Donaghy: Disciplined duo will bounce back

IT has been the summer’s biggest talking point but Kieran Donaghy believes that Kerry colleagues Colm Cooper and Tomás Ó Sé will reap a reward from their time warming the bench last week.

The Kingdom pair suffered the drop for a breach of discipline after the qualifier win over Sligo but Cooper spent only half an hour on the sideline before being redrafted and Ó Se followed him in after 43 minutes.

“They both knew they made a mistake,” said Donaghy, yesterday after who was launching Ulster Bank GAA TV in Dublin. “We all make mistakes because we're all human and we’re only amateurs. They made a mistake and they took it well. It mustn’t have been easy because those guys were never dropped before.

“They’ve All Stars falling off the mantlepiece at home. They took it on the chin. They were disappointed because no fella like Tomás or the Gooch wants to be sitting down watching a game but it might have been good from their own perspective to see that side of it as well. They’ve never experienced it.

“I was a sub for a year and a half and I never want to go back to it. I know what it’s like and it’s very hard to sit there. Whether you are good enough or just think you’re good enough you always think that you could get out there and do better. When you finally get your chance you don’t want to let it go.

“For these guys they came on straight on the scene and they’ve been on the scene ever since. It might have been good for them because they see how hard it is to be a sub at inter-county level. There are 30 in the panel, only 15 get to play and only five get to come on so there are 10 unhappy fellas win or lose.”

Cooper and Ó Sé were part of a Kerry team that bucked a recent trend by finishing the Antrim game on the front foot and Donaghy admits that was particularly pleasing against a side that was full of running.

Some home truths among the players last week obviously helped but no-one in the Kerry camp is naïve enough to think that they are somehow ‘out of the woods’ after yet what has been a frustrating summer.

“Ye all know we haven’t clicked as a unit this year. In patches of 10 or 12 minutes. That won’t do the next day. We know it. We’d go 20 minutes without scoring and these kind of things and you won't beat Dublin in Croke Park doing those kind of things. It’s always difficult to flick a switch.

“Football is a funny game. You know how you are playing going into a game. When you are playing well it is easier to flick the switch. You have been playing well all along and it’ll come. When you haven’t, there's always a bit where you don't know and that is what we have been trying to fix.”

On the face of it, Dublin are hardly ideal opposition for a side searching for form but Donaghy goes along with the wisdom that Kerry need the buzz which comes with a game of this magnitude. They don’t come any bigger than the Dubs in a packed Croke Park and the Austin Stacks club man summed it up perfectly by describing it as an All-Ireland final for Kerry people in August.

“Our fellas have been there before. I know we're a bit older but we are not that old either. We seem old because we played the last five All Ireland finals in-a-row. We're looking to be the first Kerry team to get to six All-Ireland finals on the trot. It is tough to keep going to the well but these guys can do it on the big day.”

THE question is: are they the right guys? Jack O’Connor has juggled his resources all year now. Donaghy’s lengthy absences haven’t helped the process and the Kerry manager’s best 15 continues to elude him.

Donaghy himself believes that is more of an issue up front than at the back where he points to men like Aidan O'Mahony and Pádraig Reidy on the bench. Familiarity, or the lack of it, is hurting the forwards he believes.

“It’s not good that there’s so many switches, but it’s good that we know the fellas who come on are going to be just as good. It’s so close for every position and they’re scratching their heads trying to pick the team and we haven’t had that before. We had 15 and maybe 16, but now anyone of 20 can start and any one of the ten subs can come on.

“Daniel Bohane came on against Sligo, but didn't come on the last day. Killian Young played against Longford, didn’t play against Sligo. There’s a right good mix and they know there’s a right good line of players to work with. There’s pros and cons to it, but hopefully more pros.”