Donaghy ready to put his body on the line for new regime

KIERAN DONAGHY sits quietly in the corner of the boardroom as Seán Óg Ó hAilpín talks at length about the grievances that plague Cork hurling. They may be less vocal, but deep concerns exist in The Kingdom during these dark nights.

The pain etched on the Kerryman's face is plain to see when asked about finding that extra one per cent to match Tyrone in 2009. "They are the benchmark as All-Ireland champions," he concedes.

"It's hard to say but it's fact. We know what we're about. We know we didn't play up to scratch in the All-Ireland final yet still Declan O'Sullivan going through on goals with three minutes to go could have won it for us. The benchmark is there but we're not that far away. We just have to get back in training and get that bit of bitterness back in the stomach and just look forward to the year.

"I think that this will be a good year for the (new) management team in regards that they're going to get everything off the players and there's no doubting that. The players are going to give them everything in their bodies to try to win back Sam next year."

Jack O'Connor's return means the friendship that has blossomed will be parked in preference to the player, manager partnership. "I suppose I got friendly with him in the last two years and I texted him the other day and said 'look, we can't be friends anymore but I'll work with you all right'. I told him I'm looking forward to coming back working with him and that'll be my main agenda for the year.

"I suppose he's had time watching us over the last two years to see what are our flaws. I'd know Jack, he wouldn't go to a football match and be a fan at all. He'd be sitting at home assessing or saying they should have done this or that. I know Jack and he'll have a good idea about what he wants to do with this team or what its flaws are before he even steps in the door and that's a good thing always."

And what of the new selectors? Ger O'Keeffe was with O'Connor between 2004 and 2006, while Eamonn Fitzmaurice is a former team-mate. "Ger O'Keeffe was always a great man for the players. If they wanted something to do with food then the next night it would be done and dusted. He's always good that way, he'd often go away and get the girlfriends a spa session at the Brehon Hotel or something and keep them happy which is very important in all our lives.

"I remember my first training session with Kerry I kicked two balls into the goalie's hands and Fitzy ran about 40 yards to roar, if there's 80,000 people at Croke Park next year and he wants to get the message across well no better man, he has the loudest voice. He scared me there, I got a fright. He knows the game and he's honest to God. He'll give enough of it to Jack as well, that's what you want."

Considering the media's obsession with the Paul Galvin affair last summer (in our defence the appeals process ran and ran), it wouldn't be right not to address that aspect of a season now down to its dying embers. "The thing with Paul at the start of the year chain reacted all these things which I think would have been passed by. There were a lot of things that were made a fuss and then they'd refer back to Paul and then with what happened with the next guy, all of a sudden they've made it into a thing that we've lost the plot.

"Marc Ó Sé's sending off in the Munster final was very harsh, he's never been sent off in his life. The face on him when he got the red card was like pure shock."

Finally Donaghy told us he rang Tommy Walsh recently to impart some words of advice and caution ahead of his and David Moran's trip to Melbourne for a week's training with AFL club St Kilda.

"I just gave them the warning to say a lot of clubs over there are actually poor clubs. We were around training a lot of the places in Melbourne and they wouldn't be the wealthiest.

"There's no question in my head that the boys would make it if they went out there but my only hope is that they want to go on and win All-Irelands with Kerry.

"I told them, this is life, the way jobs are and money is here, if you're getting good enough money and getting paid well and getting looked after I wouldn't be their friend if I was telling them don't go.

"At the same time remember what you're about, remember your surnames are Walsh and Moran, their two old men were legends in Kerry jerseys and they have the ability to be legends as well. I just hope they stay for that reason."