The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
O’Neill effusive in praise for former colleague Fitzmaurice
IT was the last question he was asked but maybe the one most pertinent to his former time with Kerry having been physical trainer with Eamonn Fitzmaurice for the first three years between 2013 and 2015. Cian O’Neill was not privy to what was being announced in the Kerry dressing room when he was speaking to the media but the Kildare boss felt that Fitzmaurice was still in a good position at that point in time to lead Kerry into 2019.
“I never met anyone with the passion, the drive and the work that he has put in to Kerry. I know how much that has continued since I have left and I think it’s very easy for people to cast aspersions on the year when 50% of the team is totally different from previous years. It’s more difficult to manage that transition when there is a three game phase at this stage now not a single All-Ireland Quarter-final when you put everything into that match knowing your opposition early and then you end up in an All-Ireland Semi-final and it’s a good year. This year you have to put that performance in three times which has made it harder,” the Kildare boss said of the 2014 All-Ireland winning manager.
Describing Fitzmaurice as a phenomenal man as much as being a phenomenal manager, O’Neill felt that the 2014 All-Ireland success had to be viewed in one context in particular.
“He masterminded the All-Ireland victory in 2014 and if that wasn’t achieved then Kerry would be looking at a decade without an All-Ireland which I think people tend to forget. The players are the ultimate judges on this I would say and they understand Eamonn a lot more than people with a keyboard and a dark lamp in a dark room do,” in reference to a lot of the outside criticism the Finuge native was getting prior to his announcement of stepping down.
On the game itself O’Neill was left aggrieved by the sending off of Neil Flynn near half-time despite his side going in ahead by four points at the break.
“For 33 minutes there was some great aggressive Football played by both sides and that sending off changed everything. We’re not denying it was a foul but it certainly wasn’t a sending off and I thought it was a shocking decision. I was very careful in watching the incident a number of times before I came up here to comment on it. I would say don’t blame the player, blame the game in that situation if the officials are not conducting their duties the way they should. It’s then up to them as high-performance athletes to play to the way it is being officiated,” the Kildare manager believed.
He still acknowledged that the second-half was not good enough and one that needs to be rectified if Kildare are to challenge consistently in the future.
“Overall we would be as disappointed with the second-half as we were happy with the first-half. There’s a domino effect with our errors that led to Kerry’s scores that we must shoulder the responsibility for if we want to be at the top table. We’re very disappointed not to have achieved our objectives in Leinster this year but we were happy to have made the Super 8 afterwards even though it meant a run of seven games in nine weeks as the players worked bloody hard for it. The Monaghan defeat was the most disappointing one as it was a game we could have won. The loss of the first game in the Super 8 has had a big impact for both ourselves and Kerry this year as we are both out now,” O’Neill said.
“I don’t want to take away from some of the Football we played this year because I thought it was some of the best we have played in a while but the challenge for us is to play it on a more consistent basis in all games.”