O’Shea hopes lessons of 2019 will help Kerry ace 2020 tests

Kerry All Star Seán O’Shea says he and his county teammates were happy to put their All-Ireland final loss to Dublin behind them and get back to competitive football.

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O’Shea (21) was named young player of the year and at centre-forward in the All Star team of 2019, and after making a huge impression since his championship debut against Clare in 2018, the Kenmare man is keen to get back into the swing of things.

Defeats to Mayo and Dublin in the league and championship finals left a sour taste from last season though, and the UCC student says there is a real hunger to succeed in 2020.

“We went back to our clubs for the club championship, so it was a good battle and a good test for fellas.

They enjoyed going back to their clubs after the county scene. It was nice to have that to fall back into after the disappointment of the All-Ireland,” said O’Shea, who helped UCC to a winning start in their Sigerson Cup defence at the weekend.

“We are focusing on next season now and trying to learn from last year, but we know we have to move on from it at the same time. It’s quite a busy time of the year for college football with both the Sigerson and inter-county league coming round as well.

“With it being so early in the year, you have had two or three months off and you’d miss it, so it’s good to be back in the swing of things again.”

Victory for Billy Morgan’s side against NUI Galway last weekend means the defending champions are away to IT Carlow in the quarter-final on Sunday, while O’Shea and his teammates will hope to still be involved tomorrow week when the semi-finals are played.

The Sigerson Cup final will take place on Wednesday 29 January, but in between the final two rounds, the inter-county nation league starts with Kerry facing the toughest of away games against All-Ireland champions Dublin in Croke Park.

“Yean, there will be (a lot at stake) I suppose, but no one will be getting too carried away with the first round of the league,” said O’Shea.

“But we look forward to going up there and giving it a crack and see how we get on. We are just getting back going there now and getting ready for the league.

"At the moment a lot of fellas are away with Sigerson Cup and are concentrating on that. It’s not until the 25th that we’re playing Dublin in Croke Park, and when that comes around we’ll look at that then."