James Kerry’s king in waiting

He is by far and away Division One’s top scorer this year but James O’Donoghue admits he’s still learning his trade.

The 2013 All Star has amassed a spectacular 5-15 in five games this year, 5-10 of it from play. That brings his league total to 7-20 — not bad for a player with just 12 starts in the spring competition.

His latest goal, against Kildare on Sunday, was a perfectly-placed shot to the bottom corner, but the modest Legion man said he was ashamed by his two previous attempts, both which he struck straight at goalkeeper Shane Connolly.

When Eamonn Fitzmaurice says there’s more in him, he himself is inclined to agree with his manager. “Yeah, it’s sharpening up, really. If you get three goal chances in a game come Championship you have to score three goals. There is no question about that. You can’t miss three goal chances because if another team misses a goal chance you get a bit of a lift.

“It’s my responsibility to put them in the net and I missed two and it was embarrassing, so I had to go and finally get one. If I didn’t I’d have been killed!” smiled the 23-year-old.

He believes winning the All Star last year has brought some pressure on him but won’t worry as long as Kerry continue winning — “that’s the cure for it”.

But now joint 28th in the all-time Kerry goalscorers list with 11, his philosophy in scoring them is simple.

“I think it is probably confidence. Well, if you get the balls in the right position the goal is on. If you are getting it miles out from goal, the points are on. If you get it close in, the goals are on. Simple as that.”

The black card would appear to suit a forward of O’Donoghue’s ilk but he says it doesn’t mean much to him. “If they pull you down it’s a point (a free) and that’s not a bad consolation prize. You take the point, no problem.”

Beating Division One’s bottom team Westmeath in Mullingar on Sunday week and avoiding the prospect of having to beat Cork at home to stay up is now O’Donoghue’s priority.

Talk of semi-finals can certainly wait.

“They (Westmeath) could turn us over and we could have a relegation game against Cork, which would be a nightmare. We really want to go up and beat Westmeath and see from there.

“Those last days, you never know what is going to happen so if Cork have a chance to come down and relegate us they will probably be up for it, so we need to get the job done in two weeks’ time.”

O’Donoghue is as gregarious as he is talented. Asked how he handled Kerry’s opening three defeats and idle talk of crisis, he replied: “Don’t go out! Just stay at home!”

However, he admitted it was a tough time, though. “People do get really kind of frustrated and it’s a horrible place to be after losing three games in a row. Last year was worse; we were after losing four and losing badly. We were losing by five or six points and that is a nightmare situation, but we had fellas to come back in and pull us out of the fire. Hopefully, we will do the job this time and if we win in two weeks we are back into the shake-up.”

O’Donoghue feels the younger brigade are “fired up” and stepping up to the mark compared to last season when the older cavalry was brought in to save Kerry from the drop to Division Two.

Winning in Newbridge was important as the player didn’t want the heavy home win to be dismissed as a one-hit wonder.

“I think everyone down in Kerry was worried about that, really, because people think we are obsessed with Tyrone so to get that win and then beat Kildare away? You know an away win is huge in the league because if you win your away games you are usually looking at a semi-final. Unfortunately, we lost the three but beating Tyrone wasn’t a flash in the pan, thank God.”