The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
Gaeltacht must ask themselves questions
AN GHAELTACHT’S core players must ask themselves what they want from the game as they approach a pivotal juncture in their careers.
That’s according to selector Dara Ó Cinnéide, who said that Sunday’s loss is going to sting for a while.
“We said the West Kerry Championship is hugely important to us”, Ó Cinnéide said. “We put in a huge six or seven weeks in terms of organising training, logistics, everything, but the response wasn’t what we would have expected, and the players themselves will know that.
“The core group of these lads won an under-21 club title five years ago, six years ago next year... The lads, as a group, we all have to take collective responsibility for that, but we have a core group of lads who’re going to be in their mid-20s now for the next couple of years. And it’s a pivotal moment for them.
“Is it just a pastime? We all agree it’s just a pastime, but we’re a proud club, we don’t like putting on performances like that, and I don’t like the look of that scoreboard…It hurts, and it’s going to hurt for a while, but we just have to suck it up and move on.”
Ó Cinnéide said his team was always going to be up against it given how understrength they were heading into the match, but he said he was pleased with how the understrength team performed in the opening half.
“We’re not big enough to absorb those kind of losses,“he said of the absentees on Sunday.
“You needed a downpour, you needed a biased referee, you needed all those things to come together. And even at that, it is what it is, Dingle are that bit ahead of us. They’re a senior team [while] we’re a team that was beaten in an intermediate final.
“At half-time, we were happy with the application. You’re on the sideline, and you’re saying, ‘Who’s playing badly?’ Nobody. ‘Who’s not trying?’ Nobody. That’s all we’d asked of them before the game today.
“But in the second half, then, it just kind of disintegrated.