The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
‘I wasn’t in the dressing room beating the drum’
EAST Kerry boss Jerry O’Sullivan made clear his displeasure with what happened in the second half against Dingle on Sunday afternoon.
“Look I’ve learned over the years to be diplomatic and I’m going to be diplomatic now again,” he said.
“Any team that I’ve ever been involved in I’ve sent them out and do not advocate them to get involved with anyone. I ask them to go out and play football. I ask them to work hard.
“I ask them to have a little bit of pride in their jersey, to have a little bit of pride in themselves I don’t advocate anyone going out striking anyone or getting involved with anyone.
“That is not me and if you looked at the first three games that East Kerry played this year you tell me where there was any incident... there wasn’t so it’s not for me to say to you and you can make your own assumptions on what happened in the second half, but I wasn’t in the dressing room for the second half beating the drum for them to go out and start belting everything around you and that certainly wasn’t me from day one.”
As for whether familiarity breeds contempt, he’s sceptical.
“There’s no great rivalry between East Kerry and Dingle down through the years traditionally it hasn’t been there, because East Kerry haven’t been there for the last X amount of years. I don’t know.
“Maybe ask the players and ask them what’s going outside there on the field, what’s being said and what’s being done. I don’t have eyes on the back of my head and I can’t be watching everyone.
“It definitely wasn’t our intention to go out there and go standing toe-to-toe with Dingle and if you get a dig I get a dig, that wasn’t it. Football is a game that you need to express yourself and you need to play it.
“You don’t need to be getting involved in these tactics, no place for football in Kerry or any place else. We went out there to try and play a game of football today. It didn’t happen, we weren’t let and that’s to Dingle’s credit. We’ve lost the game and I can hold my hand up and say the better team won on the day.”
As for the game as a whole, O’Sullivan was understandably gutted.
“Disappointing I suppose is the word that first springs to mind. That’s not what I envisaged, that’s not what I thought was going to happen today and you know at the end of the day we were beaten by twelve points in the finish, thirteen, but like look it definitely wasn’t what I thought was going to happen when I left home there today. I’m disappointed for the guys below in the dressing room they put in a huge effort all year,” he commented.