystones, he believes, to their ongoing success over the last decade.

“As a management team you can’t be shy to call things out. Even though some of the players are here ten or fifteen years, there are no egos in our dressing room,” he says. “Every fella is called out and most of the time they’re actually called out by the players themselves. That’s what makes the job easier as a management team. You have to give (manager) Edmund O’Sullivan serious credit, he’s after coming in after what I rate as the best coach in the country in Pat O’Shea, and it was a seamless transition. He’s been really good, his sessions are really good, and he’s very unassuming, and he’s come in a led the team back to a county final.”

Part of O’Sullivan’s brilliance, according to O’Callaghan, has been the reaction to the All-Ireland Club Final defeat - a hammering - to Corofin back in March.

“Edmund managed that whole situation well. We left fellas go to America, we took a couple of months off after the Club Championship final defeat to Stacks and we still did well in the county league, we are still competitive in the East Kerry championship. He’s done a really good job and I think people need to realise how good he has done with a group of players who will call you out if it’s not right. That’s why they are a good group of players.

“From a club point of view that’s why we rate them as they best group of players we’ve ever had. I also think they’re the best group of players the county has seen as a club side. I don’t think there’s any club side that has won seven county championships in nine years and they could make it eight in ten years, so you have to give them respect for that. But there’s no respect next Sunday...

“We want a challenge. Our fellas need a challenge. They need to get up for something and to be the best is what challenges these fellas at this stage. This is probably the biggest challenge, in East Kerry, we’ve faced. They’re a serious outfit, they’re well coached, well drilled, bring serious pace all over the field, and they have in David Clifford they probably have the stand-out player in the entire country,” he said.

At the mention of Clifford, O’Callaghan is effusive in his praise of the Fossa man, who picked up his second All Star last Friday. He wonders aloud if Dr Crokes even have a defender that can competently mark him, but he also points to Crokes’ own wonder-kid, Tony Brosnan.

“I suppose he’s our talisman the next day, and in fairness to East Kerry, they’ll think they can hold him and we understand that, and we think we can hold David Clifford, but holding David Clifford might be five points. Holding Tony Brosnan might be five points. Last week David put on an exhibition when he kicked nine points, but nobody was talking about Tony kicking 11 (points) in the same competition.

“In all sports you’re saying if you can hold their best player then let the other fellas beat you, but it’s not the case with East Kerry. We’re talking for ten minutes about East Kerry and we haven’t mentioned Darragh Roche. He’s a phenomenal player, and match-up wise we’re going to struggle there. Pace, turn, balance, he’s got everything.

“There’s a lot of hype with them and it’s justifiable (because) they’re producing the goods. They got caught last year and I don’t think they’ll ever be caught like that again. David Clifford has taken his game to a new level.

“What can you say about Paudie Clifford, if you’re picking a team of the championship he’s definitely one of those. You’ve two teams in the county final next weekend and there’s only one starter on the Kerry team. It says a lot about the talent around this county that these fellas are chomping at the bit, and it sets it up great for Kerry for the future.

“But from a Crokes point of view, East Kerry bring pace. They’ve all played with Kerry at some level, and they have Kerry under-21 and minor (titles). And the killing thing about it is Vince Cooper is the local GDA and he’d be an ex-Crokes player, but he does a phenomenal job and he impacts on all the clubs in East Kerry.

“The talent in East Kerry is just phenomenal, and they’ve a huge pick. The one thing I’d give them is they’ve pace, huge pace everywhere on the field. And we’re talking about an East Kerry team without Darragh Moynihan.

“We have to hope our experience will negate their pace. That the likes of Johnny Buckley will just dominate the middle of the field like he does. That’s going to be a huge area for us. It’s going to be a hard job to slow them down, but from a Crokes point of view, if a team wants to go for a shoot-out with us we’ll always back ourselves.”