O’Sullivan: I wasn’t enjoying it any more

Former Kerry footballer Sean O’Sullivan dismissed claims he quit the county panel last month because he was substituted in the first-half of the home Allianz Football League defeat to Armagh.

When the Cromane clubman announced his retirement — for a second time, just days after that loss to Armagh, it was rumoured O’Sullivan walk away from the panel in disgust at having been taken off so early but he has admitted that his reasoning had nothing to do with that, and simply down to the fact that he wasn't enjoying his football.

“Was I disappointed to be taken off against Armagh? Of course I was. It wasn’t a particularly great night for any of the forwards and I got hauled off before half-time. The management are there to make calls, and in my entire Kerry career I have never gone against the management or any decisions they have made that they feel were for the good of the team. I had made up my mind I was going before the first two league games. I used those two games to see how things went for me.

“Being taken off early that day had nothing to do with my decision. I appreciate being given the chance by the management to come back in and I wish them all the best for 2012.”

O’Sullivan had retired from inter-county football in ‘09 but the Bank of Ireland employee admits that early on in his six-week comeback this year he realised that it wasn’t going to work out.

“When I left in 2009 I always had these doubts, did I go too early?” O’Sullivan mused. “I went back in to give it my all and try to get a place on the team. I made the team for the first two league games.

“To be successful with Kerry football, or any inter-county football team, people talk about commitment, fitness, skill, and I felt I ticked all those boxes. But one big thing they don’t talk about is the enjoyment of it. I really wasn’t enjoying it. Deep down if I wasn’t enjoying it then I was fooling no one. I went to training and I gave it the commitment it deserved but I was not enjoying it, which was probably going to lead to me not performing as well as I could have.

“Some people have said that I should have stuck in there a bit longer but I know my own mind and my own thoughts, and I knew I wasn’t enjoying it. If I had continued any longer, it wouldn’t have been fair on anyone. I have no regrets. I went back but it just didn’t work out.”