Kerry’s nightmare? Goodbye to the dream team

IT’S DINNER, for God’s sake. It’s not the Last Supper.

Well, it may be. Kerry coach Jack O’Connor and his two outgoing selectors, Ger O’Keeffe and Johnny Culloty sit down for a long overdue chat and some tapas tonight. They’ve a lot to talk about. On the menu? Their futures. Should Kerry football fans be worried? Yes.

O’Connor is torn between walking away after three years of bountiful harvest and the tug of settling in for another term. Seldom does the latter end in bouquets. The sporting scrap heap is littered with managers and players, spat out by an unforgiving public who pleaded for a final year, then labelled them egotistical idiots.

Certainly, the benefits of quitting while he’s ahead outweigh any reasons for O’Connor to stay as Kerry coach. For ‘he’ read ‘them’. Jack says the selection team will talk or walk as one.

On the basis of Culloty’s determination to return to a life of quiet, one might venture that Kerry GAA chiefs will be looking for a new football coach next week. Then the problems start.

Those who believe all is sweetness in the Kingdom fail to recognise that beyond the present regime, there is desperate lack of top-level managerial talent. In desperate situations, you get desperation appointments.

Eoin Liston has, reputedly, written himself out of the script to replace O’Connor — and will be even less inclined after his guiding light, Mick O’Dwyer, hooked his wagon to Wicklow last week. Paidi Ó Sé has had his time, Liam Kearns is in Laois, John Kennedy isn’t ready.

At times, he might be crankier than a thorn bush, but as a coach with a tactical game plan and an ability to get the most out of his players, O’Connor is without peer in Kerry. Perhaps anywhere. If a player needs to be told he’s the best defender in Ireland, Jack will tell him; if he needs a shoe up the arse, no better man than Determined from Dromid. The record books speak for themselves — two Championship defeats in three years.

Yes, he might just get over the loss of Culloty, though for wisdom and the sensible word in fraught moments, he was a godsend.

Many in Kerry believe the lure of more titles, and the opportunity to put the Tyrone issue to bed in 2007 will dissuade O’Connor from walking. But he’s done it before; he’s a two-term Kerry selector.

The executive of the county board are acutely aware of same, and insist that short of going down on bended knee, they have left the South Kerry man in no doubt that they want him back — on his terms.

To which O’Connor might say: give me a better reason. He would have crawled to interview for the job three years ago, but after righting the listing wreckage of post-Paidigate, winning two of the last three All-Irelands, this management team has nothing to prove. O’Connor is frustrated at how little he has seen his family; his two sons are sitting the Leaving and Junior Cert in 2007, and he has returned to full time teaching. Ger O’Keeffe has a thriving engineering business.

There’s another key factor — trainer, Pat Flanagan. The genial Waterford man, who has made the selectors’ jobs easy by keeping training interesting, is responsible for the prime physical specimens that shredded Mayo in September.

While Jack may reluctantly get over losing Culloty, Flanagan’s departure could be the deal-breaker. They laughed at claims inter-county management is like a 40-hour a week job. Must have been a junior team, they said. More like 60 hours.

It has been suggested that some form of salaried coaching position within the county be made available to O’Connor, something he could dovetail with limited class work in Caherciveen. Innovative thinking has always been heartily embraced in Kerry; sources say nothing is off the table.

After 34 All-Irelands, clubs may presume success is an ever-narrowing cycle in Kerry but it would be a dim delegate who has forgotten recent upheavals — on and off the field.

The coach will inform chairman, Sean Walsh next week of the selectors’ decision. There’ll be plenty of straws in the wind tomorrow. Did Jack tell everyone at Darragh Ó Sé’s wedding he’s packing it in? (It would have been the obvious answer, given he was in a marquee in Paidi’s back yard).

Are some Kerry players waiting on his decision before making any commitment for next season? (Mike McCarthy, for one, is said to be considering his future, and he’s not alone).

Maybe, they’re just going for dinner, a dignified farewell. They said one more season. By dessert this evening, they may no longer be a management team. If so, the nights will darken that bit quicker this winter in Kerry.