Why Kerry must come calling for Donaghy
MARC Ó SÉ believes his former team-mate Kieran Donaghy is a ‘prime’ candidate to become a future Kerry manager.
With Eamon Fitzmaurice having two seasons to run on his latest extension as Kerry boss, the speculation is that when he departs the Kingdom may look within the playing group from the noughties to provide continued leadership.
Declan O’Sullivan, who is currently in Jack O’Connor’s Under-21 management team, is already being tipped – but Ó Sé believes that Donaghy, who has returned to play for another season, is another manager in waiting. ‘Kieran Donaghy would be an unbelievable choice because he is a very deep thinker about the game and I think a lot of people do not realise that. If I was getting involved with the Kerry team tomorrow, Donaghy would be my first phone call.
‘I would hold him in the highest esteem. Over the last year or so I was always going to training with him and I would be hopping off him, and I was astounded by the detail in the stuff he would be coming out with. He is a prime candidate to manage Kerry someday,’ insisted Ó Sé, who also believes that O’Sullivan is a live option to make the step-up when the time comes.
‘Declan would be an ideal choice too. The respect that fellows would have for him would be unreal.
‘He was a great speaker in the dressing room and it was never a case of talking for the sake of talking.
‘He always held the dressing room so he would definitely be an option,’ added Ó Sé.