Peter Keane opens gates on new Kerry
Perhaps he was only speaking in the abstract at a first media engagement, but new Kerry manager Peter Keane says he is “open to the idea” of re-opening the gates to Fitzgerald Stadium for Kerry training.
“There are times I wouldn’t see a problem with it,” he said last night.
The 47-year-old Caherciveen native said he understood the rationale behind Éamonn Fitzmaurice’s controversial decision to ban the public from the summer tradition of watching Kerry train, but he doesn’t envisage such a strict exclusion policy under his watch.
Keane was speaking at the impressive Kerry GAA Centre of Excellence in Currrans where his Kerry players will begin preparations in December for the 2019 campaign.
But when the serious stuff comes around after the League, Kerry will return to training in Fitzgerald Stadium — and under Fitzmaurice, the gates to the stadium remained closed to prying eyes. It continued to be a sore point for some Kerry fans even if the majority in the county understood the need for it in a modern era of marginal edges and gains.
Keane didn’t wish to make a ‘hard and fast’ decision just yet, but declared: “I wouldn’t be closing the gates all the time. Does that mean the gates will be open (every) Monday or Tuesday? I don’t know. But I certainly wouldn’t have gates locked all the time. I am open to the idea (of letting supporters watch).”
He added: “I don’t see a problem, it served us well over many years. You look at the town of Killarney and there is almost a (cottage) tourism industry built around that. You hear about people coming down from Armagh or other counties to watch Kerry training in the summer. Does that mean you bring them in all the time? Probably not. But there are times when I don’t see it as a problem to open them.”
Keane hinted there’s another long-standing Kerry football tradition he’d like to change, but said he fully respects the practice of the county champions continuing to nominate the county captain for the following season.
It’s not a policy that has served Kerry particularly well over the last decade and more, but Keane respects its importance.
“It’s your county champions who have the honour of appointing a Kerry captain and I fully respect that. With regard to the (Kerry minors), we had a rule change this year where manager, the county board chairman, and the district board chairman (of the minor champions had a discussion. That’s a good thing, but I have to respect whatever decision comes from the delegates and the county board and the clubs.
“Would I like to see change? The way the game has gone, it’s a natural thing that you’d want to get your leader in there in the dressing room, and nominate your captain. But I am aware of what’s going on and the importance of it, and so if it doesn’t happen — the change — then it doesn’t happen.”
Keane will learn fast on the job. Kerry resume collective training at the beginning of December, and with significant retirements going out the door and a new management team coming in, he will need to get his ducks in a row quickly. Kerry won’t compete in the McGrath Cup, and the new manager doesn’t want to have a bloated squad either.
“If you were working with 50 players, you’d never get a handle on what you have,” he said. “There’s no fella hiding in a wardrobe in some part of Kerry that we are not aware of at this stage.”
In that respect, coming off three (winning) seasons as the county’s manager — and bringing two of his selectors with him to the senior position — is a big plus. But Keane plays down the chasm between dealing with a group of teenagers and established inter-county stars.
“What represents success next year? My first priority is to sit down as a management, put some kind of a panel together and start cracking on from there and creating some bit of a structure to our team, the way we want to play and see where we go from there.
“Whether it’s minor or senior, you are dealing with people. It is about man-management. Are you dealing with more expectation? I think yes, there is no doubt about that. There is more expectation.
“It is probably a big job, there were seven debutants last year, plus a few more going out the door now. And does that mean there will be a couple more introduced again next year? It will only be in the fullness of time when we get everyone in that we will see where we are at.”
As he reflected on what has been a crazy week since his appointment, Keane offered an appropriate perspective of life, and that while Kerry football is important, it’s not everything.
“There was sad news this morning from Killarney about a young fella called Niall McGillicuddy, a young U16 Legion player who would have played with St Brendan’s last year and I would have been looking at him as a potential Kerry minor in 2019. He got sick a couple of months ago with leukaemia and passed this morning. It’s very very sad to think that there was a young fella that you were looking at to play minor with Kerry. That’s the predominant thought in my head all day.”
By this time next year, Keane may be known nationally as the man who stopped Dublin’s march to a fifth All-Ireland title in a row — or known locally as the manager who failed to prevent it.
“I suppose I haven’t even a panel picked so where would I start on that issue? That’s like digging a field and you don’t even have a shovel, we’ll get the shovel first and then we’ll start thinking about that one.”
