Time away was good for Gooch

KERRY’S All-Ireland winning captain Declan O’Sullivan is hoping to make the bench for the Kingdom’s clash with Galway this weekend but he isn’t the only Kerry forward set for a return to the county setup.

Following his recovery from a knee operation, the Dromid Pearses man played 35 minutes for his club last weekend and has done “about a week-and-a-half” of training with the county panel.

“I’m a bit behind,” said O’Sullivan yesterday. “I have some catching up to do but there’s plenty of time for that as well. I’m hoping to make the panel for the Galway game, to get on the bench.”

Colm Cooper also played at the weekend and could train with Kerry this week. Cooper is back after a few months’ travelling, an option O’Sullivan took last year.

“You can get very narrow-minded if you’re constantly involved in the scene,” says O’Sullivan. “Especially in Kerry, where football is the main sport and everybody speaks about it day in, day out. It’s great to get away and switch off, mentally rather than physically maybe. It benefited me, I relaxed and came back with a bit of freshness and a hunger to get involved again. I’m sure it will be the same for Colm. I’m sure he enjoyed his trip away.”

O’Sullivan’s slow start to 2008 is down to injury rather than holidays. “I’d a good break last year so I don’t think I needed as much of a break as I got then. It was something I couldn’t avoid, but that’s the nature of injury. I’m positive enough about the whole thing, the injury’s clearing up nicely and hopefully that’s the end of the injuries for me this year.”

In his absence some new players have taken up the slack, impressing many outside observers and ensuring the insiders face competition for places. “It’s a dream scenario for Pat O’Shea, there’s been three or four of the starting forwards over the last few years missing, so he’s had a chance to see some new faces, and in fairness to every fella who’s come in, they’ve all done well. Competition has to be good for the panel.

“The new lads mightn’t have got their opportunities if the older lads were fit, so it’s worked out well for them. They’ve taken their opportunities, some of the lads might have been on the panel a couple of years without getting a run, but now they’ve taken their chance with both hands. The competition will be stiff for places coming into the championship.

“In training you need a competitive level between lads, you need the intensity level to be as high as possible and as near to real games as you can get. The only way to get that is if players are going well and believe they all have a chance of making the team.”

O’Sullivan confesses that injury means he hasn’t been entirely focused on other counties in the league. But he has noticed Sunday’s opponents. “To be honest, being injured means taking a step back, there’s no point in frustrating yourself further by looking on too closely. But Galway have been very impressive. Their forwards have been putting up some big scores and their key players are all doing well — Padraic Joyce and Michael Meehan have been very good, to name two.

“Padraic’s playing some great stuff, he really shows that class is permanent. You need a bit of luck to play that long, with injuries and so on, but you have to have a lot of ability as well. Competition for places comes into it as well. Our U21s won the Munster final last weekend, which shows signs are good for us, though you never know when someone is going to come up behind you and take your place, so we’re concentrating on the now rather than the future.

“Salthill is a tough place to go to for a result but that’s a good challenge for Kerry. Given the injuries and so on, Pat (O’Shea) would probably have been happy with having our destiny in our own hands, if you like, when it comes to qualifying for the league. Still, Galway-Kerry games are usually good footballing games for the spectators.”

And further down the line — how does he see the summer panning out? “I think it’ll be a very open championship, a few counties last year made a move and got to a position where they can challenge for an All-Ireland. Monaghan and Galway have started well this year. There are probably eight or nine teams in the shake-up and another team again usually comes out of the pack in any given year.”