The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
Relieved Keane relishes the chance to mould his squad
TRUE to his general demeanour there was very little elation from Peter Keane when he spoke after last Wednesday night’s game, but rather a calm sense of satisfaction that a major test of the Kerry Minors’ credentials had been overcome.
“We’re really happy to have gotten out of here with a win. Cork is always a tricky assign- ment away from home especially when there is no safety net of a ‘back door’ like there was for the loser here tonight,” the Kerry minor boss said.
When the Rebels tore through for their opening goal straight from the throw-in many wondered how much it might affect the Kingdom. It mattered little with the positive response thereafter, but Keane says it wasn’t quite panic stations with that early setback.
“I would put it down more as a great start for them as opposed to being a poor start for us. These are the sort of situations that you try and prepare players for in matches because they inevitably will happen at some stage.
“Overall I thought our workrate was very good especially from the front foot in terms of the ball our forwards managed to turnover at their end,” he said.
With the overall task of developing players Keane agrees that it’s an area they minors can prosper in now they have the time they want to work with the players and when asked about David Clifford’s performance Keane was anxious to stress the role of his team-mates in a lot of his success.
“If David is the yang then the rest of the team is the ying because they are working hard to create the space for him to get the scores he is getting. It’s never just one man on his own that wins these games but David showed brilliantly for the ball tonight,” he said of the team captain.
The performance of goalkeeper Deividas Uosis was another that impressed Keane when asked about the Dingle player especially his kick-outs and the two second half saves he made but now with another 10 weeks to work with the players, Keane can start to think a bit more long-term.
“We’ve only four of five sessions done with the St Brendans players since the Hogan Cup so now we can get some solid work done once the Leaving Cert and the County Minor Leagues are out of the way and the Munster final starts to come into view.”