I WAS ALSO ON THE RECEIVING END OF THE MAIL

EIGHT-TIME Kerry AllIreland winner Mikey Sheehy was also on the receiving end of the hate mail that Éamonn Fitzmaurice spoke of in the wake of his decision to quit as senior football manager last summer. Sheehy’s reputation as a star player couldn’t protect him during his time as selector, though he insists it didn’t leave a sour taste. ‘These guys that write these anonymous letters, we all got them. I got some of them. I didn’t get as many as Éamonn but I got a few of them,’ he said. ‘Fellas that will go to the trouble of doing that, they are sad people. ‘Would you believe this now? It didn’t bother me high up or low down. I think that’s because you played the game and we were all getting criticised.’ Sheedy added that himself and Fitzmaurice were fully aware that the negativity surrounding the team after their exit at the Super 8 All-Ireland quarter-final didn’t reflect the mood among dedicated Kerry followers. ‘The genuine supporters in Kerry are great supporters and they were there last Saturday night (against Dublin). And I used to always make that point to Éamonn. If you give them something to cheer, to back you, they will back you, but if you don’t, they won’t.’

last year and he’s a plus as well.’

Not that he detects any sign of Dublin weakening. ‘No. Not yet. Not even last Saturday night. They had a good few of their All-Ireland team but they brought on Jack McCaffrey, Michael Darragh Macauley, Paul Flynn but you were missing the two – Ciaran Kilkenny and Stephen Cluxton.

‘To me, their key men would be, number one Cluxton obviously. Ciaran Kilkenny. Brian Fenton. Jonny Cooper. And James McCarthy. There’s your spine. Every one of those guys, you’d put them up with the best players that ever played the game.

‘What Jim Gavin did last year with Brian Howard. If Dublin are to do the five-in-a-row, they’ve the right man at the helm.’

And if they go all the way, it’s not in Sheehy’s nature to begrudge them.

‘No, it wouldn’t. I genuinely mean that. Our losing five-in-a-row stuck in our craw and probably still does – well, it doesn’t so much now but it did for a long, long time.

‘But I would have always made the point that we lost the Munster final in ’83 to a last-minute goal and then we came back and won three more, most of that team. I don’t think we’d have won that three-ina-row if we’d won the five-in-a-row.

‘I take my hat off to Dublin. They’ve been the best there’s been for the last number of years… I admire them.

‘I think they’ll take ferocious beating. I think whoever will beat them will win the All-Ireland.’