Morgan O’Sullivan aims for a Munster double

WHILE it’s the club’s second Munster Final in the space of four years, for John O’Sullivan Morgan it’s the first time he is experiencing such an occasion in a managerial role.

“The buzz around the club and the town itself is good.

“I’m experiencing this from a different perspective now though as I was just a supporter the last time the club was in a situation like this back in 2012. Being a double header with the Crokes game on Sunday only adds to it as well,” the Kenmare Shamrocks manager said.

When they defeated Bruree of Limerick in the 2012 Junior Final, the club was the second part of a double header that day (under floodlights as well), while this Sunday they will kick the day off in Mallow.

After the somewhat unconvincing nature of the victory over Kilfenora in the semi-final, the Kenmare boss agreed that it gave the team something to work on ahead of the meeting with Adare in the decider.

“Certainly the intensity was not what we felt it should have been. Maybe it was always going to be hard to expect that after the nature of the win over Fethard but we want to see the lads show more of what they showed in winning the county, the Desmonds and Templenoe games in particular.

“The one good thing is that a lot of what we do is self-driven by the players. They put the pressure on themselves to perform and we don’t have to bang too many tables to get them going,” he said.

Adare are not a team the club are in any way underestimating despite the huge expectation of success that comes with Kerry sides at this level.

“They were previously a senior football side in Limerick so they will know what it’s like to have played at a high level. The fact they won their semi-final (against Kiskeam of Cork) in Mallow means that they won’t have any fears about coming down there to take us on.

“They appear to be similar to us in having a young team that plays a nice open brand of football,” he said.

Fionan O’Sullivan (who is awaiting the results of a scan on an injury sustained in a Third Level game) is the only injury worry for the Shamrocks ahead of another trip to Mallow for the club.

More like Fethard and less like Kilfenora would appear to be the mantra from the club heading in Sunday.