Jack O'Connor: Managing the four-week gap as challenging as ever 

'You do your best to try and make the in-house games as competitive as possible, but it is a tall ask to replicate championship intensity in training', said O'Connor.

CHALLENGING TASK: Kerry manager Jack O'Connor. Photo by Eóin Noonan/Sportsfile

Mind the gap, as the safety warning goes at the end of Irish train journeys, is a football championship pitfall that Jack O’Connor has plenty of experience dealing with.

The unwelcome four-week lay-off from provincial final glory to All-Ireland quarter-final action is a gap Jack successfully managed on three occasions - 2004, 05, and 11 - during his previous two spells in the Kerry job.