Tony Leen: Declan O’Sullivan’s managerial debut with Kerry ends in acute disappointment

Kingdom legend from Dromid is viewed as a candidate for the senior post - though not yet. Which begs the question: who will replace Peter Keane?

SIDELINE VIEW: Kerry U20 manager Declan O'Sullivan at Páirc Uí Chaoimh on Thursday night. Picture: Matt Browne, Sportsfile

THE trouble with glorious talent is you don't get to bring it to the half-life on the far side of football's boundary lines. 

Declan O'Sullivan stood in the Páirc Ui Chaimh technical area Thursday night, stoic and arms folded, willing his Kerry Under 20 charges to be possessed of the same poise and nous he displayed in eleven garlanded seasons in green and gold. Alas, it was nowhere to be found.

If the Munster semi-final cracker at Pairc Ui Chaoimh was hardly an audition for O’Sullivan as the next Kerry senior football manager, it was also the first time most of the Kerry public had seen a side trained by the Dromid legend perform in a pressure pot.

The dramatic 3-12 to 3-11 defeat to Cork is a blow for sure, if not to O’Sullivan’s suitability for the big job down the line, certainly to the notion that an U20 All-Ireland title this year would expedite the process.

So who is the next Kerry senior football manager? Peter Keane’s three-year term, truncated and asterisked for various reasons, concludes next month. Without a 38th All-Ireland, he’ll hardly be in situ for a fourth campaign.

Candidates aren’t forming an orderly queue outside Austin Stack Park, the administrative HQ of Kerry GAA. Keane was appointed straight out of the minor bubble in 2019 when the only realistic alternative to replacing Eamonn Fitzmaurice was reverting to Jack O’Connor for a third spell in charge. 

Remember, Fitzmaurice had been in the hot seat for six seasons. Three summers after his departure, the anticipated breadth of candidates hasn’t materialised in the home of football. Over a decade, the Kingdom’s reservoir of managerial options has remained stubbornly shallow.

One is moved to suggest this is as much societal as sporting. If the inter-county coaching and managerial demands are obviously more glamorous and rewarding than the club trudge, it’s also more crucifying. And mortifying. And for almost everyone, unsuccessful.

Not many years ago in Kerry, there was an idealist's shortlist featuring some of the Kingdom brighter minds and folk heroes of the noughties – Seamus Moynihan, Dara O Cinnéide and Declan O’Sullivan. Tomas Ó Sé looks like he could make shapes in that regard too, but any respectable gathering of Kerry football folk would reach a consensus on O’Sullivan as a favoured candidate – if not for a couple of years yet.

To many, Fitzmaurice remains the optimum candidate for the position but his appetite for a return is questionable after the manner in which he was treated last time out. His professional and family circumstances have changed too.

DOUBTCHA BOY: Cork’s Tom Walsh celebrates after Thursday night's dramatic U20 win over neighbours, Kerry.

For sure, Declan O’Sullivan is a creditable candidate and, importantly in the land of precious little patience, has credit in the bank. Along with former Dr. Crokes stalwart John Galvin – who coached South Kerry to county championships – the duo brought their double act with Dromid to the inter-county crucible this year after John Sugrue stepped down. They’ve also added Sean O’Sullivan from Cromane.

Declan O’Sullivan was busy shaking things up in a damaging third quarter for Kerry on Thursday as Cork went seven ahead before a second yellow for their defender Colm O’Donovan led to a Kerry goal from a penalty. 

With ten of last year’s Munster-winning squad available to him, O’Sullivan might have imagined their experience would reel Cork in over the final 15 minutes. Remember too that there's been a number of All-Ireland minor winners feeding into this group. However, many bad choices in many promising positions made that unlikely and put Kerry, as O'Sullivan described it, "in troublesome spots."

For instance, the lively corner forwards Ruairi O Beaglaoich and Conor Hayes got on oodles of good possession but wasted it. Their defence handed the ball back to Cork for their second goal, emphatically finished by Corbett. And when an equalising goal seemed a formality in the dying minutes, a stretching Paul O'Shea tipped the ball onto and over the crossbar rather than under it.  

Reflecting their manager's tenacity, Kerry almost forced extra time. In the final seconds, O’Shea again surged through with the chance to force twenty more minutes, but his off-balance effort sailed wide.

Immense credit must go to Keith Ricken’s Cork side for their swift and deadly finish to the game. A stunning fetch from a kick out by Brian Hayes found its way to sub, Ciaran O’Sullivan and the Kilshannig man fisted the winner on the run in the 64th minute. Had they not been reduced to fourteen, their passage through to a provincial final against Tipperary might have been more straightforward.

Kerry are in another All-Ireland minor final, the 2020 version, this Sunday in Tullamore so the production line has hardly stalled. But their lack of success at the Under 20 (or U21) grade is perplexing and an obvious cause for concern. They haven’t won an All-Ireland (or even been in the final) in the grade since 2008 when Tommy Walsh and David Moran were in their pomp. Mick O’Dwyer regularly beat the drum for All-Ireland U21 success over minor in terms of future success, and has logic remains as relevant now as it was then. 

MAIN MAN: Declan O’Sullivan urges on his players during a water break at Pairc Ui Chaoimh.

O’Sullivan’s second half’s alterations were as timely as they were required; the visitors were a clear second best after the break at Páirc Ui Chaoimh. However, the replacements didn’t click or have the desired effect. They also continued the trend of poor decision-making on the ball. It was that sort of evening for the Kingdom and O’Sullivan. They manufactured countless promising situations in both halves but failed to capitalise. And they had no-one up top as tasty as Cork's Conor Corbett. More often than not down the years, Kerry produced stellar attacking talent to bail them out of tight spots but as Cork owned the third quarter, the excellence of Jack Cahalane and Corbett adorned the work from back to front. Corbett, from Clyda Rovers outside Mallow, is a stellar prospect with 2-4 again at Pairc Ui Chaoimh.

In 2012, Cork prevailed in this competition in Tralee against the Kingdom, 2-12 to 1-14 after extra time. It was Eamonn Fitzmaurice’s first venture into inter-county management and a sore experience. That autumn he was appointed senior manager at 36. Who gathers the Kerry seniors to order in 2022 appears to be very much up in the air.

As he made for the county bounds Thursday night, that was likely the furthest thing from Declan O'Sullivan's mind. 

Others, though, are checking the levels in the reservoir.