O’Connor biding his time

KERRY boss Jack O’Connor last night refused to commit to staying on in charge of the Kingdom’s footballers and instead revealed he will take time to reflect on his future.

O’Connor urged the county’s players to do likewise as speculation continues that some of long-serving members of the team will call time on their inter-county careers in the wake of last Saturday’s All-Ireland quarter-final defeat against Down.

“We will let it settle for a week or so and maybe have a chat about it and make a decision then,’’ he said.

“Right now would not be a great time to be making those decisions. We put everything into it and our whole lives are geared towards football and at the moment you would not have much of an appetite for it but we will see.

“There shouldn’t be any pressure put on fellows because the pleasure that team has given to the Kerry public is unbelievable. Players will have to be given a bit of time, and space because they are hurting at the moment. Now would not be the time for them to make any decisions.

“I suppose you would have to say sooner or later that the team will have to be re-jigged or revitalised. There were a lot of changes from last year as it was. What people do not realise is that some of those lads are on the road a long time. Mike McCarthy, Tomás Ó Sé, Tommy Griffin and Tom O’Sullivan were on the All-Ireland U21 winning team of ‘98 and in the ‘99 team that lost the final.

“When you go back to 2001 and that famous day against Meath and Declan O’Sullivan, Gooch and Kieran Donaghy were playing minor that day so that will tell how long these fellows are on the road. They have ferocious mileage up. There will be a couple of fellows who will reconsider their positions but there certainly won’t be anybody to put pressure on them.”

Meanwhile Kerry county board chairman Jerome Conway has called on O’Connor to remain in the managerial post despite Saturday’s defeat.

Conway said: “Jack’s two-year term as football manager is up now. We will talk to him within a week or so to see how he feels. As he said himself after the game on Saturday, it’s all a bit raw at the moment. We will let things settle down and then maybe in a week’s time, we will have a chat with him to see where we go from here. We would be hopeful that he will stay on.”

O’Connor, who was speaking on Radio Kerry, insisted there were ‘no sour grapes’ after the defeat against Down but again questioned the controversial handpass rule which led to Killian Young’s first-half goal being disallowed.

“There are no sour grapes because Down played good football but we just got no break in the game,’’ O’Connor reflected. “I mean Killian Young’s disallowed goal was important because we had overcome the bad start and had the momentum so we needed that score to nail the momentum down.

“The fact that it was not allowed still gnaws at us a bit. What other game in the world will have grown men inside in a studio wondering was a pass lateral, was it underhand or overhand?

“Sure I mean that is a ridiculous, crazy situation where men looking at it in slow motion cannot agree whether it was legal or not. So what else will you have only chaos when you have a rule so loose that its up to the discretion of a referee on any given day?

“That was disappointing and I have been consistently against that interpretation of the hand pass so there are just a few things about the way the GAA have gone this year that are gnawing away at me and that handpass is certainly one of them.”

O’Connor also called for a review of the championship structure which is unfairly balanced against the provincial winners. “I am not just saying this after we have been beaten — I have said this consistently that the provincial championships will have to be changed or provincial winners will have to get a second shot at it,’’ O’Connor said. “I mean you would say that next year, it’s not worth trying to win a provincial championship because you are sitting around for four weeks while other teams get match practice.

“Of course its going to have to be changed because its an unfair system at the moment and the proof of the pudding is there for all to see at the moment because the eight provincial finalists are now all gone out of the Championship, and the teams who have the match practice and the momentum through the backdoor are through to the semi final.

“It worked in our favour last year and it worked against us this year but all I am saying is that down the line this in an inequitable system and it will have to be changed.”