Good outcome for Kerry hurlers from fixture plan

“No grounds for complains in fairness and this is probably the only year that if Kerry win the Joe McDonagh we’re going up regardless of what happens, which is a huge thing. I think every other year we’d be playing the bottom team from Leinster, but my reading of it is that if we can manage to win it, we’ll get to go into the senior championship next year.”

O’Connor’s belief that Kerry, if victorious, would be promoted automatically is, we assume, based on the following line from the GAA’s press release last week about the Joe Mac Cup that the “winner [is] promoted to MacCarthy Championship for 2021.”

Perhaps that will be the case, but there is a proviso to that later in the document which states that the “issue of what happens for 2021 MacCarthy Championship should Kerry win the McDonagh Cup will be dealt with in final competition regulations.”

There’s a bit to run on this issue yet and Croke Park confirmed to The Kerryman on Tuesday that no decision has yet been taken with discussions on-going with stakeholders.

Still though even there the worst outcome would be for a retention of the status quo where Kerry are treated differently than their Leinster and Ulster counterparts. Not ideal, but no worse than before and there’s hope that it might be a lot better.

O’Connor and his panel of players were clearly buoyed by the news this week.

“We’re all excited to know that there is an intention to play it as long as [everything goes according to plan],” he said.

“We have to keep our fingers crossed that the country stays going in the right direction and all that. You’ve always got that thing in the back of your head that maybe there will be a second wave and it’s put back on the backburner.

“You’ve just got to stay positive that things will work out alright and we’ll all get to play our games. That’s the big thing everyone is looking forward to it.”

As for the mid-September date given for return to training, O’Connor is generally supportive, but still has some questions about how it will work in practice. “You’re never 100% happy with anything,” he said.

“I’d like maybe for there to be some sort of compromise situation where clubs are knocked out of the championship, like the hurling in Kerry is knockout which means that half the teams in Kerry will be gone day one.

“Will they be doing much hurling in the meantime? That’s the question, and we don’t want to be breaking any rules and we’re not going to break rules, but if a player is finished with his club what’s he going to be doing for six or eight weeks before he’s back in with his county? “That’s the one thing I’d be looking at and I think from other county managers who are more important than me it’s been said already, so maybe there will be some change in it.”