Killarney has makings of a right scrap

IT MAY have been missed in the debate ahead of tomorrow’s crunch National League tie in Killarney, but Jack O’Connor will be aware that the three years he delivered Sam Maguire in autumn (2004, 2006 & 2009) have also seen his teams win the league in spring.

The absence of so many stars from the outset in this his fifth season in charge of a Kerry team, changed the agenda somewhat and winning a league title was never going to be one of the burning ambitions of 2010 in Kerry. There is however, a tidy symmetry between the only other year that Kerry failed to make the league play-offs during O’Connor’s tenure (2005) and the current league campaign. This time five years ago a late Mark Harte point for Tyrone in Killarney denied Kerry a place in the final stages on scoring returns leaving O’Connor to lament the fine margins and final day drama that league encounters sometime tend to bring about.

I’m sure O’Connor and his Kerry team will welcome the drama at the end of the league this weekend and the high wire act of scrapping for survival might also be embraced after a lacklustre and distinctly low key campaign. With the start of the championship only five weeks away, the margins for error are becoming a lot finer too.