O’Neill adjusts to watching brief as he dreams of Premier success

Six days after he became a dual All-Ireland senior-winning coach/trainer, Cian O’Neill will return to Croke Park this evening to take on the persona of a supporter.

Four seasons with Tipperary entitles the Kildare man to more than a degree of partisanship. He was at the drawn game, screaming his head off. “I’d usually be calm on the line but I lost it near the end. I went berserk in the stand,” he says.

The Kerry selector’s connection with a lot of the Tipperary players remains strong. Of the team that started on September 7, he had worked with everyone, bar Cathal Barrett and Kieran Bergin.