U-21s to face Tipp in McGrath Cup

January deadline for players to decide to stay or go

THE Kerry Under-21 footballers will take on Tipperary in the first round of the McGrath Cup this Sunday, with a senior selection being lined up to play Cork the following weekend.

The senior inter-county season gets underway this weekend with the first round of the McGrath Cup in Munster, and managers Eamonn Fitzmaurice and Jack O’Connor have agreed to split the first two games of the pre-League competition between the senior and U-21 panels.

“I was interested in looking at a share of the Under-21s in the first couple of games and we (himself and Jack O’Connor) said ‘you know what, it makes sense for us as a management to look at the whole lot of them playing that first game’. So that’s what’s happening for that first game against Tipperary and the following Sunday it’ll be a senior squad that will take on Cork,” Fitzmaurice said.

“With regard to the squad there’s a good bit of coming and going at the moment because of the club situation, with Glenbeigh/ Glencar, Kenmare and Crokes. The Crokes lads are just going to stay with the club until they are finished. Similarly with Darran O’Sullivan [Glenbeigh] and Stephen O’Brien [Kenmare], they might do a small bit with us in early January, but for the most part they’ll be with their clubs.”

Apart from a slight injury issue with Anthony Maher, Fitzmaurice said he was expecting a full panel to start back for collective training last night (Tuesday), although there are a few players still considering their futures with the Kerry team.

“Aidan [O’Mahony] is still thinking about his future, Kieran [Donaghy] the same, Colm [Cooper] is focused on the Crokes at the moment. I would be expecting to hear from them during the month of January one way or the other because at that stage I think it is time to have made a call and be ready to move forward whether they are going again or not.”

Jack O’Connor’s U-21 team have been training away with March’s Munster Championship in mind and Sunday will give that management team a great opportunity to test their players against what’s expected to be a strong, experienced and motivated Tipperary team under Liam Kearns.

O’Connor’s squad will be drawn mostly from the 2014 minor panel that won the All-Ireland minor title, ending a 20-year wait to reclaim the Tom Markham Cup.

Mark O’Connor is the obvious absentee from that group of players, after the Dingle club man signed an AFL contract with Geelong in October and moved to Australia before Christmas.

MCGRATH CUP, FIRST ROUND Kerry v Tipperary Sunday, January 8 Austin Stack Park, Tralee at 2pm Referee: Conor Lane (Cork)

TWELVE months ago the Kerry senior panel had just about touched down in Ireland on return from their team holiday when Clare came to Killarney for the McGrath Cup opener against the natives.

The Kerry management had assembled a very experimental team for that fixture and displaying all the signs of a team put together with little collective glue they fell apart.

Leading 0-7 to 0-3 at half time Kerry were in a good place but all that inexperience - against a far more mature Clare team - told in the second half as the hosts were out-scored by nine points to two and bowed out of the competition on the back of a three-point loss.

Twelve months on and the Kerry seniors haven’t been on a team holiday over the New Year and therefore are available (and more ready) for early January action.

Nonetheless, between them, Eamonn Fitzmaurice and his U-21 counterpart Jack O’Connor have decided to field an U-21 team for the opening game against Tipperary with the seniors to fulfil the second game against Cork.

It’s a scratching backs exercise that should benefit both parties. O’Connor’s U-21s will benefit from what should be a very stiff test from a Tipperary squad emboldened by their Championship run in 2016, while Fitzmaurice gets to look at the county’s younger talent from a useful remove. Thereafter, with O’Connor’s blessing, Fitzmaurice can cherry pick a couple of U-21s for the National League games in Donegal and at home to Mayo, as he did with Brian Ó Beaglaoich and Tom O’Sullivan last year.

It remains to be seen what team and panel the U-21 management pick for Sunday, but suffice it to say it will draw largely from the All-Ireland winning minor team from 2014, with the obvious exception of Mark O’Connor who has gone to the AFL in Australia.

Brian Ó Beaglaoich and Tom O’Sullivan are two of that 2014 minor team that will form the spine of this year’s U-21 team - and possibly Sunday’s team to face Tipp - while Andrew Barry, Barry O’Sullivan, Matthew Flaherty and Killian Spillane are some of the other talents to look out for.

Widening the net, the senior management report a full bill of injury-free players (Anthony Maher is expected to shake off a “niggle” according to Fitzmaurice) for the trip to Mallow the following Sunday.

Players not long out the U-21 grade who have been called into the senior panel for now include Jack Savage, Gavin Crowley, Shane Murphy, Adrian Spillane, Jack Barry, Kevin McCarthy and Ronan Shanahan, and they should get the opportunity to show their potential against Cork.

First there’s the business to hand for the U-21s against Tipperary but it’s impossible to make any sound predictions about a result.