O’Shea keen on Kerry captaincy

BARRY O’Shea won’t dismiss out of hand the idea of being the next Kerry captain but he has experienced enough of the ups and downs of inter-county football to realise the talk may amount to nothing more than media speculation.

Nevertheless, he admits the prospect of resurrecting his career is appealing and the fact of Kerins O’Rahillys having the honour of captaincy for the first time in 45 years will be a powerful motivation.

In March 2000, he damaged his cruciate ligament in a League game against Roscommon in Fitzgerald Stadium.

The first-choice full-back in the successful All-Ireland campaign of 1997 never really made it back.

“I played a championship game against Tipperary. I wouldn’t say I ‘played’ but I togged out. I struggled to get my form back for a long time - and I don’t know if I ever really did. Maybe I am something near it, but it’s hard to know.

“After an injury like that you lose your confidence, you lose concentration, you lose a lot of things.

“It put me out of football for maybe nine or ten months. It’s the other things which affect you - like your confidence, the whole mental part of the game.

“When you lose that, it can be very hard to get it back. It probably took me over two years.’’

While he was part of the Kerry panel all year, he was mainly confined to making a few cameo appearances. In the All-Ireland final, for instance, he was introduced in the 72nd minute. “I’m not a guy who likes watching games and being a sub. I didn’t feel that very close to it (with Kerry this year). In a way it was a bit of a blessing in disguise because it enabled me to give everything to the club this year. I’d often leave training in Killarney and drive back to Tralee and eat the meal with the club players rather than with the Kerry players. This year there was just that feeling that we had to be more together in Kerins O’Rahillys and do everything together.’’

Club legend John Dowling was a huge influence on his career and that of his brother Morgan who captained the team in Sunday’s win over Kilcummin. “We were obsessed with the county title and in a town like Tralee the county championship means everything - whether it be Stacks, John Mitchels or O’Rahillys. We put everything into it. John Dowling has been a huge influence on the whole club and on me personally, early on in my career before he died. I’m sure he was looking down on us.

“John did everything for us. At a time when my parents lived in England and Morgan and myself were in school in ‘the Sem’ (St. Brendan’s Seminary), we’d come home to Tralee for the weekends. John would be call up to the house on a Saturday morning, get us up out of bed and make sure we ate. It was the same bringing us to training, taking us back to school. He did that not just for us, but for many other players. He was just an unbelievable man.

“I haven’t been on the Kerry team consistently since 1999 and early 2000 and that’s a long time in football. I have to get on the team first. The issue of captaincy is another thing. I’d be happy enough just to get back and if I’m captain, fair enough, I’d obviously be happy with that too.

“But, who is to say it will be me? Maybe it might be Declan Quill!”

At this stage, he is happy to think that he “has everything he wants” out of football, with minor, under-21 and senior All-Ireland medals, along with two Sigerson Cup medals and now a county championship medal. “In most other counties, if a player had that he’d be a legend, but in Kerry, that’s it, you’re just another guy with an All-Ireland medal! To me the county championship medal is probably the best of them.’’

Meanwhile the last Kerry county football championship promoted under the leadership of retiring Secretary Tony O’Keeffe was acknowledged at yesterday’s AIB man-of-the-match presentation to Kerins O’Rahillys forward Ger O’Brien at the River Island Hotel in Castleisland. Chairman Sean Walsh paid him a particular tribute for his influence in restructuring the competitions in the county in his 17 years of involvement.

And Mr. O’Keeffe was one of three recipients of special awards from AIB, the others being President-elect Sean Kelly and Kerry star Seamus Moynihan who is leaving the bank to pursue a different career.