Jack plots new course

JACK O’CONNOR has been down this road before. He stood facing a media inquisition in Páirc Uí Chaoimh in 2006 and 2009 in the wake of similar defeats to Cork. Both years O’Connor managed to revive the Kerry challenge and steer them in the direction of an All-Ireland title.

Yesterday he trooped into the boardroom at Páirc Ui Chaoimh already plotting the circuitous championship route his team must travel now.

A below-par display resulted in a five-point loss for Kerry in this semi-final clash and the knives were soon being sharpened. RTE analyst Martin Carney pronounced “it was the day the music died for some Kerry players”, an evocative line that did not find favour with O’Connor.

“Is he?” was the quickfire response when he was informed of the former Mayo stars summation.

O’Connor still remains optimistic some good will come out of their football endeavours in 2012. His squad will return to their clubs this week as they busy themselves for next weekend’s club championship action. Then the training ground work will begin ahead of round two of the qualifiers on July 14 with O’Connor hoping the right attitude will be adopted over the next five weeks.

O’Connor insisted: “We think there’s a fair bit left in this squad. We have to come back and look at it when they come back training. It depends on the attitude fellas come back with. The team will be written off but we’ve down that road before. There’s still a lot of good work going on. We felt that if the players keep believing, they’ll be ok. We’ve had some good days against Cork over the past years but they were deserving winners.”

When examining the narrative of this match, it’s hard to avoid the scoring opportunities Kerry spurned as central reasons for their defeat. In particular the goal chances in the first-half that went abegging, with Alan Quirke in superb form between the posts for Cork and his defensive colleagues also assisting in ensuring the hosts kept a clean sheet.

Colm Cooper and Kieran Donaghy were frustrated in their efforts to raise green flags, and if they had managed to smuggle the ball into the Cork goal, the match could have had a different complexion. Instead Cork went in at half-time with the comfort of a three-point advantage.

“Kicking 12 points won’t win you too many games,” admitted O’Connor. “There was a period in the first-half when we had some good chances but didn’t nail them. We must have missed at least three goal chances. I’d have to look at the video to see were they great saves or missed chances but we’d be expecting to stick one or two of them. A goal is often worth more than three points in a game like this. We managed to create the chances but we needed to take at least one of them. That would have given us confidence.

“Instead they were able to break away and get scores from the turnovers. That was critical.”

O’Connor was forced to operate without Bryan Sheehan at midfield and, aside from his contribution in that sector, Kerry were hampered by the absence of a freetaker on the left-hand side.

The St Mary’s man is an excellent place kicker but without him they were forced into handing the duties at one stage to Paul Galvin in the second-half. O’Connor admitted Sheehan was a loss in that regard, but insisted their policy of deploying defensive tactics was right. “We missed him (Sheehan) for frees on the left hand side. But we had to get fellas tracking back when their backs came up field. You can’t let boys off.”