Return to Crokes fold was ‘no brainer’ for former boss O’Neill

AFTER stepping down from the senior set-up in 2012 following the All-Ireland semi-final loss to Crossmaglen and dividing his time between the Kerry Under 21s and the St Brendans College Corn Ui Mhuirí teams, Harry O’Neill returned to his native Dr Crokes this year with a different role to that of manager like he was in two previous periods with the club’s senior team. A selector this time alongside Pat O’Shea, O’Neill said he had no reservations about getting back involved.

“When Pat asked me to come on board and told me who else he wanted to bring in with him it felt like a bit of a no brainer and I’m delighted to be back involved. It’s a great ambition by the club to make County Final day each year.

“We were involved in five straight finals from 2009 to 2013 and it probably made everyone realise the value of that when you miss out on being on involved like the last two years,” the Crokes selector said.

While big scores were the order of the day in their County League campaign, the County Championship so far has been a much different story.

“Bar the West Kerry game, all our games have been very close on the scoreboard and on the pitch. Certainly it’s been a campaign which we’ve learnt a lot from, not just in terms of the players but also ourselves as a management team,” he said.

Although it might be a bit earlier yet to say whether or not the defeat to Austin Stacks in the Senior Club Final was a blessing in disguise for the club, O’Neill is happy with how the players have responded to that setback since.

“The game against Stacks was a combination of a lot of small things not going our way in terms of losing out on the day. It was a championship game though with how it was played and that suited us before we played Kerins O’Rahillys in the quarter-finals,” O’Neill felt.

The sudden and quick finish to the competition over a three week period is not ideal in the Crokes selector’s view but he does feel the strength of the club’s present panel is being shown.

“We have some of the recent minors coming through now and that is keeping our older players on their toes when it comes to places on the starting 15. We’re happy with how we are introducing them to what it’s like to play football at senior level and how they are responding to it at the same time,” he said. Turning to the challenge of Kenmare District and O’Neill acknowledges the progress the divisional side has made without the same resources as some of the other district sides in the county.

“Knowing John Galvin he will have them well prepared for this and it’s not a big surprise that they are here considering both Kenmare Shamrocks and Templenoe were in Division 1 this year.

“Sometimes it’s easier to manage a divisional side with fewer teams that opposed to one with a lot of teams because you have don’t have a large amount of clubs to try and keep track of when you are putting a panel together,” O’Neill said of Crokes’ opponents.

He agrees that expectations with be high for the encounter with the quality of both semi-finals last Sunday while pointing out the burden placed on both sets of players in having to perform to the highest level for the third consecutive week.

“Hopefully the game will live up to the level we saw in both matches last Sunday. Ideally you would like the extra week for all the players to be fresh but avoiding injuries is crucial to winning a competition when it is being played off like this.”