Treaty ‘a massive test’ says Kerry manager
Kerry hurling boss Fintan O’Connor is looking forward to a pre-Christmas joust with the All Ireland champions
AHEAD of the much anticipated visit of the All Ireland Hurling champions Limerick to the Austin Stack Park next Thursday at 7.30pm for Kerry’s first game in the Munster League, the Kerry team manager Fintan O’Connor outlined the level of preparation which has already been undertaken, the make up of the squad which will feature a lot of emerging young talent, and, the changes to his backroom team. “No different [preparation] to everyone else, we are kind of gearing up with our gym programme and strength and conditioning work. We probably haven’t as much hurling as you would before a league game and what we have done mostly is a bit of gym, a bit of strength and conditioning. “We haven’t done too much hurling to be honest. Antrim January 26 [National League], so, we are kind of getting ready for it obviously, that’s our big focus at the moment.
“January / February you kind of find out where you really are. It’s lovely to have, I suppose, two Under-21 Bs [All-Ireland titles] in the last two years, and you would be hoping that some of those fellows will come through, but having said that, a lot of those fellows were [already] nearly through, the likes of Shane Conway, Brandon [Barrett], those fellows are probably established from last year. “There is definitely talent, and young talent, and even looking at the club championship there this year some very good young fellows coming through, that’s exciting and it’s really exciting going forward. But to step up to play senior inter-county, even if it’s Joe McDonagh or Division 2A it will still be a fair step up for all of these young fellows.
“So it will be very interesting to see how they get on in the next couple of years and hopefully the attitude they have brought in the last couple of months will continue in the next few years going forward, because, in fairness to them they have really bought into the whole inter-county commitment, that you need to give it.
“We would feel we are as committed, as dedicated, and as interested as everyone else, and, that’s what we want. The likes of Fionán Mackessy and Eric Leen from the Under-21 side last year, Michael Leen came in last year, kind of halfway through the year, you would be hoping that he can keep progressing.
“There’s a couple of really young fellows and it will probably take a year or two to maybe get up to the strength and power to survive at inter-county hurling, but they are from a talent point of view, they definitely have the kind of raw talent to do it, so it’s kind of getting them into the gym, and getting them on a strength programme and see how they develop, and how dedicated they are.
“Look, we are excited by the fellows we have here. Tom [Murnane] retired last year, in fairness Tom was a great character, a great leader around the place, so he will be missed from that point of view, and it will be hard to replace him.
“It’s nice that you will still have the likes of the Mikey Boyles, those fellows around the place to help the younger fellows coming up, and that’s a big help. Daniel Collins has a back issue at the moment and it’s going to take time to resolve it, in fairness to him, that will keep him out for a while.
“Delighted to have Seán [Maunsell] as a selector, delighted to have him on board and he has brought a real freshness and enthusiasm to it, and adds a fresh pair of eyes. Ian [Brick] who has
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been an unbelievable servant to Kerry over the years and has had unbelievable success with the Minors and Under 21s, he gave me a real welcome to Kerry as well, was real helpful to me.
“So I will be sorry to see him go, and excited to see Sean come in and, give something new to it. Throughout all of the inter-county teams selectors seem to be getting younger, so it’s nice to get Seán in and I think he has a good way about him, they all know him, and they have the same kind of age profile. So look, it’s great to have him, yeah.”
The visit to the All Ireland champions to the Kingdom this Thursday night is something to really look forward to.
“Massive test and I suppose in fairness to them, they have probably twenty-five lads playing Fitzgibbon hurling on their panel, so they have probably played hurling for the last ten or twelve weeks, they have played probably six to eight games so they will be sharp, flying and buzzing around so definitely it will be a massive test for us on Thursday night.
“It’s hugely exciting to have the All Ireland champions coming down to Tralee and we will be hoping to get as much coverage and as much of a crowd and as much support here and give it a real boost, because they are the games you want to play in.
“They are going on holidays after Christmas, so we are kind of accommodating them by bringing it forward, it’s nice to get it here under lights, it should be a good occasion. Just out there training, the pitch [Austin Stack Park], is in unreal shape outside. So depending, I suppose on the weather, if we get a nice dry evening, and it’s not too cold, the pitch is in such good nick, that conditions to play in will not be that bad. If it’s wet and windy and cold, then obviously, it will take the good out of it a little.”
As for team selection it’s hard to know what to expect.
“Depends on what happens in the next couple of days. A lot of the students are doing exams, John Buckley is definitely out. I don’t know what kind of team we are going to have, but we will be hoping to have a good enough team, so that we can give Limerick a test.
“We will be going up to Nenagh on January 5, so it will be nice to pit our wits against Tipperary and Limerick, two of the top teams in the country.”