An abuse of writes
SHEEHY: I GOT HATE MAIL TOO
KERRY legend Mike Sheehy has revealed that he too was on the receiving end of poisonous letters as Eamonn Fizmaurice’s managerial reign drew to a sorry end.
Fitzmaurice resigned last year citing the negativity around his regime which he felt was scuppering the development of younger players, with hate mail directed at the manager.
Sheehy – one of Fitzmaurice’s selectors over the course of his six-year tenure – explained: “Eamonn was making the point that the reason he was stepping down was because of the negativity within the county towards him and towards the rest of us in the management team.
“He didn’t want that to seep down to the players and then he happened to mention the thing about one of the players getting a dreadful letter at a GAA launch, like ‘you are standing quite close to a cliff, why don’t you jump off and take four or five more players with you’, and stuff like that.
“Now, he got some horrific letters. Eamonn, because he is not that type of guy, he wasn’t looking for sympathy, but there are certain people who are like that.
“The genuine supporters in Kerry are great supporters and they were there last Saturday night. And I used to always make that point to Eamonn. If you give them something to cheer, to back you, they will back you, but if you don’t, they won’t back you.
“Some of that stuff... these guys that write these anonymous letters, we all got them. I got some of them. I didn’t get as many as Eamonn but I got a few of them.
“Fellas that will go to the trouble of doing that, they are sad people.
“They are sitting down on their backsides in front of the fire watching Champions League games. Then if you play a bad game the following Sunday they are slating you.”
Meanwhile, Sheehy sounded a note of caution after Kerry’s defeat of Dublin on
Saturday night.
“Both teams threw off the shackles and you would have to give credit to both managements as well.
Particularly Peter Keane, he’s new to the job and it was his third game.
“Everything in the garden is rosy at the moment but I wouldn’t be getting carried away about it either. It’s three wins, six points, and we’re on the right road.”