The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
Duo pushing for a start
O’Brien and Young thought close to starting 15
KERRY boss Eamonn Fitzmaurice faces a set of difficult choices this week ahead of Sunday’s All Ireland quarter-final clash with Galway (Croke Park, throw-in 2pm).
The Finuge man has a number of players pushing hard for places on the starting fifteen and even for places on the bench. Two players in particular – Renard’s Killian Young and Kenmare’s Stephen O’Brien – are thought to be pushing especially hard for places on the starting fifteen.
Young is seeking to win back the jersey he lost owing to inju- ry during the National League, while O’Brien has put in some real star turns for the Kingdom off the bench during the Munster championship.
The difficulty for Fitzmaurice – if he decided to make changes – would be in deciding who to relegate to the bench for this weekend’s contest with the Tribesmen. Donnchadh Walsh was substituted at half-time in the Munster final, but the feeling is the Cromane man will more than likely hold is place.
As it stands as of early this week, there are no new injury concerns for the Kerry management team to contend with, apart from Bryan Sheehan’s pre-existing condition.
“Injury-wise, the big concern is Bryan Sheehan,” Fitzmaurice confirmed on Monday afternoon.
“He missed the Munster final with a hamstring injury, came back from it and unfortunately had a re-occurrence last week, so would be a major doubt. Other than that, we’re pretty good.”
The Kerry boss, meanwhile, said that he was in no way surprised at how Galway were able to put their desperately disappointing Connacht final performance behind them to see off Donegal in last weekend’s Round 4A qualifier.
“I think when you look at their season as a whole, it’s been a very strong season from a Galway perspective,” he said.
“[They were] very good in Division 2, won Division 2. Beat Mayo, who most people would have up as the top or three in the country. Had a bit of a blip against Roscommon.
“I think Roscommon are a very good team, especially when they get a bit of a run on you, and Galway probably weren’t as tuned in as they needed to be, which is a good lesson for a young team.
“I think we saw the true Galway last weekend. When you look at their season as a whole, it wasn’t a huge surprise, no.
“It was a huge performance. It wasn’t one they just ground out. You could noticeably see that they worked much harder than the Connacht final.
“They were obviously disappointed with themselves and their own level of work-rate, I would say, in that Connacht final. It was something they focussed on.
“When they worked hard then, they have the natural forwards to really punish teams, so when you put the two of those elements together, they are a very strong team.”