The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
Minors book date with Monaghan with easy win over Rossies
Paul Brennan got the thoughts of Kerry manager Peter Keane after the Kerry minors booked their place in the All-Ireland semi-finals
PETER Keane reserves the right to never be completely happy with any victory unless and until it’s on All-Ireland Final day. Perhaps that’s why he is a two-time All-Ireland winning manager: never prepared to settle for anything less than perfect from his teams and players. Understandable, then, that as the Kerry supporters in the 773 attendance at the Gaelic Grounds milled around the players basking in the glow of a comfortable nine-point lead the Kerry manager wasn’t sharing in the high-fives and back-slaps.
“We wouldn’t say we are very happy with the performance but we’re happy with the result at the end of the day,” Keane deadpanned to the enquiring media. “We’d five weeks since our last game, and even last year against Louth in the minor championship as well, that five or six-week break between the Munster Final [and the All-Ireland quarter-final] is always a difficult one because there’s always a fear that you’d be coming in a bit cold. You’d hope you get over this one and then you’ve a couple of weeks until a semi-final that brings you back to the pitch of the battle again. But, look, at the end of the day we came here to win, and win we did so we’re going home happy.”
Happy, so, but not delirious with excitement, what were the areas of concern for Keane?
“I felt we gave them opportunities that we didn’t need to give them, we lost ball in possession that we didn’t need to, so we just needed to mind it a bit more. For the opening seven or eight minutes we were in great shape but we just weren’t putting the scores on the board, but we settled into it then and we had a right good second quarter, but they came strong into it,” he said, pointing out the difficulties for both teams that the strong down field wind presented.
“You feel that the wind is blowing and it was a very difficult wind, it was strong and was obviously difficult to play into it. What did they score in the first half, four points was it, and what did we get in the second half, six points, so it’s always going to be difficult to score into that. It wasn’t for the want of trying, we’d a few wides and things like that, that the wind would have had a bearing on. But you must remember at this level, at this age, wind and things like that makes a bigger difference than it would for even the guys last year who’d have been a year older.”
The two Roscommon goals in the second half will be something the management will revisit on the match recording but Keane had his own initial thoughts on them.
“They got opportunities and you don’t like to give them opportunities, and whether it was the defence or the pressure being exerted further out the field, maybe that might be more where the culprits are rather than the devils inside.
“I think we got everybody [six subs] on and you’d like to keep getting fellas on and they get some bit of experience from it. We look forward now to getting them to Croke Park, and at the start of every year you hope to be around for the end of July and you always hope that maybe...it used to be before that you’d play and All-Ireland quarter-final in Croke Park so that whatever would happen, win or lose, you’d get the guys to get some bit of experience in Croke Park. Last year we lost the All-Ireland Under-17 semi-final and the final was played in Croke Park and it was probably our biggest disappointment. It wasn’t losing the game, it was the fact that we didn’t get the boys the opportunity to play in Croke Park,” Keane added.
That Croke Park date will pit the defending All-Ireland champions against Ulster champions Monaghan, who had a 2-11 to 0-8 win over beaten Leinster finalists Kildare, also last Saturday.
Keane said of the little he knows about Monaghan they are “physically a very strong team and a team that can dominate any game” and physical strength can be a huge factor at this new Under-17 grade of football.