Ó Sé says no logic to playing two championship fixtures in a week

From one great escape to another — Kerry have made another mountain for themselves, according to Tomás Ó Sé.

The 2004 footballer of the year, 35 in June, looked the part on Sunday as Eamonn Fitzmaurice’s men delivered on their side of the bargain in keeping the county in Division 1 next season.

However, he feels the Kerry Co Board have caused difficulty for their players by agreeing to play a possible two Munster championship games in the space of six days. Should they beat Tipperary in their provincial quarter-final on May 25 in Killarney, Kerry will be back in Fitzgerald Stadium to face Waterford in a June 1 semi-final. If they manage to overcome those two games on May 25 and June 1, they will have a five-week break before a Munster final. Ó Sé shakes his head at the nature of the schedule. “I can’t understand the layout of it. We could have two games in a week and we’ve two more games in two months — I don’t see the logic in it at all.

“If you get over Tipperary (to play Waterford) and if you get over Cork (assuming they reach Munster final), there are two games in two months and before that we’ve two games in six days! I don’t see it, it’s hard to prepare. We’re not jumping ahead, we’re not saying we’re going to get through all those games but that’s the layout of it. We’re going to work with it.”

Even if Kerry overcome Tipperary, Ó Sé emphasised the game in seven weeks is likely to be highly attritional.

Fitzmaurice will likely look for his players to be made available solely to him for the three weeks prior to the date with Tipperary. The go-stop-go character of the early championship is not just a concern for Ó Sé with Darran O’Sullivan and Bryan Sheehan having also called for a tightening up of the structure. For now, Kerry’s players go back to their clubs with Ó Sé delighted for Fitzmaurice that Kerry’s blushes were spared after their away win over Tyrone combined with Dublin’s draw with Donegal.

“When they heard it (Donegal-Dublin) result they were happy enough for Eamonn’s sake as well. But we were happy because we just came up to win. We weren’t worried about whatever we couldn’t control or what was happening elsewhere. But the way it worked out was good. We had been working hard and I think we deserved to stay up.”

It’s hypothetical now but Ó Sé agrees a drop to Division 2 would have been a disaster for Kerry. “Ah, it probably would have. When I started out playing, the level of games in the league... there is no comparison to what there is now. That (Tyrone game) is as good as championship you’ll get.”

Though disappointed with the concession of the two goals, Ó Sé was happy Kerry hung on if only to stop people talking about how Kerry finish games. The 2011 All-Ireland final and last year’s Division semi-final spring to mind. “Jesus if they closed out the game the argument would be there again why can’t we close out games? So it’s a very thin line. Like, another day it could have gone another way but it went our way.”

It’s a highly-demanding style Fitzmaurice wants Kerry playing and Ó Sé supports the idea of only the strongest surviving. You can talk all you like but you have to do it on the field and we weren’t doing it. I think it’s (about) picking fellas now that actually have to perform and the way we want to play at the moment you need to be sharp and you need to be working hard.”

From a young-blood perspective, Johnny Buckley, Jonathan Lyne and Mark Griffin have been the success stories of Kerry’s league.

“The great thing is even looking at the (match) programme there is good competition and cover all over. So it’s looking healthy enough and the lads have benefitted a lot from it and seem to be pulling their own weight and it’s good. Whereas, a couple of years ago fellas were saying there was nothing coming through. All you need is one or two fellas to come through.”