KERRY’S 2020 VISION
WINDS OF CHANGE IMMINENT AS FITZMAURICE PLOTS PLAYER OVERHAUL
A PICTURE of stability has emerged among some of the top Gaelic football teams in recent weeks and months.
In May, All-Ireland threein-a-row-winning manager Jim Gavin, whose agreement with Dublin was due to expire after this year’s championship, extended his time in charge by a further two years, taking him to 2019.
Two weeks ago, Mickey Harte – fresh from back-to-back Ulster titles – was re-installed until 2020, an extra three years bucking the trend of shorter extensions handed to him in recent seasons.
Even Roscommon, the third of this year’s provincial championship winners, gave Kevin McStay an extra year on Wednesday night.
The announcement yesterday that Éamonn Fitzmaurice was being proposed by the Kerry executive for a further two years, on top of the year he has left on his most recent agreement, will potentially take him to 2020.
The significance of the announcement is wrapped up in the detail attached to it.
The Kerry County Board and team management have agreed to develop a three-year support programme for the senior squad “with particular emphasis on player development and progression together with strength and conditioning”.
It will be based around their newly-opened €7m training centre in Currans and the facilities it can provide them.
The assumption was that Kerry had such a programme in place already for this, especially with the talent at their disposal.
There is only one conclusion to be drawn from all of this that change is coming. And fast.
By committing for three years, Fitzmaurice is clearly acknowledging that the overhaul will potentially take that long, and that next year could be a case of battening down the hatches for the imminent transition. He’ll need the insulation of time against any further dip from where they finished this season.
For some in Kerry, the process of change should be well under way by now, the belief that Fitzmaurice has been too slow introducing players from that conveyor belt that has now delivered the last four AllIreland minor titles hardened by the fact that only two of the 2014-16 teams have so far made the cut on a championship team – Brian Ó Beaglaoích and Tom O’Sullivan who had his first piece of action against Mayo in this year’s All-Ireland semi-final replay.
Even league matches have not offered many avenues of opportunity for those AllIreland-winning minors as they are retained for U-21 and U-20 service.
But it will be hard to resist the temptation to give David Clifford exposure next year, provided he’s around, while Sean O’Shea’s form for Kenmare suggests further graduation for him in 2018.
But there are so many more – Jason Foley, Andrew Barry, Gavin White, Dara Moynihan, David Shaw, Shane Ryan, Michael Potts and Diarmuid O’Connor to name just a few. The list is endless.
Is there a revival in 2014 stars Killian Spillane or Micheál Burns who is back thriving for Dr Crokes, after their AllIreland club triumph earlier this year?
There’s always time if it’s given. When Ballymun contested an All-Ireland club final in 2013 John Small couldn’t get his place on the team two years on from playing in an AllIreland minor final, but he has advanced steadily since.
An interesting statistic in this week’s ‘Kerry’s Eye’ newspaper revealed that, from the eight minor teams that have represented the county in this decade, only seven players have played senior championship for Kerry so far. That said, Paul Murphy didn’t feature as a Kerry minor yet, under Fitzmaurice, he has developed into one of the game’s best players between half-back and half-forward. Development paths don’t always work in straight lines.
It’s a statement of intent by Kerry and also quite the investment of faith in the manager.
There are two back-to-back All-Ireland winning minor managers in the background, three-time All-Ireland seniorwinning manager Jack O’Connor and Peter Keane, so the county is not short of successful figures.
Expectation is always high in Kerry but, with the bounty of so much underage and schools success (four successive Hogan Cup victories, which Fitzmaurice himself was so instrumental in setting off) that expectation soars, not depletes, to a level that can’t be insulated by any long-term strategy.