Sheehan: no excuse for Kerry’s lack of discipline

KERRY captain Bryan Sheehan has refused to blame the GAA’s ‘get tough’ stance for the county’s disciplinary problems by admitting that the onus is on the All-Ireland champions to clean up their act.

Though Kerry picked up their second NFL win in Cavan’s Breffni Park, they also doubled their collection of red cards to four.

Kieran Donaghy’s dismissal against Fermanagh was his second of the campaign — his first came against Mayo — and Ronan Ó Flatharta joined him in the doghouse on Sunday.

Sheehan himself saw red in the round two win over Cork and, though three of their dismissals have been earned through second yellow cards, the St Mary’s forward admits that is no excuse.

The GAA has ordered such disciplinary crackdowns at this time of year in the past before slackening off as the championship swings around. A similar scenario will probably unfold this year but none of that absolves Kerry, according to Sheehan.

“It’s hard because you don’t know where the line will be drawn. If you look back on all our games so far I think you’ll find our lads didn’t do a whole lot wrong.

“Having said that, players have no choice but to abide by the rules. There’s no excuses. We just have to look at ourselves and see where we’re all going wrong.”

The flip side is that they have picked up as many points as red cards and they have done it without some of their key players like Gooch Cooper, Eoin Brosnan and Paul Galvin.

The enthusiasm of youth has helped fill those gaps with youngsters like Pádraig Reidy, Killian Young, Donncha Walsh and Shane Scanlon all given auditions for future roles at Breffni Park at the weekend.

Sheehan, too, is conscious of the need to woo the management team before the other cast members return, for last year was a mixed bag for the quantity surveying student.

He only joined the senior panel in late March after a stress fracture to a tibia and U-21 duties and, though he finished the championship with 0-26 to his credit, he lost his place in the reshuffle after the Munster final replay defeat to Cork.

Ligament damage picked up in a club U-21 game meant he started the All-Ireland final as a substitute, but he rounded 2006 off with the winning score for South Kerry in the Kerry final against Dr Crokes in November.

“I am happy at the moment. I missed an awful lot of last year through injury. Luckily I’ve been involved very much from the start this year. I’m playing a lot of football and the fitness is beginning to show.