O’Leary gunning for action amid Kerry’s ‘longest’ lay-off

Kieran O’Leary has likened the 11-week gap between Kerry’s last Division 1 game and their Munster semi-final next month to a second pre-season.

The Dr Crokes man, who has replaced injured Colm Cooper as captain, admits the massive amount of down-time is unchartered territory.

“To be honest, it’s the longest I’ve had, from a county perspective. We looked to get into the league semis and final and it would have given us a bigger platform to go forward but we’re getting a lot of club games in.

“It gives us opportunity to work on where we felt we went wrong in the league. We’ve had that much time to address our issues and there were a good few issues needed addressing. That’s the positive I’ve taken from it.

“The only negative is the momentum — if we were going well, it would be gone now. It’s a new team, there are new faces, you just don’t know what the team is going to be at the start of the Championship.

“When we were playing league action we couldn’t train as hard as we would have liked and get ourselves ready for the Championship. Now we have given ourselves a good platform in training and getting games with the club, which is very important to us.”

Reports from the training camp in Portugal were glowing and O’Leary feels the bond in the group has grown. “There is great camaraderie and characters emerging in the dressing room, both young and other fellas coming out of their shell.

“That’s a great thing and there seems to be great banter among the fellas and hopefully we’ll deliver on the field. We won’t know until June 21 or 22 against Clare or Waterford.”

For the likes of O’Leary, Johnny Buckley, Fionn Fitzgerald and Daithi Casey, it’s been about getting back on the horse after a third consecutive All-Ireland club semi-final defeat in February. “You just have to pick yourself up and go back at it again. I went in training two weeks after it because I had a bit of a knock but the likes of Johnny Buckley went in the following Thursday. They just went up and went at it again. They could do nothing else.”

As a forward, he is buoyed by the prospect of a Championship featuring the black card and the advantage rule.

“I still think there’s going to be a serious physicality to the game but I’d be massively in favour of the black card. It’s free-flowing and you can see from the scores in the National League that it’s more entertaining.

“The referees, in fairness, did an outstanding job (with the advantage rule) during the league. They were consistent. Sometimes you’d be calling for a free and little would you know that they’re playing advantage.

“I think it’s a great rule, it just give the forward that extra bit of time.”