Peace in Kingdom

EMBATTLED Kerry GAA chiefs insisted last night the most turbulent two weeks in the county’s recent football history were behind them.

A "contrite" Páidí Ó Sé issued a written apology yesterday to Kerry coach John O'Keeffe for the distress caused to him in recent weeks, with O'Keeffe also pledging in writing to remain as physical trainer to the team.

However, neither was present at yesterday's board press conference in Tralee as they wished to make no further comment on the controversy sparked by Ó Sé's recent comments in the media.

Their absence may have been unavoidable, but it leaves unanswered questions and may drag out the ontroversy.

Board chairman Sean Walsh said that Ó Sé was a very sincere, and at times emotional man, and it was obvious that any harm he may have done to Kerry football was weighing heavily on his shoulders.

Added Walsh: "I can categorically state, having spent two hours with them yesterday (Sunday), and from working with them in the past, that there will be no acrimony between Páidí and Johnno for the coming year.

"They had a very amicable discussion alone yesterday and I would confidently say they are very willing to work together for the coming year."

The chairman accepted, however, that if championship results don't go to plan this season, the vultures would be circling.

"We won't know until we get into the throes of championship football how things are. If we are winning and going well it won't surface, but if we lose there is a possibility it might."

The Kerry team will resume training tonight ahead of their opening Allianz League clash with Cork on Saturday week, but Walsh gave an insight into the gravity of the crisis for Kerry football, saying: "It has been the most turbulent two weeks I can remember for Kerry football off the field a lot of issues arose which caused a lot of

concern, hurt and offence to a lot of people.

"We want to put it to bed tonight with a resolution. It has been a trying and difficult time for a lot of people and particularly for their families. Had it not been resolved now, it would have been detrimental to the whole set up in Kerry."

The chairman also revealed he strongly advised Ó Sé in South Africa not to go on RTÉ television in a doomed attempt to resolve the crisis. "However Páidí made his own decision on that and I'd say he probably regrets it now. I felt being 6,000 miles from home that there was nothing to be gained by going on television.

"But that's a personal thing. We have never put constraints on anyone speaking to the media. He did it in good faith in an attempt to put the thing to bed back at home."

Walsh also brought a mandate from the full senior squad to yesterday's conference, urging the board executive to keep the team management from last season in place.

He also said he had met last Thursday night with remaining selectors John O'Dwyer, Eddie O'Sullivan and Eamonn Walsh and listened to their concerns.

The chairman also confirmed for the first time that Maurice Fitzgerald had formally been invited back onto the senior panel, but intimated that team management was still awaiting a definitive response from the gifted

St Mary's Allstar.

He declined to elaborate on how close O'Keeffe had come to resigning as team trainer, but in his own statement, O'Keeffe said: "This has been a difficult time for me and for my family. I welcome the unequivocal statement from Páidí Ó Sé confirming his total confidence in me. I am gratified by his remarks concerning the physical training programme I have prepared and implemented as being 'consistently appropriate and effective'."

Questioned whether the furore was more about ego than issues, Walsh countered: "Páidí might have wanted to express truly felt feelings (in his initial newspaper interview) but the language was inappropriate. I think he used some wrong phrases.

"Johnno, being the professional he is, may have thought there were questions raised about his method of training, which anyone should know, does not hold water as we are as fit as any team in the country.

"Páidí has now said he has no reservations with the manner in which Johnno has trained the team."

Walsh, who was flanked by new county secretary Eamon O'Sullivan and PRO Willie O'Connor, revealed that the senior team's occasionally fraught relationship with the media had also been discussed, and ways to improve it for the coming year, put forward.

He did not think Ó Sé's assertion that he felt something was wrong in the build up to the All-Ireland final defeat to Armagh was a source of great concern, and maintained that Sean Boylan had expressed the same concern ahead of Meath's defeat by Galway in the 2001 All-Ireland final.

The board executive have been working around the clock to bring the controversy to a resolution, but Walsh said the selectors' agreement to work together going forward was on the basis of a verbal understanding. There was no written agreement.

"As I've said, Páidí and John O'Keeffe are more than happy to work together and with the rest of the selectors. Both of them are totally committed to working together."

In Ó Sé's written statement, he apologised again to Kerry supporters for his "f***ing animals" comment, accepting that the language used was "ill-chosen, inappropriate and offensive".

The board defended the timing of their statement two weeks ago, dissociating itself from the comments.

The statement had been issued after a week of controversial interviews by Ó Sé, which had clearly upset many people in the county, Walsh explained.

Delegates to the county board will have an opportunity to air their views on the controversy at the regular monthly meeting in Tralee tonight, a meeting that will be open to media.

Meanwhile, the chairman also insisted no Kerry player had been involved in the alleged "naked pool romp" at a South African hotel last week.

Walsh said he could state categorically the Kerry footballers were perfect ambassadors for the county while on holiday, and had not been involved in any way in such activity.