Youth policy pays off for Kerry
That may seem an odd mission, given the success of the minors over the last 18 months or so, but it wasn’t always that way. Far from it.
Last year’s minor All Ireland win was a first in 20 years, while Kerry’s U21s have contested just one All-Ireland final — and won it, in 2008 — since 1999.
Reasoning that an outlet was needed to keep players involved, Wallace and O’Sullivan considered how the All-Ireland junior championship could be moulded to suit their needs.
“We said we’d look at, essentially, putting an U23 squad together and that we’d play them in the junior championship, because we’d struggled at minor and U21 level,” said junior manager, Wallace.
“Despite winning senior All-Irelands, we were struggling at underage. A lot of these guys, basically, weren’t getting an opportunity to play in the green-and-gold.”
It’s a plan that has come together very nicely, indeed. Kerry contested last year’s All-Ireland junior final and, on Saturday, went one better by winning it, claiming a 16th title at Croke Park.
Many of the 2014 players were involved, including Thomas Hickey, last year’s captain, who scored a brilliant 2-4 and pretty much summed up a slick, dynamic Kerry performance.
Mayo didn’t stand a chance against this bunch, several of whom were All-Ireland winning minors in 2014, and several more of whom have seen competitive senior county action.
Wallace is confident that many of them, including Hickey, can push on and challenge for a senior All-Ireland in the coming seasons.
“Absolutely, they’re of an age profile where they can do that,” said Wallace. “You’d hope that a certain amount of things will fall into their lap, retirement-wise, within the senior squad in the coming years.
“I don’t know, but there’s certainly going to be opportunities presenting themselves for these guys and, hopefully, they’ll take it.”
One or two of them may even be slipped into the Kerry panel for the senior semi-final later this month.
Hickey certainly wouldn’t look out of place.
“He’s been knocking around the seniors, he’s got to be very close to the 26,” said Wallace. “But that’s a hot 26, when you saw what they did against Kildare. They’ve got some ruthless guys in there.
“I think we’re just blessed that we have all these fine footballers available. Thomas is only 21 or 22 and he has a bright future.
“There’s no reason why he won’t get another opportunity in the national league to push on. He’s getting older, stronger, wiser, craftier. He’d be a handful at any level.”
A Mayo side with just one game in the grade in almost three months — the rather unconvincing All-Ireland semi-final defeat of Kilkenny — didn’t stand a chance.
Even Kerry’s late inclusion of Killian Spillane — an All-Ireland-winning minor star last year — must have made Mayo wince.
Sure enough, the Kingdom were full of speed and zest and had opened up a six-point lead before Mayo knew it.
With 28 minutes on the clock, the Munster champions led 1-9 to 0-2 and though Andrew Farrell — brought on despite a shoulder concern — led a mini Mayo revival, they were wiped out in the third quarter. Kerry built on a 1-9 to 0-6 half-time lead with an unanswered 1-4, including a stunning Hickey goal. He expertly lobbed Mayo’s advancing goalkeeper. To think Wallace had been a little fearful of how they’d cope physically.
“Well, the fear, when you put a very young side out in a competition like this, is that they could be bullied,” he said. “But the great thing for us was that the game was in Croke Park — it’s very hard to bully a fella in Croke Park, because you have to catch him to bully him first!
“We were under serious pressure against Wexford, down in Dungarvan in the semi-final, with a tighter pitch, and Wexford brought their second 15 down, basically, from the senior squad, who’d been training through the winter. “They brought an intensity and a physicality and we struggled with that for a long time. But we came through and I think Croke Park helped us to express ourselves that bit more this time.”
Mayo manager, Sean McLoughlin, graciously held up the white flag.
“There’s no hiding from it, we were second best in nearly every department,” he said. “We looked to start well, but didn’t. We thought we’d found our way back into it towards the end of the first-half, but we were always chasing it, really. They were by far the better team, superior in most departments and we have no excuses.”
T Hickey (2-4, one free); A O’Donoghue (0-4); C Cox (0-2, two frees); B Crowley (0-2); K Spillane, P O’Connor, J Walsh, J O’Donoghue, S Murphy (one 45), T Morley (0-1 each).
Andrew Farrell (0-5, two frees); Michael Togher (0-2); Damien McGing, Eoin O’Donoghue, Declan Healy (0-1 each).
S Murphy; D Culhane, J McGuire, D O’Donoghue; T Morley, J Walsh, G Crowley; B O’Sullivan, L Kearney; P O’Connor, B Crowley, K Spillane; T Hickey, C Cox, A O’Donoghue.
B Sugrue for McGuire (h/t), J O’Donoghue for Cox (35), G O’Sullivan for Spillane (39), M Brennan for O’Sullivan (42, black card), E Kiely for Kearney (49), D Griffin for B Crowley (53).
B Forkan; B Leonard, D McHugh, P Barrett; E O’Donoghue, B Moran, E Collins; P Collins, P Feerick; D Durcan, C Freeman, G Conway; D McGing, J Hutton, R
A Farrell for Malee (8), S Gaughan for Leonard (24), M Barrett for Gaughan (28, black card), M Forde for Durcan (h/t), D Healy for Moran (48), M Togher for Collins.
: N Mooney (Cavan).
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