Camogie boss says team is ‘a work in progress and it’s early days’
KERRY camogie team manager Bryan D’Arcy has made no secret that a Kerry team temporarily shorn of some big guns like Patrice Diggin and Niamh Leen is treating this league campaign as a learning curve and giving him an opportunity to bring young players into the mix. Overall, then, he wasn’t overly disappointed at the final score and happy with how his young side performed against Dublin in a 2-14 to 0-9 defeat, especially in what was a hard-fought first half.
“Dublin got two goals early enough in the first half and that put us under a small bit of pressure, but the girls kept their heads and began picking away at scores,” D’Arcy told The Kerryman.
“The one thing we were looking for in the second half was just massive work-rate. We kept the scores down from Dublin, which is what we were looking for. We took off our minor players fairly early because they have a game tomorrow [Sunday], but that meant more game-time for other players. We are using the league to give players opportunities to show what they can do.
“We are working with the minor [team] management and we have to respect the amount of workload that the girls are putting on themselves. We’re just trying to keep them fit and healthy and able to play both grades. As you said, the minors are out [Sunday] and we were very conscious of that, but we are also giving every player as much opportunity as possible to show what they can do.”
It is no secret that Kerry are very reliant on one or two players for scoring power, but that’s not a major concern for the new manager at this stage.
“Ah, yeah, it’s early days. I wouldn’t be too harsh on it as long as they are getting on the ball and trying to do the right things, I’ll never give out to them. As you say, it’s a work in progress and it’s early days. I was pleased with the fact that, like the last day [against Limerick] they stayed with it, kept fighting for it, and never gave up.
“You don’t realise how strong the breeze was there today unless you were actually on the pitch. At times it was like playing against sixteen players. Look, they stayed fighting, and I was especially pleased that we didn’t concede a goal in the second half.
Green shoots and plenty of positives. The girls have a great work-rate and a great attitude. They know where they are and they know where they want to be, and most importantly they know what they need to do to get there.
“We certainly put up a better battle than against Limerick, but that’s probably a mix of things. Limerick are a very good team. They are well-drilled, they have a lot more work done on the training ground than we have. I’m not sure how much Dublin have done as yet.
“There’s an element of nerves as well. The girls have gone up from one level to another. Last week was their first game in Division One and maybe it showed a small bit. I definitely thought they improved a lot of that today.”