GAELIC GAMES: GAVIN CUMMISKEYtalks to Kerry's Bryan Sheehan, who is more than comfortable in his midfield role given his progression through the ranks

THE SPECTRE of Darragh Ó Sé continues to hang over the Kerry midfield. And there is very little Bryan Sheehan can do about it. The unerring Cahirciveen free-taker is the latest to be tasked with filling the void left in the Kingdom’s engine room since Ó Sé retired after the 2009 All-Ireland final.

“It is impossible to replace Darragh,” said Sheehan at yesterday’s MBNA Kick Fada official announcement in Croke Park. “You are never going to get another midfielder like Darragh again and people just have to realise Darragh is a one-off, just like Séamus Moynihan and Maurice Fitzgerald were. They are just one-off footballers that come through every now and again.”

Since breaking on to the intercounty scene in 2005, Sheehan has been perceived as a corner forward. Turns out he has always been a midfielder. As a fellow South Kerry native, manager Jack O’Connor would have known this so when David Moran pulled out with a broken knee a few months back, Sheehan became the most experienced midfielder, alongside Anthony Maher.

There is also the option of Kieran Donaghy dropping back into the bear pit, while Micheál Quirke, Johnny Buckley and a fit-again Séamus Scanlon are also looking on from the sideline.

But Sheehan’s value, allied to his scoring return from frees, has been enhanced in 2011. “It’s no problem to me. I’ve played all my football in midfield since I was 17 with the club (St Mary’s). I’ve played it with the college, we won four county championships with South Kerry; I played midfield for all of them.

“It’s probably my natural position. We won an All-Ireland junior championship with the club, I played midfield the whole way through it. The only difference is it’s intercounty, it’s a big step-up compared to what you would get with the club level.

“It’s only a matter of getting used to it. I love it out there. It’s up to yourself, the harder you work the more ball you get on and it’s obviously a matter of working really, really hard.

“I think Jack just had to take a gamble and see how things would go. I suppose, luckily enough, he has kept a bit of faith in me and left me there.”

The traumatic experience of Kerry being dumped out of the championship last year at the All-Ireland quarter-final stage, when filleted by Down, is unlikely to be repeated this Sunday at Croke Park against Limerick.

In a notable contrast, Tomás Ó Sé and Paul Galvin are available for selection. “They are two of the best footballers in the county and any team in the country that would be without them would suffer. It is great to have them back.”

The county board have avoided repeating the decision that ultimately cost them last year by ensuring no club championship matches have been played in the past month. “A lot of players picked up injuries. I was one of them so I missed probably two weeks’ of training coming up to the Down game.

“That upsets the pattern because there is three or four lads missing training and you can’t get a competitive training session. I suppose we took our eye off the ball in that sense. But look, you learn from your mistakes. We’re definitely not going to make that mistake this year.”