The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
O’Shea learning to manage after playing career was cut short
Ahead of Sunday’s All-Ireland Club JFC Final Jason O’Connor spoke to Glenbeigh/Glencar manager Aidan O’Shea about life as a manager after a playing career cut short by injury
NEARLY a decade ago the world appeared to be at Aidan O’Shea’s feet. In 2008 he converted a last minute penalty to win the County Championship for Mid Kerry against Kerins O’Rahillys while the following year he broke through into the Kerry senior team ranks.
Then the injuries started and about five years ago came the realisation that he would never play football again. Very quietly he got into management and it has given him a different means of involvement in Gaelic football as his job as a school teacher in Mercy Mounthawk Tralee also sees him manage Colleges teams for the school.
Has management filled any void left by the curtailment of his playing days?
“Just a fraction I would say. You expect to be playing until at least 35 or 36 and it’s tough when it’s taken away from at age it was for me. I’m 31 now and it is getting a bit easier to deal with especially when management can distract you from thoughts about playing when you have to prepare a team. You still would like to be playing though,” the Glenbeigh/Glencar manager said about the forced nature of his playing retirement. Winning the delayed 2015 Mid Kerry Championship in January of last year means that they have been on the go for the last 13 months as they head to Croke Park. Taking the focus away from solely getting out of the county at Junior Championship level was a key goal for O’Shea when he assumed the reins of the senior side. “We treated it more as a bonus (Junior Championship) to just being competitive at all levels we played in this year. With the expectations placed on us with our position in the County League we had to get the lads mindset right for each game we played in the Championship so as to not look beyond what was in front of us,” he said.
O’Shea felt that worked very well for their game against Knocknagoshel but felt that St Pats was a big test of character early on. “I felt we didn’t quite tune in to that game in the way we did against Knocknagoshel and we were relived to come out of there with a win after extra-time because it’s a small tight knit community in Blennerville and a very difficult place to win any game,” he said.
The quarter-final win away to Dromid Pearses was arguably their best performance in Kerry but a team that subsequently went on to win the North Kerry Championship in Ballydonoghue presented a test both inside and outside the Glenbeigh/Glencar camp. “Overall we’ve been very lucky with injuries this year but before the Semi-Final with them (Ballydonoghue) we had at least 10 or 11 players who weren’t fully fit. I must give my brother Kieran (team physio) great credit for having the players in some shape to play because it was bordering on a miracle in
some cases. The match itself was a big test and one I would rate as highly as winning as I do the Final against Na Gaeil,” he said.
Teaching in Tralee gave O’Shea a good understanding of the challenge Na Gaeil were likely to face, despite how others might have viewed the Oakpark outfit. “I said beforehand that Na Gaeil were only a Division Four side in name and in reality they would have been promoted from any Division they were in last year. The success their players have had with other teams since proves how good they are and it created difficulties for us in the drawn match with the expectations people had of us winning well. We nearly pulled it off with 13 men the first day but the key thing was the players responded in the right way for the replay and put in a great performance to win,” he said of escaping the county bounds.
Munster presented no real problems for the Mid Kerry side but the loss of their district title to Beaufort was something that easily could have.
“Losing to them opened our eyes a bit, maybe we were caught a small bit cold but Beaufort deserved their win and they are a team that definitely have the capability to follow us to where we are now. It allowed us to ask questions of ourselves that we have answered in the right way since but it is one of those games you would love to have again,” O’Shea said of their exit from Mid Kerry. Questions abounded again when they conceded the first seven points of the All-Ireland Semi-Final to Louisburgh early on but O’Shea felt that if there was any time for a period like that to happen the start of a game would be the best time. “If Louisburgh had got a run like that at any other stage of the match it would have been difficult to come back from but I think to go ahead at half-time after such a bad start was a big psychological boost for us,” the Glenbeigh/Glencar boss said.
What of Rock St Patricks the side Brosna beat in the All-Ireland semi-final two years ago? “We’ve obviously been trying to gather as much information on them as we can, playing Brosna so recently is of benefit but when you consider they have been in Croke Park before and have won three county and three Ulster titles won in the time it’s taken us to come out of Kerry it gives you a good indication of what we are up against in the final,” O’Shea said of Sunday’s opponents.
His father Jack had many great days in Croke Park as a player but O’Shea is not letting sentiment get in the way of the job at hand on Sunday.
“I haven’t been thinking too philosophically about this, it’s just purely about winning another football match first and foremost on Sunday, that is our main priority.”