Tadhg Kennelly queries GAA calendar after James O’Donoghue injury
Kennelly, who went under the knife four times on his shoulders, thrice on his left one, believes his fellow Kerryman should have been encouraged to have the surgery after the All-Ireland final instead of next week following the conclusion of his club Legion’s championship commitments.
“The scheduling of the games, there’s always going to be a part of the decision that if you’re James O’Donoghue you’d love to have been able to go ‘All-Ireland finished, done. Getting cleaned out and you’ll be ready to go at the end of the league’.
“Now he’s come into Christmas and he still hasn’t had surgery. He’ll probably miss the majority of the league. That goes back to your club scheduling and games that he has to play. I’m sure if had a decision and he had no club... now I’m not saying he doesn’t play but I’m just saying ‘I need to get myself right so I can move on’.”
Kennelly, who has spoken to O’Donoghue about the operation, feels the forward’s delayed surgery underlines the pressures put on Gaelic footballers. “That’s probably the disappointing thing for a Gaelic football admirer: you don’t want to see the best players injured, you want to see them out there playing. That’s part of the game.
“How do you actually fix the demand on a Mark O’Connor, who’s 18 years of age, who’s played in four All-Ireland finals in two years. And he’s going straight now into U21 and he maybe might get into the Kerry panel and then he’s 20 and then he’s going, ‘Woah, I haven’t had a break’.
“And I know he’s got a lot of masters and the majority of footballers have a lot of masters pulling them this way and that way because they’ve got their own self interests and that’s what I find difficult for footballers here. At least over in Australia you’ve got one boss and that’s your job and you listen to him.
“There’s a lot of players here that are playing college, that are playing university, they’re playing with their club, county in the months of December and January and not getting much of a break. I find that very difficult to understand now. Your body needs a break and if you don’t it’s going to come back and bite you in the arse.”
Kennelly was yesterday overseeing his fourth annual AFL Europe Talent Combine in DCU where the likes of Pat Spillane, son of Pat, Listowel’s Bryan Sweeney and Tipperary’s Aidan Buckley were taking part.
Assisted by former Collingwood player, Down’s Marty Clarke, the 2009 All-Ireland winner appreciates his work isn’t welcomed by Croke Park although he notified the GAA of his activity and the players involved in an attempt to be transparent.
“Of course, they’re not going to say ‘come on in and have a look at our minors’. That’s why the U17 and U18 International Rules were scrapped and I’d love to bring that back as a contest because it’s great for both countries to actually have a representation at 17 and 18.
“They (the GAA) say ‘oh well, it’s a breeding ground for scouts in Australia’ but we’re going to do it anyway. They’re going to do it and the best players in the country are missing an opportunity to play for their country.
“As an 18-year-old, it would be an incredible experience. I did it and it was probably one of the biggest experiences I ever got, to play as a 17-year-old for Ireland and it gave me the exposure of learning to play against the best.
“There are an awful lot of games young fellas are playing and that’s probably the concern about the scheduling in the calendar and what they do already.”
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