Laois win perfect tonic for new boss

TO even take on the job at such short notice showed the bravery of the man, but not even he could have imagined just how difficult a start he was in for.

The Munster league went well enough all things considered, but for the start of the National Hurling League new Kerry manager Fintan O’Connor would have been hoping to have something close to a full hand to choose from.

Alas that’s not how it transpired. With his feet barely under the table O’Connor had to contend with the fact that two of Kerry’s most important players – the O’Leary brothers, Brendan and Michael, from Abbeydorney – would miss the start of the league through injury. On top of that news came through that Kerry star and former captain John Egan was hanging up his boots.

The loss of any one of those players would have been a blow, but to lose three was a hammer blow, especially with the visit of Laois to the Kingdom for the opening game of the league.

This was a do-or-die affair. Win it and Kerry were in a strong position to maintain their status. Lose it and straight away they were looking more at a relegation dogfight than anything else. For the first half of the game it looked like Kerry would be looking down instead of up, but the Kingdom rallied in impressive fashion, putting former boss Eamonn Kelly (newly installed at Laois) on the back foot straight away. In the end Kerry ran out 3-14 to 0-19 winners. It was a fantastic start for the new management team, but a trip to Limerick a week later was something of a reality check for Kerry as they went down to a crushing 6-21 to 3-8 defeat with Padraig Boyle suppling all three goals. Unfortunately His brother Mikey broke his hand.