O’Keeffe defends Kingdom supporters
Precise figures are impossible to ascertain but the disparity among the allegiances of the 26,486 supporters who attended the fixture on Leeside terraces two days ago was remarked upon in a number of quarters.
Niall Cahalane, for one, discussed the “shamefully small knot of supporters” who braved enemy territory for the Munster semi-final replay in his column in yesterday’s Irish Examiner ‘Championship 2010’ supplement.
“Hats off to the (Kerry) players for the success they’ve brought the county,” Cahalane wrote, “but they get pitifully poor backing on the road. The ‘fans’ deserve a root up the you-know-where. They don’t know how good they have it.”
A fair assessment? “I did notice during the warm-up that there were a lot of people in Cork colours and not very many in Kerry colours,” said O’Keeffe, “but modern times are tough for people and money is a factor. These are hard times. As well as that, a lot of people had trouble getting to the ground last year when we played in Cork. And there might have been a feeling that Cork would come through and people were waiting for another day. If it wasn’t on television there might have been more travelling but the people who didn’t go missed a cracking game. You don’t get the same watching on TV, you don’t feel that level of intensity.”
It was a remarkably intense contest given the frequency with which the sides have met this past decade and Kerry’s determination to avoid a third straight diversion through the back door contributed richly to that.
“It (the direct route) is the way we’ve always wanted to go,” said Bryan Sheehan. “We’ve been unfortunate in that we’ve met a good Cork team over the last couple of years and we’ve struggled. We’ve always wanted to contest Munster and win the Munster championship and go the front-door route.
“Is it an advantage? It is and it isn’t. You can look to last year and say we pulled ourselves through the qualifiers. Maybe if we had beaten Cork last year we mightn’t have found a true reflection of where we stood.
“From that point of view, it shows where you stand. We found out a lot about ourselves last year, but we found out a lot last weekend too and we proved that in the replay.”
It is a result that raises questions about Cork’s mental well-being vis-à- vis Kerry but O’Keeffe doesn’t believe there is any such issue and Sheehan is of the opinion that the qualifiers may prove to be to their benefit.
“A lot of the talk about Cork was how they strolled through the league, like we did last year. When you do that you need to be tested and Cork weren’t tested in the league.
“In games like that you don’t really learn and I think Cork will find out an awful lot over the next few weeks. It depends on how the draw goes but Cork are a good side and will take a lot of beating.”
The reappraisals aren’t just being confined to Cork this week. Kerry entered the championship minus a fistful of absent stars from the 2009 side and with serious doubts being raised about their hunger and their legs.
“Every year people seem to knock us,” said Sheehan who has moved into the starting 15. “Time and time again they say, ‘This team is gone, they haven’t got the hunger, they aren’t going to do it again’. Fellas have stepped up to the plate and the fellas who came off the bench made a massive contribution to winning that game.”
The sides may well cross paths again this year but Kerry’s attention for now is the Munster final meeting with Limerick on July 4 and it remains to be seen if the All-Ireland champions will have a full squad available.
Paul Galvin, Marc O Sé, Tom O’Sullivan, Tommy Griffin and Mike McCarthy all carried injuries with them to Cork and more will be known of their well-being after last night’s squad get-together. O Sé and O’Sullivan are of particular concern. “The lads might have picked up a couple of finger dislocations so we will just have to see what the medical people have to say about them,” said O’Keeffe.
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