The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
‘We never really got out of the blocks’
A YEAR of transition in some respects for Mid Kerry but one that some would have felt further advancement in the County Championship was more achieveable. Their manager Seán O’Sullivan was circumspect in viewing their campaign overall in the aftermath of Sunday’s defeat to St Brendans.
“We made a poor start today and never really got out of the blocks. The penalty brought us back into it but St Brendans first goal had us down by five again,” the Cromane native said.
Still there was an air of optimism at the break.
“It felt like we were in a good place at half-time in only being three points down and things were starting to happen for us. Half-time probably came at the wrong time for us in one respect but we had good goal chances today which we didn’t take, and St Brendans took there’s and that is what matters in Championship Football.
“St Brendans were more accurate today and they had a very good middle third which allowed them to go up the gears that bit more easily,” the Mid Kerry boss said.
When asked about the campaign in general O’Sullivan was disappointed with one aspect of their two defeats in the competition.
“When both Legion and St Brendans got on top of us they ran away from us very quickly. We need to become more street smart in that respect and if we learn from that then I feel we will have made progress for next year. On the plus side I’m happy with the number of players we introduced this year and certainly I would not have agreed to take on the job for two years if I felt the talent wasn’t there to develop,” he said.
Overall the campaign must be viewed in how the Mid Kerry clubs are doing in general O’Sullivan feels.
“If you take out Beaufort’s success in the Premier Junior, Mid Kerry Football at senior level is generally on a downer at the moment as five out of the six clubs were relegated from their Division in the County League.
“What you work with starts from there, we had plans to do a lot of early work this year but because of the situation clubs found themselves in during the league we weren’t able to that [work intended] on top of exams as well.
“Obviously, that’s something we have to look at for next year at board level, but the timing and format of the competition had nothing to do with us losing today.”