Keane sees room to improve and the means of doing so

KERRY boss Peter Keane was not as displeased with his side’s second-half performance as you might expect.

“I don’t think things were too bad [in the second-half] only some of the kicking was poor,” he said of the second period.

Overall there was an air of contentment with proceedings evident in Keane’s post-match thoughts.

“As I said beforehand, your first game is always difficult because you don’t know what will happen. I was happy with how we went at it in the first-half when the breeze was there in our favour,” he said.

What aspects of the first-half performance pleased him the most?

“I thought the movement was very good and the passing was very crisp even if we did over-elaborate up front at times. Defensively our work-rate was strong and they contested well for the ball although we did feel they went forward a bit too much at times,” he said.

The build-up to the Munster semi-final will afford more time to work on aspects of their play even if expectations that it might be Cork are on hold for the moment while the playoff series about to get underway between Clare, Tipperary and Waterford still offers the latter a chance to spoil the chances of it being a dramatic showdown between the province’s big two.

In the meantime Keane will be happy for the chance to have more time to work with the players before their next game in three week’s time, the St Brendan College contingent in particular.

“There is still a bit of integration going on with them as they have only done two sessions with us. We have plenty to do in the meantime even if our time will be limited a bit due to county minor league games.

“The main thing is that we won even if we feel that we should have won by a bit more.”

Keane will of course have to switch focus in the short-term to the Under 17 set-up who have their first game on Tuesday night May 2 against Tipperary in Austin Stack Park in the Munster semi-final. By then he will also have certainty about who Kerry’s semi-final opponents will be at minor level.

Ryan O’Neill was impressive in his first outing in defence as collectively they were only at fault once in the opening three-quarters with the visitors’ goal. Barry Mahony and Diarmuid O’Connor didn’t do much wrong at midfield, but provided he regains fitness for the Munster semi-final it will be interesting to see how much Cian Gammell forces his way into contention for a starting place in the next line-up.

When given the right ball last Wednesday the forward line looked quite impressive, but it still remains to be seen if they can match the heights scaled by the 2016 side on that front. David Clifford’s input will be vital here but only Donal O’Sullivan looked like an instant hit on last Wednesday’s evidence with another viewing needed on the others.

The ingredients are certainly there for another long campaign but they will be tested no end next month with the ‘all-or-nothing’ nature of the next stage of the competition.

Again the success of those who have gone before them raise the expectation levels of the general support base about the minors with each year. However, with the Under 21 result in Ennis last Saturday in mind it might be no harm for everyone to be a bit grounded about the prospects for more success at this level.