Fallout from jaw incident not to blame for defeat, says Kielt

JAMES KIELT has rejected suggestions the fallout from the broken jaw he suffered in a club game was a factor in Derry’s defeat to Tyrone in Sunday’s Ulster semi-final.

Kielt sustained the injury following an altercation with county panellist James Conway in a club clash between Kilrea and Ballinderry on June 7.

Derry boss Damien Cassidy immediately removed Conway from the Oak Leaf panel.

A county disciplinary meeting proposed a two-month suspension for Conway for “disruptive conduct”, while Ballinderry chairman Camillus Quinn and secretary Brian Duffin were banned for 24 weeks for “non-cooperation” with the investigation and the club’s three adult teams were kicked out of all non-championship competition.

Last week, county chairman Seamus McCloy slammed any notions of a problem with Conway’s removal from the panel, saying “somebody can’t just break somebody else’s jaw and then come into the dressing room and say ‘right boys, tea and buns for everyone?’”

Kielt was much more circumspect and indeed is loathe to discuss the matter but he corroborates McCloy’s contention that the mood in the Derry camp is a harmonious one.

“I didn’t think it made that much of a difference. The boys that were there knew they had a job to do and it hadn’t that much of an effect, not as much as people said it would.”

A strong ball-winner and scorer, Kielt resumed running last week but was never an option for the Tyrone game as he has yet to do any contact work.

“Hopefully I’ll be back for when Derry play on the 11th (when they enter the qualifiers). I’m not sure though. (The jaw) is broken but it wasn’t wired. It’s a good break if you can get that sort of thing, a hairline fracture. The problem is it’s not really that sore at the moment but if I got a bang it wouldn’t be good.”

He was disappointed to miss Sunday’s defeat, conceding it was “near embarrassing” at the end. And while his answer is short, he admits that he was disappointed too by the manner in which he was ruled out.

“Aye, but I don’t really want to go into it. It’s happened, it’s done. I don’t really want to comment much. I think Ballinderry might be appealing but we’ll leave that up to them, that’s their decision.”

In the aftermath of Sunday’s game, Cassidy refused to latch on to the ready-made excuse provided by injuries and suspensions that denied him the services of Kielt, captain Fergal Doherty and Brian Mullan amongst others.

While the Kilrea man concurs, he does concede that when you’re playing the All-Ireland champions, you could do with every weapon in your arsenal.

“It’s 15 against 15 I suppose but when it’s Tyrone you’re playing you want to be at full strength and flying to have a chance. Unfortunately we had a few guys missing and Tyrone had the likes of Brian Dooher, Brian McGuigan and Seán O’Neill coming off the bench which just shows the strength in depth and class they have.”

But he stressed: “The management and players were disappointed with the way things turned out. We had a game plan and we expected it to be intense.

“Derry-Tyrone games have been very intense in the last 15-20 years. It’s a big derby match. We were hanging on at times.”

Derry have swum the murky waters of the qualifiers with some success in the past though, and they hold no fears for a group of players that remains convinced it is capable of better than it produced at Casement Park.

“We know we have the players. We’ve been to two National League finals. It’s just a matter of going on a run and being more consistent. Derry have shown that they can get a good run in the qualifiers, (we) got to a couple of All-Ireland semi-finals. Hopefully we can get to that stage and maybe go one step more and get to a final.”