Sheehan: Kerry feel the hunger

THE departure of Darragh Ó Sé created a considerable void in Kerry’s midfield last season and the sector has continued to be a vexing issue for the Kingdom in 2011.

David Moran was bringing stability to that area with encouraging league displays this spring until a snapped cruciate ligament in Inniskeen brought his campaign to a halt. Shifting Bryan Sheehan from his customary attacking berth for Sunday’s Munster opener against Tipperary was the latest attempt to discover a cure. But the position was not alien to the St Mary’s player.

“It made no difference to me. When I first came into the seniors a few years ago, I was playing the middle of the field. I’ve played football there all my life with the club and South Kerry. It’s always a good position to play in and I love it out there. You can make things happen out there. It’s up to yourself to work as hard as you can and get on as much ball as you can. Inside in the corner, you’d be depending on players to be kicking in ball to you.”

But it was not all plain sailing in that sector, with Kerry encountering choppy waters in the first half in Fitzgerald Stadium.

“The first-half performance is what I’d be concerned about,” remarked Sheehan. “They were really compacting the middle of the field and were breaking the ball down, where they’d the extra players to win it. You can see the difference John Evans has made to them. I don’t think we played the game at the pitch we wanted to. Tipperary really put it up to us. They tackled very hard around the middle of the field and were very aggressive. It took us a long time to get hold of it. In the second half, we brought Kieran (Donaghy) out there and had Micheal (Quirke) at one side, so it gave us more balance. It’s something we’ll have to work on getting the breaking ball and that comes down to hunger.”

Mention of the word hunger brings Sheehan neatly to what is fuelling Kerry’s assault for championship honours this summer. The memories of last July’s All-Ireland quarter-final reversal to Down continue to burn brightly in the minds of Kerry players.

“Hunger is the big thing for us as last year’s defeat to Down really hurt fellas,” says Sheehan. “There is a lot of pride amongst the footballers inside in that dressing room. I think three or four days after that Down game when we weren’t going back training, it started to sink in that our year is over. We’d had a lot of success but maybe that defeat was the kick we needed to get back going again. There’s a great hunger in training now with a serious bite amongst the lads in there. Over the last couple of years, there’s been plenty stuff written about Kerry.

“That’s the way it always has been and it’s the way it always will be. But we have to stand up for each other and back each other inside in this squad.”