O'Connor glad to be blooding new talent

JACK O’CONNOR eases his way back into football management on Sunday with Kerry’s National Football League opener against Donegal, and if he’s anxious about making a winning return then he’s certainly not showing it.

He starts reeling off a list of last year’s panel that he won’t have available and seems careful not to leave anyone out.

“Darragh Ó Sé, Tomás Ó Sé, Tom O’Sullivan, Eoin Brosnan, Kieran Donaghy, Michael Quirke,” he says, and then asks: “How many is that?”

Actually, O’Connor will be missing several more, including goalkeeper Diarmuid Murphy and Daniel Bohane. However, they are all short-term absentees – and this is not necessarily a bad thing; it allows O’Connor to call on some fresh faces and fringe players, all part of the rebuilding and remotivation process after last September’s All-Ireland defeat to Tyrone.

“Most of them are carrying injuries,” he explains, “and a couple have decided to take a couple of months break from it, like Eoin Brosnan. What we have now is a sort of training panel, and that’s open-ended for the time being. So we’ll work off what we have for the moment.

“We’ll have a 24-man panel for Sunday alright, but it will change over the next few weeks. And look, we haven’t much done. We’ve had five or six training sessions and that’s about it. I know it’s been different for Donegal, who I think have had five matches already.”

Donegal are in fact one of the teams showing promising early-season form, with their victory over Queen’s University in last Sunday’s Dr McKenna Cup final the perfect start for their new manager John Joe Doherty. For O’Connor, the lack of any competitive games so far in 2009 doesn’t seem overly pressing. Kerry opted out of the McGrath Cup and that seems to suit him fine.

“The team was on holiday until the middle of January. That was the main reason. There would have been only a few of the fringe players to work with. So it was just decided that Kerry wouldn’t compete. I’m not sure they wanted Kerry or Cork in it to begin.”

Kerry have always treated the league with the respect it deserves yet O’Connor won’t need any reminding that his team will ultimately be judged on the third Sunday in September, and that’s what he’s working towards.

So far all 2008 members have plans to return at some point, including Darragh Ó Sé: “He’s got a bit of an injury at the moment that needs some attention, but the vibes are certainly positive that he will be back for another go.

“But sure this gives some of the other fellas a chance. You do want to use the league to unearth a few new players anyway, so maybe it will work out in our favour.”

Last week, county champions Mid Kerry nominated Darren O’Sullivan as captain, with Donnacha Walsh as vice-captain, even though neither of those two managed to nail down a starting place last summer. But both have been training with Kerry of late, and O’Sullivan is therefore set to start his first game as Kerry captain.

Among the newcomers expected for Sunday’s game in Tralee are several from last year’s under-21 panel such as goalkeeper Tomás Mac An tSaoir, midfielder David Moran and defender Aidan O’Shea – son of Kerry legend Jack.

Aidan O’Mahony is also expected to feature after his recent clearance of an anti-doping charge, with O’Connor finalising his starting line-up after training this evening.

Sunday’s game will also mark Kerry’s first competitive experience with the new yellow card rule, and in a related matter, the GAA yesterday announced that any disciplinary penalties which players may have incurred during the implementation of the experimental rules in recent competitions, such as the McGrath Cup, O’Byrne Cup or Dr McKenna Cup, shall not be carried forward to other competitions, namely the national leagues, or the Higher Education competitions, which start this week.

In a statement, the GAA said: “Penalties incurred by a player on foot of a Category I infraction (as adopted by Special Congress, 4th October 2008 – Motion 9), in a competition operating under the experimental rules as adopted by that Special Congress be erased from his disciplinary record at the conclusion of that competition and not carried forward to any other competition.”

For example, penalties incurred in the Dr McKenna Cup will not carry forward to the National Football League or Sigerson Cup and penalties imposed in the national leagues will not be carried forward to the championships. This decision only applies to Category 1 (yellow card) infractions.

The formal approval for this proposal was to be sought at a meeting of Central Council on February 14th.

However, as the Sigerson Cup and other third-level championships get underway this week, the GAA decided that an immediate decision on the matter was necessary, and it is in this context that Management Committee were asked to make a decision ahead of the Central Council meeting.