The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
‘Good honest account is all I can ask’
NOT far off a year since he was talking in similar circumstances, Peter Keane is preparing the Kerry Minors for another ‘all or nothing’ Munster semi-final meeting with Cork. A lot would feel that the situation is unfair that the year will end next Tuesday night for one of the province’s two traditionally strong Football counties when ‘backdoors’ are available both before and after. However Keane feels a debate about the format itself is pointless at this time.
“I think it’s a worthless exercise to think too much about last year’s win in similar circumstances (above in Pairc Uí Rinn). Practically none of the players involved in that match are available again because of the change to U-17 and whether ourselves or Cork like it or not that we have to play each other at this point in time, the reality is one of us will be gone after next Tuesday night,” the Kerry Minor boss said about facing Cork again at this stage of the campaign.
It is true that there is no experience factor here as such. Kerry don’t have the experience of a David Clifford, a Diarmuid O’Connor, a Michael Potts or a Brian Friel to call on like last year’s team did from the 2016 success in calling upon to lead them in such a big encounter. That’s why the first outing from Thurles might be gone through in a lot more detail that other opening encounters in getting a sense of how Kerry are going to fair at this level this year. Keane himself said that a one-point win would have been okay with him in Thurles three weeks ago.
“Really that night was about trying to find out what the lads are like. What are they like on a bus going up to a match like this, what are they like when they put on the Kerry jersey for the first time and how do they respond to certain situations during a game. We’re happy with some of the answers we got to those questions and while we could have won by a bigger score in Thurles I agree, the margin of victory doesn’t matter to me once you win,” he said. On the same night Cork were ensuring their own passage to this stage with a 4-20 to 0-5 hammering of Waterford and everything that Keane has managed to gather about the Rebels makes him cautious ahead of another early meeting between the counties.
“Everything I have heard is about how good they are. They are very strong, physical and athletic and it was a huge score to put up against Waterford in scoring 24 times in the space of 60 minutes. We’re in no doubt about how might a battle it will be on the night and it will be touch and go as to who is going to win it,” the back-to-back All-Ireland Minor winning boss said. A lot will point to the game being played at Austin Stack Park as being an advantage for Kerry but Keane says he is not sure about it being as big a factor as at other levels of inter-county.
“It’s not like senior level where players may have played somewhere five or six times before a match and know what to expect from the surrounds. I can’t tell you exactly how many times our players have played in Austin Stack Park but the one thing it does guarantee you is the possibility of more support than the opposition on the night. Having said that though I just want to say that we were very happy with the support the team got in Thurles the last night especially when it is one of the longest journeys in the province that Kerry supporters have to make,” he said of the backing the team received in Thurles.
No major alterations are expected to the panel for next Tuesday night with the only injury news of note being whether Dr Crokes’ Michael Lenihan can make his way into contention after picking up an injury in the Paul McGirr Cup Final with the Sem that saw him miss out on the 1-15 to 0-4 win in Thurles. There was an U-17 meeting between the two sides last year, the special once-off grade ran to take account of the changes to Minor this year, and it was a meeting not without controversy as there were ugly scenes at both half-time and fulltime that marred Kerry’s Munster title success. With all the players from both sides having moved on Keane is not worried about any residue from last year.
“I don’t think you can make any parallel between this year and last year in terms of that. There were countless other games played last year where nothing like that happened without any need to specifically focus on that,” Keane said of last year’s Munster U-17 Final. The game being played on Tuesday night as opposed to a usual Wednesday night for these games presents no major challenge for the team according to Keane as they knew what the date would be well in advance. However the Kerry boss repeats what he said last year in terms of the importance of a win at this stage regardless of who the opposition are.
“I’ve said this the last two years that I have been involved but this match determines whether you will be together as a group until late July or early August with the way things are structured. I feel the months of May, June and July are massive in terms of developing a Minor team and this is why the stage of the competition is so important because if you lose you don’t get to do any of the things that you hope to do down the line,” Keane feels.
His answer to what his hopes for next Tuesday night are what one might expect but are what you want at the same time.
“We want the players to give a good honest account of themselves and to leave it all out on the pitch. If we lose I will have no complaints having seen all that left out there but we don’t want the players waking up the following morning saying to themselves that they should have done this, that or the other if we don’t
win.”