Back again and rearing to go

IT’S never easy for a Kerry manager in the winter months following a championship defeat.

Not only does he have to listen to every hurler on the ditch talk about or even tell him directly to his face – Kerry folk aren’t backwards about coming forwards – what he should and should not have done, there’s plenty time, too much time for introspection and self-criticism.

For everybody who questioned his decision to withdraw Paul Geaney when he did against the Dubs, you just know that Fitzmaurice has asked himself that very same question, and many, many more, over and over and over again in the months since then.

January when it came would have come as a blessed relief. Instead of brooding and thinking and plotting, the time for action had arrived. He could get back to what he does best – preparing a Kerry side for a rigorous campaign to come.

“Of course I am looking forward to it now,” he told us last week.

“I think with management always by the end of the season the tank is empty, but unlike players who are back with their clubs, managers get a chance to step back to reassess, recharge and get ready to go again.

“By the time January comes again you are bursting for road. Other than the bit I am doing at school I have had plenty of down time since. Yes, absolutely loving being back and looking forward to the games now coming thick and fast.”

With a McGrath Cup title secured and secured while playing a number of younger players, this year’s National League looks like an ideal opportunity for Fitzmaurice to regenerate his panel in the wake of retirements by Marc Ó Sé and Aidan O’Mahony.

Still this is Kerry and Kerry expects. It’s been eight years since a Kerry team won a National League title. This year surely would be as good an occasion to win it again as any other.

“I say the same thing at the start of every campaign. You are going to go out and try and win every game and we will see where that takes us,” was the Kerry manager’s take.

“If we are not winning games we have to improve, if we are winning games we will be in the League final. The fact that there are not semi-finals this year means that you have to hit the ground running.

“Getting into the top four is definitely an achievable target even losing a couple of matches, but to reach the final you need to win most of your matches. Look we are going to be going out to win every game.

“We have access to the Under 21s for the first couple of games so they will get a bit of game time into them and we will see where it takes us. No more than the McGrath Cup we will be trying to win every game, but it is one step at a time.”

Blooding those younger players will surely be a priority for the Finuge man. That he will only have the first two games to do so – assuming, as we do, that the Under 21s will have a strong run in their championship – means we’re likely to see quite interesting team selections for those two opening games.

That neither of those first two games is likely to be an easy outing for the Kingdom is no harm either. What better way to assess the preparedness of a young footballer than pitching him into a battle with either (or both) Donegal and Mayo.

“It will be an interesting encounter [with Donegal],” Fitzmaurice says.

“There are a lot of things going on. The fact that it is on in Letterkenny which is all the way up north of the county so they are taking us as far north as they can. The fact that game in Tralee last year was such a battle, there is that bit of a background to it.

“Donegal did not play in the McKenna Cup [the Under 21s did], they trained through it and they have been playing challenge games and apparently have been going very well so it is going to be an interesting game.

“It’s hard to get points up there, but I think this year for the first time for a couple of years we have a bit of work done before our first game and we are in good shape facing up there.”

Donegal have suffered a number of high profile retirements, but Fitzmaurice still expects a difficult encounter.

“They will be young enough, but they will still have a core group of experienced players. They will still have Michael Murphy and they will still have their experienced core group as well.

“It’s hard to know what kind of a team they actually will have until we see it. But either way I don’t think that the personnel is going to make much of a difference because it’s going to be a tough battle.”

With Kieran Donaghy back in the fold, with Colm Cooper likely to join him (though that is as of yet unconfirmed), Fitzmaurice will have a strong hand to play this season. An All Ireland title is probably a touch unrealistic at this stage, but should Kerry win a National League title first then who’s to say the sky’s not the limit?

Photo by Sportsfile