New divison and new manager for Kerry ladies

THE Kerry ladies footballers will kick off their Lidl National football league campaign away to Clare next Sunday, albeit in the unfamiliar terrain of Division 2. Kerry were relegated from the top tier last season after a tough campaign that saw them lose six out of their seven games, with former manager Graham Shine stepping down due to family commitments before the league finished. Eddie Sheehy stepped in as interim manager to steady the ship thereafter, and although Kerry enjoyed a decent championship campaign, their relegation sees them having to negotiate the murky waters of the second Division for 2019.

With Sheehy’s contract up, Kerry chairman Sean Walsh and Secretary Donal Rahilly set out on their task of finding a new Kerry senior ladies manager. The man they turned to is Donal O’Doherty of the Spa club. O’Doherty had managed Killarney to the senior County Championship in 2018, and was also at the helm to guide Spa to the Junior A title. O’Doherty has also managed Killarney Celtic AFC at senior level and is seen as a bright and tactically astute manager.

O’Doherty was appointed to the managers position last November and has wasted little time since in his preparations for the National League.

“We started in November and have been training three times a week more or less straight away. We looked at over 50 girls in the process and just recently we finalised our panel with 32 girls so we are looking forward to the year ahead now. We are after over 28 sessions already including some challenge games against UL and IT Tralee so we think that we are well prepared for the challenge ahead.”

The Kerry ladies are similar to their male counterparts in the sense that it is very much a rebuilding process for them. They will be down a number of starters from last year due to travel and work commitments, with Ciara Murphy, Eilish O’Leary, Deirdre Kearney, Kate O’Sullivan and Deirdre Geaney unavailable for selection. He will still have the old reliables like Sarah Houlihan, Lorraine Scanlon (pictured), Aislinn Desmond and newly appointed captain Amanda Brosnan available for selection however, and they will provide the backbone of what is essentially a very young squad. O’Doherty has wasted little time in recruiting players from the All-Ireland U-16 winning squads of 2015 and 2016, and he sees these players as the way forward for his team.

“We have an awful lot of younger players stepping up from minor ranks, 18 and 19-year olds, and trying to get those girls up to the speed, intensity and physicality of senior football is our main focus at this stage. We are going to try out all the girls and see how they get on in the league. We have up to 18 new players on the panel and 21 of those are U-21s. Trying to blend and gel them together is our priority at the moment. It seems to be going well at training so we just hope that it all works out.” Interestingly, Kerry camogie star Patrice Diggin has also committed to the Kerry football side for the 2019 league, and O’Doherty said that both managements will work together to ensure that the former UL captain will be able combine her dual role. “We went after Patrice Diggin because of her running ability. Her commitment and work rate is massive. She is a big addition to our panel. We are working half in half where she trains with the camogie once a week and she trains with us the other time. We are sharing the training really.” O’Doherty will be flanked by club mate Tim O’Connor of Spa in his management team and he is also joined by Sarah Breen of Clounmacon/Moyvane, whilst Legion club man and Tyrone native Michael Devlin will be entrusted with the defensive training side of things. Pa White of Ballymac is doing video analysis while Dan O’Sullivan from Cromane is the strength and conditioning coach. The management team has enlisted the help of a sports psychologist and has also used tools like GPS to monitor his squads fitness. “The girls have plenty ability. It seems that they didn’t have the confidence or belief in themselves that they could take it one step further. Rather than a team, we are trying to bring a family feel to things, to keep it positive and keep the motivation going. If the girls are bonded together, then it’s very difficult to break that bond. We need to start off on a winning note. If you start on a winning streak then you are on the front foot straight away. We will take each game as it comes and try and get a result in each game, starting with Clare. “Our aim is to try to qualify for the semi final before we travel to Tyrone in April. It will be very difficult to travel to Tyrone and Armagh and get the points to gain a semi-final spot, so hopefully we will get the job done before we travel up north. The ultimate ambition is that we need to get to the league final and gain promotion to Division 1. We need to be playing top level football and the younger girls need to get used to playing top level football. The speed and intensity in Division 1 is much higher than in Division 2 and we need to get our girls exposed to that again.” Kerry will face Clare with an injury free squad, and O’Doherty is hopeful that it will remain that way throughout the league. “We have a few bruises and niggles, bits of hamstring strains and stuff like that. I’d say that we should be able to pick from a full panel though. A lot depends on the weather in February and March – whether you have hard ground from the frost or soft ground from the rain. Heavy pitches takes its toll on the players, but hopefully we can stay injury free.” With a blend of more established and younger players in the squad, it could be a very exciting season ahead for the Kerry senior ladies. They should certainly have too much fire-power for Clare in the first round of the league, and Kerry will be expected to come away with a comprehensive victory.