The return of Jack O'Connor and the key issue it raises for Kerry football

BACK AGAIN: Jack O'Connor will return for another stint as Kerry senior football manager. Picture: Diarmuid Greene/Sportsfile

So Jack is back. At the top end of the management ticket, the Dromid man offers Kerry football what neither of the alternatives could – All-Ireland winning experience.

The next job for 60-year-old O’Connor is to secure his trainer in the guise of former Down manager Paddy Tally. The Tyrone man was not named in the terse confirmation of Kerry’s 2022 football management team on Friday night because that agreement isn’t nailed down. Tally still has some thinking to do, apparently. That’s a critical part of the jigsaw, not only because it will augment the experience and nous of Diarmuid Murphy and the coaching techniques and freshness of Mike Quirke, but because it will also have a big say in how Kerry play.