The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
Why Steven healy ‘never haS looked back Since Singing for kerry fc
RIGHT away it put him at ease, having that familiar face alongside him.
Not just because they’re buddies, or because they car-pool up and down the M18 a couple times a week to make the trek to the Kingdom, though they are and though they do.
It’s more the way they can just be, just play, without having to think too hard about it. Having played together for years with the Galway United academy, the way they relate to each other is almost instinctual by now.
They compliment each other really well too. One’s strengths making up for the other’s weaknesses and vice versa. One’s good in the air. The other’s happier on the deck. So one heads and the other looks for second balls.
When one is on the ball they know what the other is going to do, they know how each other is going to react in a given situation. For Kerry FC to sign the pair of them is almost a short-cut to a well-oiled midfield.
For one half of that midfield partnership, young Galway man Steven Healy, the move the Kingdom, well, it just makes sense. All the more so when that link with the Galway United mothership can be maintained, even on secondment.
While on loan to the Kingdom, the Claregalway man can still train with the United first-team, which he does on Monday and Wednesdays, before making the trip to Tralee – in the company of Dáire McCarthy – for the end of week sessions.
The pair train with Kerry on Thursday – overnighting one of the players’ houses in town – before playing the regular Friday night fixture. A win-win for everyone, then.
For Healy, in particular, it was something of a no-brainer to join forces with the Kingdom once he’d given it a little thought, prompted by Galway boss John Caulfield.
The nineteen-year-old NUIG student had made the breakthrough to the United first team last season – making six appearances – but to progress he needed more game-time, which is where a loan move to Kerry comes into the equation.
“John [Caufield] was telling me he was on to the lads,” Healy recounts.
“Then Shookie [assistant manager James Sugrue] rang me one of the days. Macca [manager Conor McCarthy] gave me a text one of the other days as well.
“After talking to Shookie that really convinced me this was going to be a good option, just really made a good plan, set out what Kerry want to do this year and I really bought into what they’re trying to do. That helped my decision as well.
“I haven’t looked back. This team is a good team, there’s a good team being formed, you can see it in the last week there you can see how much we’re coming on. I know we didn’t get the win, but it’s coming. We really do have a good team coming this season.”
Kerry and Galway, of course, shared a division last year, but not much else. Galway were a cut above pretty much everyone in the First Division last year – bar maybe Waterford – and gave Kerry some pretty severe beatings along the way to promotion.
If that gave Healy – who’s studying Arts and Children’s Studies – pause when the prospect of signing for the Mounthawk Park outfit arose, since joining the culture at the club and within the group has greatly impressed him.
“Since I’ve gone down there, everyone’s hungry to win and that’s the main thing you have to have in your team,” he stresses.
“It’s all well and good playing nice football and all this, but if you don’t have that desire to win there’s no point in playing. I think everyone on the team wants to win and they don’t want to have – the players who were there last year – to have the same experience again.
“In saying that we still haven’t got a win yet, so hopefully this week we can get a win.”
Getting situated within the group, getting the right chemistry, might seem a difficult thing giving the bifurcated nature of his football existence – one foot
still in Galway, the other in Tralee – but Healy has it well in hand.
“No because when I go down I stay in the players’ house,” he explains.
“Obviously then you get really close with them boys. I find that I’m a good mixer as well then, I find that I have a good relationship with a lot of the team anyway.
“Everyone in the dressing room is really open. In Kerry everyone is really nice. Some dressing rooms are a bit toxic, but nah not in Kerry anyway. It’s a really good environment.”
In his two games to date, away to Cork City and at home last weekend to Bray Wanderers, Healy has greatly impressed. He really came on strong in the second half in Turners Cross and at home in Mounthawk Park was pinging it around like an old pro.
“I’m obviously way off what my potential is, but it‘s a different kind of game,” he says.
“When I was playing for Galway last year you’re on the ball the whole time, but when we played Cork in the first game it’s mainly about marking you man, being switched on defensively, playing off seconds [balls], it’s a totally different game.
“Learning that side of the game is very important and it will help me a lot this season. I thought against Bray we actually played lovely football at times. Obviously three mistakes, they scored three goals, but apart from that I thought we really did play well as a team.
“I’m really enjoying my football, especially against Bray. The Cork game I didn’t really enjoy, not that I didn’t enjoy it, but I wasn’t on the ball as much. I thought against Bray I was on the ball a bit more and showed what I can do at times. Hopefully now I’ll get on the ball a bit more against Treaty.”
Healy, a proud Manchester United fan, is an avowed fan of Steven Gerrard, and no not because they share the same firstname. The Liverpool legend’s all action style of play appealed to the young Healy (what are we saying he’s still young!).
“I love playing. I’m not saying I don’t like long ball, I like when it’s on if you get me, but I love trying to play,” he says.
“I don’t really care who’s on me I’m still going to want that ball. I back myself over most people in the league to be honest. I don’t think anyone is going to get the ball off me when I’m playing and I think that’s the way you have to be.
“You have to be confident. Age is only a number really, you have to show how good you really are. I love being on the ball, I love passing it around, it helps me get into the game. The more I’m on the ball the better I play if that makes any sense.”
Sounds like the longer the season goes on, the more this guy plays, the better he’ll get. Music to the ears of the Kerry FC faithful.
Everyone in the dressing room is really open. In Kerry everyone is really nice. Some dressing rooms are a bit toxic, but not in Kerry anyway