O’Connor impressed with young guns as he insists Laois clash is not do or die

KERRY manager Fintan O’Connor didn’t accept that next weekend’s clash with Laois was a do-or-die affair when it was put to him after Sunday’s defeat that neither county could afford to lose two games and still expect to take their place in the final of the GAA’s newest inter-county competition, the Joe McDonagh Cup.

“I think that teams will take points off each other, you look at Westmeath beating Laois in Portlaoise, I don’t expect any team to come out with five wins out of five” he told The Kerryman after his side’s three-point defeat in Carlow.

“Antrim were very impressive, as were Westmeath, but all these teams are close to each other, and they’ll all be competitive games.

“We’ll be all out to try and win next week but if we don’t, then we’ll just have to try and win the game after that and so on.”

Now in his second year at the helm of the Kingdom’s hurlers, O’Connor had to deal with the loss of Darren Dineen and Rory Hogan in recent weeks, though he insisted that the two players weren’t in a position to stay in the panel and that he was happy with the group of players that is available to him right now.

“They [Dineen and Hogan] weren’t able to commit to the time involved in training and we had a chat and agreed that it wasn’t working out for either side.

“We’ve a lot of young lads and when things are going well for them, they get confidence and it’s easier for them to play. That’s something that we have to work on as a group, but as the summer goes on and if we can get a couple of wins under our belt, we’ll improve.

“We never claimed to be perfect or the finished article by any means, I’m just happy that I’ve a group of lads that are trying to do the right and are committed to trying to improve Kerry hurling.

“We had three or four fellas starting their first game” he continued.

“Barry Mahony was there at centre-forward, he’s a real promising prospect for us, Shane Conway is 19 as well and it’s nice to see those young lads coming through.

“That was their first real championship outing and you could see that they were learning on the job.

“Dáithí Griffin played his first championship game for Kerry today as well so there definitely are some positives to take from it, but we’ll still go home very disappointed as we try and prepare for next Sunday.

“We were unhappy that we made a few mistakes, we were the architects of our own downfall at times but it was trying to do the right thing.

“The lads kept having the courage to try the right things and that’s pleasing, but we have to try and improve incrementally from here.

“We were unhappy that we made a few mistakes” said the Kildare native afterwards.

“We were the architects of our own downfall at times, but it was trying to do the right thing. The lads kept having the courage to try the right things and that’s pleasing, but we have to improve incrementally from here.

“Carlow, coming on the back of winning the Christy Ring last year and winning the league this year, maybe they had a little bit of know how and confidence from those wins.

“That’s something we’ll have to try and work on, so the next time we’re in a position like that we have to close it out.”

Barry Mahony was there at centre-forward, he’s a real promising prospect for us