The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
O’Connor keen for young guns to bounce back in Newbridge
IT was nearly going too well. The win over Cork, the crushing victory over London a couple of weeks after that again. Something had to give and give it did in a disappointing defeat at home to fellow promotion-chasers Carlow.
For a developing side, as Kerry are, such setbacks are all but inevitable. With the highs come the lows. Young players learn as much – perhaps they even learn more – in defeat as they do in victory.
“It’s hugely satisfying that we have so many young players coming into the team,” Kerry boss Fintan O’Connor explains.
“Against Carlow the last day we had ten Under 21s involved and that’s definitely the way we want to go and it’s nice to see the young fellas putting their hands up all the time and they’re talented and they’re game and they’re a very gifted group.
“It’s just about pacing with them and some days with young fellas they won’t perform and you have to say that’s the best thing for them and hopefully they’ll get it right.”
Against Carlow it just didn’t click. It’s even possible that a young side got carried away with how well things were going and took Carlow a little bit for granted. Although that’s not quite how O’Connor sees it.
“It’s hard to know,” he says.
“I wouldn’t say they were complacent, but we definitely didn’t play as well against Carlow as we had in the previous couple of games. It’s a disappointment because we’d have been keen to keep the momentum going and definitely the Carlow result was a halt in the momentum and obviously in every sport, in every team, when you lose you question everything you’re doing and you try to see ways you can improve and that’s what we’ve been trying to do in the last ten days, going into the Kildare game now with a little bit of a chip on our shoulder trying to get a result.
“No different than Carlow were last week coming down having lost to Westmeath the week before, a little bit more driven because of a loss and hopefully we can touch on that.”
With a week’s break the Kerry boss has taken the opportunity to reassess that game in Stack Park.
“Having watched the game back I suppose maybe we weren’t that much worse than Carlow,” he says.
“That said they deserved to win the game. We didn’t help ourselves with the way we used the ball at times and the way we gave away the ball at times and sometimes with a young team it just doesn’t happen for them.
“The experience of playing Carlow the last day will bring them on for Kildare for Sunday and look going up to Newbridge will be no easy task either. I know Kildare haven’t won their first two games, but they were very competitive against Westmeath the last day so it’ll be another game that’ll be fifty / fifty and whoever performs better on the day will win.”
The Carlow defeat means that Kerry have very little room to manoeuvre if they’re to maintain their push for promotion.
“Losing to Carlow means that we have to win our last three games to be in with a shout and that’ll be no easy task,” O’Connor admitted.
“Meath are unbeaten and Westmeath are a very good side and Kildare having played the first couple of games and not having had a result will be really going for it this weekend so it’ll be no easy task either.
“Kildare are always a team that Kerry have had difficulty with over the years and it’ll be no different on Sunday. If we don’t play well we won’t win the game.
“I suppose we’ll be looking to get a response from what happened against Carlow last weekend on Sunday and try and go out again put it right and hopefully that’ll see us over the line.
“In fairness to them they’re a great group of lads and I couldn’t speak highly enough of them in that regard. They’re very committed and they were disappointed, no more than anyone else, with the defeat and training has been going well the last couple of nights so hopefully we can carry that on into next week and on into Sunday.”