The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
O’Connor has the Under 21s ready
Timmy Sheehan spoke with Kerry Under 21 boss Jack O’Connor ahead of tonight’s [Wednesday] Munster final in Pairc Uí Rinn
IT’S a well-trodden path for Jack O’Connor. Big game, big expectations, everything on the line. There’s pressure certainly. Of that there’s little doubt, but it’s the type of pressure that the Dromid man thrives on. He might not put it that way himself. His track record, however, speaks for itself.
O’Connor delivers. He delivered as senior selector and senior manager. He delivered as minor manager. Indeed he has delivered as Under 21 boss before. No manager in the modern game has the breadth of experience as he does and that is Kerry’s ace in the hole.
Developing an Under 21 side is a notoriously difficult thing to do, but if anybody can pull it off it’s O’Connor. What he and his players would have learned from the two games they played over the space of seven days is invaluable. Flaws exposed and lessons, hopefully, learned.
“It’s a common theme with a lot of Kerry teams when teams run at us, because the style of football down here is more kicking I suppose in Kerry football than there is in other counties,” O’Connor reflected.
“So maybe our defenders aren’t used to dealing with fellows running at them, but we worked very hard in that sense and we will be hoping that we will improve because Cork will be at another level.
“They have some really strong runners, the likes of [Sean] Powter, and Michael Hurley and these guys, and, they opened us up last year, so, we will have to work very hard to ensure that it doesn’t happen again.
“Waterford obviously had very little done, but just getting used to the logistics of travelling in a bus, and, travelling to an away game was important, because you have a similar type of journey the next day, so just getting fellows into the routine and getting the times right and stuff like that, when they eat, and the warm up and all that is important, so from that point of view it was a good work out.”
In terms of preparation Cork he feels have and have had an advantage and the statistic which confirms that they have won eleven of the last fifteen provincial titles would seem to give some credence to his assertion in this respect.
“It’s notorious really [the logistics involved], it’s difficult to prepare an Under 21 team down here, that’s why they probably do better at Under 21 level than they do at Minor level because the vast majority of them are at college in Cork.
“They are right under their hands up there, whereas, fellows have to come a three or four hour round journey if they are to come training with us midweek. So, it’s difficult from that point of view, but look, we won’t be using that as an excuse if we don’t get over them on Wednesday.”
When it comes to team selection Kerry have a lot more options with the return of the Dr Crokes players.
“For the first time this year we have a full squad to pick from. We had some injuries for a few weeks, but, thankfully everybody is back
training, we have the Crokes guys back as well after their great win in Croke Park, so, in general, we are good to go.
“There’s fellas who won’t maybe make the panel that started in some of the previous games. It’s tough on them, but look, we have to put our best foot forward and try and pick what we consider a panel that will try and win the game for us, and obviously having the Crokes lads back is a big bonus.
“We took a bit of a chance last year, we threw in a lot of the lads just gone minor. We have a couple of nineteen year olds this year again, obviously, the likes of Seanie O’Shea, and that, and maybe, the age profile is better this year and you would just be hoping that the experience of last year would stand to them.”
Kerry haven’t a great record in Cork in this particular competition and, it could well be a decisive factor.
“We are going up to Pairc Uí Rinn which is a tough place for a Kerry team to win. It’s twenty years since we beat them up there. The last time the likes of Tomas Ó Sé, Eamonn Fitzmaurice, Denis O’Dwyer, fellas like that were playing that time, and, that was a very hard fought win.
“We got through by two points and David Moloney from Dr Crokes saved a last minute penalty from Fionan Murray, so that was a fierce tight battle and I feel next Wednesday night’s game is going to be something similar, very tight.
“It’s [Pairc Ui Rinn] a bit of an advantage, you would always prefer to be playing at home, even the crowd can sway a few decisions here and there, so, we would just be hoping and I suppose for a share of our fellows it’s like a home game, we have nine, ten fellows in Cork, so, we would hope that it works to our advantage.
“I wouldn’t really see us as favourites. I would see this as very much a fifty / fifty game. I am not just saying that, you have very much the same players involved that you had involved last year.
“There’s ten or twelve from both sides involved again this year, and, obviously Cork were better than us last year in Tralee. I know that down in Pairc Uí Caoimh three years ago in the minors, there was very little in that game when we played them, you saw the game two years ago in Tralee that went to extra time, it took heroics by Marc O’Connor to pull us out of the fire that night, so we feel these are two very evenly matched teams and it’s just who plays better on the night, and maybe gets the bounce of the ball that will have the winning the game.
“We have good scoring power up front, but usually the battle is won around the middle eight, around the middle of the field, both sides of the kick out, so, I think it will be something similar.
“Whichever team gets possession, most of the possession from the restarts has a great chance of winning the game. We have this group together for the bones of three years and we are just hoping that the time we spent together will bear fruit the next night.”
We have good scoring power up front, but usually the battle is won around the middle eight – Jack O’Connor