Straight talking boss O’ Sullivan shows Kingdom credentials

HE has no mobile phone, can’t turn on a computer and doesn’t do managerial buzz words, but no-one can argue the track record of South Kerry boss James O’Sullivan.

The Caherciveen man brought his club St Mary’s to three successive South Kerry titles before guiding the division to its first ever hat-trick of county championships. So why is no one knocking down his door to replace his neighbour Jack O’Connor as Kerry manager?

“You’d better ask someone else that,” he smiles. “You won’t find me sipping coffee with the newspaper under my arm around Tralee or Killarney,” he said. “I’m not your cool man about town, who’ll pop into Radio Kerry and spout sh**.”

If you hadn’t already gathered, the South Kerry manager is not your stereotypical GAA manager. Maybe that’s what sets him apart.

“This is no Cinderella story — we’ve worked hard at this as a management team. Hindsight is a great thing, but foresight is something special and the day I took over I said we’d win a county title in 2004. South Kerry hadn’t won one in 22 years, but (fellow selector) Johnny Walsh said ‘if you win one, we’ll win three’. That’s the level of self-belief.”

O’Sullivan is the public face of a four man team involving his club-mate Walsh, trainer John Sugrue from Renard and Sneem’s Johnny Teahan. But in their hour of glory, South Kerry weren’t forgetting their vanquished opponents.

“Crokes probably deserved a draw on the day. They’re going on now to represent the county in the Munster club championship having lost by a single point, but I can guarantee them they won’t meet a club team as good as that South Kerry outfit,” said O’Sullivan

The sprawling South Kerry division has often had difficulty fusing into a cohesive outfit in the past. In the late 70’s, it split into two entities to try and shake the division from its lethargy. Now some are saying South Kerry is too strong and must be divided into two sides.

“We train all over the county, in Gneeveguilla, Milltown-Castlemaine, Legion and Beaufort — we owe those clubs for letting us use their facilities,” explained O’Sullivan.

He was also grateful to have a kicker like Bryan Sheehan but agreed his midfield partner Aidan O’Sullivan exemplified the will to win in the squad at present. “We put ourselves under pressure, and missed too many scores, but the likes of Aidan has the heart of a lion. He’s an honest to God player.”

Naturally, there were concerns about the welfare of talisman Maurice Fitzgerald, but his club colleague had no such worries. “Maurice will come from this and when he hears the result, he’ll be fine.”

The indication last night was that Fitzgerald would be released from hospital after suffering only concussion.

O’Sullivan isn’t averse to a verbal uppercut either, and chastised those who haven’t paid the champions their due.

“There are too many people in Kerry peeping in through hedges and rubbishing this South Kerry team in print. It (the criticism) all started in 2004 against St Kieran’s, it wasn’t pretty, but I didn’t hear our critics coming back afterwards and admitting they were wrong.”

Pat O’Shea’s next managerial duty could be with Kerry, but that was a distant distraction last night as he mulled over Dr Crokes second county final loss in a row.

“We felt we played well enough in the second half, and created enough chances to win a game, never mind draw it,” he reflected. “It’s very disappointing — I don’t think they missed a whole pile and we missed a couple we’d normally get.”