I’m no Darragh, insists Sheehan

BRYAN SHEEHAN is more than happy to be doing his bit in the Kerry midfield but he draws the line at suggestions that he is replacing Darragh Ó Sé.

Midfield has been an area of concern for the Kingdom since Ó Sé brought his illustrious career to an end two years ago and the decision to try Sheehan in the sector came as a surprise given he had earned his name as a forward.

Jack O’Connor served notice when selecting the St Mary’s man in the engine room for the February game against Dublin at Croke Park and injuries to David Moran and Seamus Scanlon have prolonged the experiment.

He has made a decent fist of it too, lining up alongside Scanlon, Micheal Quirke and Anthony Maher during a run which has taken Kerry past Tipperary, Limerick and Cork.

“It is impossible to replace Darragh,” he said yesterday.

“You are never going to get another midfielder like Darragh again. People have to realise that Darragh is a one-off, just like Seamus Moynihan and Maurice Fitzgerald were. They are just one-off footballers that come through every now and again.

“All you can do is give it a go. I have played all my club football at midfield and South Kerry and at college level as well.

“I love it out there, the freedom that it gives you, but if you are going to be compared to the likes of Darragh, it is very early days for that.”

Sheehan admits O’Connor took a gamble on him but he won four county championships playing midfield for South Kerry and played all his club football in that department.

“It’s probably my natural position. We won an All-Ireland junior championship with the club and I played midfield the whole way through it. The only difference is it’s inter-county. It’s a big step-up to what you would get with the club level. It’s only a matter of getting used to it.”

That familiarisation process has been stalled, not by choice or through selection, but by dint of the championship calendar which has left Kerry kicking their heels.

Sheehan criticised the scheduling of championship games which has left Kerry without a game for four weeks but believes the GAA will do nothing to rectify a kink that has seen Limerick play three times since Kerry beat Cork.

“I don’t see why the provincial finals can’t be played two one weekend and two the following weekend,” said Sheehan.

“The qualifier system can be played as the games go on. Kerry played four weeks ago and it’s three weeks before we know who we’re playing.

“If we knew a couple of weeks in advance who we were playing, we could probably aim ourselves a bit towards that. It’s only a small detail. In the real world, it’s not going to happen. That’s the way it is. We just have to accept it and just get on with it.”

Sheehan’s beef isn’t with the format but with the calendar of events and he believes an All-Ireland from mid-May to mid-September is needlessly long.

“At the end of the day, TV and sponsors dictate when games go on,” he said at the launch of the 2011 MBNA Kick Fada.

“We make a lot of sacrifices and it would be nice to know when games are played because the way we organise training, we use blocks. It’s like the league when you know when you’re playing. We knew we were playing Tipperary and then we knew we had three weeks until Limerick. We were able to set out training out for those weeks. Then we had Cork and we could set out our stall in training in a pattern.

“But the way it is now, you don’t know who you’re playing or when. But look, that’s the way it is. At this stage, you’re in an All-Ireland quarter-final. You have to have your own house in order. You just have to be prepared as best you can for whoever you have to face.”