Warm-weather training camps a winner for O'Connor 

'There are big benefits, and it remains to be seen how much it will have brought us on,' Kerry boss Jack O'Connor said.

'BIG BENEFITS': Kerry manager Jack O'Connor. Pic: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

Jack O’Connor held a pre-championship media briefing at Austin Stack Park on Monday. The Kerry manager was little more than 24 hours back on Kingdom soil after the county’s week-long training camp in Portugal.

Like anything, the inter-county training camp abroad has its advocates and its detractors.

Former Tipperary hurler Paddy Stapleton recently described these training getaways as the “greatest load of rubbish” and said they should be banned.

The main criticism from the two-time All-Ireland winner was the amount of money that goes into financing the trip abroad and how players aren't conditioned to train twice and three times a day, as is the requirement on these excursions to warmer climes.

Kerry’s Darran O’Sullivan holds the opposite view. 

The former Kingdom forward recently cited the lack of outside distractions while away, the amount of work players were able to get done when free of their 9-5 commitments, and the collective bond built whilst in this professional bubble.

Jack obviously falls into the latter category. He wouldn’t otherwise be just a day back from one of these very camps.

So, what does the Kerry manager find particularly beneficial about getting away and what can be done in Portugal that can’t be done on the pitch at Currans or Fitzgerald Stadium or Austin Stack Park?

“The camp was more about working on technical stuff. It allows you the time and the weather where everybody is together and you can slow stuff down,” the Kerry boss began.

“Last winter was a bad one [in terms of the weather]. It is very hard in that environment to stop the play, gather lads in, and discuss what you have just done.

“At home here, you are just keeping fellas moving. Your priority going out in sessions is to keep lads moving so that they don't perish with the cold, whereas you can slow things down to a great degree in a warmer environment.

“They are also getting proper recovery between sessions which means they can train harder that evening or the next day. There are big benefits, and it remains to be seen how much it will have brought us on.” 

Kerry begin their defence of the Munster championship and Sam Maguire at home to Tipperary this Saturday. O’Connor is expecting a defensive approach from the visitors. His team encountered plenty of such set-ups throughout a league spoiled by a return to mass defences and lateral approach play.

It was from this remove that the Kerry manager declared himself pleasantly surprised by the openness of Sunday’s Ulster quarter-final between Monaghan and Tyrone.

Is it “pie in the sky”, he wondered, to think that Monaghan-Tyrone might be the start of a summer that bears no resemblance to the ponderous nature of spring fare that came before.

“The score at half-time in Omagh was 1-10 to 0-8, which is often a bigger score than you'd get at the end of an Ulster championship game.

“The fine weather has a bit to do with that; you can move the ball faster. During the League a lot of the days were windy, you were trying to carry the ball into traffic or through traffic.

“You are just hoping you can move the ball a bit quicker and kick the ball a bit more on better pitches, better sod, and in better weather.” 

Injuries, David Moran’s retirement, and the late return of others meant fringe Kerry players were afforded opportunities during the league to raise their hand for championship involvement. Outside of midfielder Barry O’Sullivan, few went up.

But O’Connor did not go along with the view that Kerry failed during the league to add viable options to their championship matchday 26.

“I do think we have got a few lads in this year who are very competitive. In judging the internal football, it is pretty competitive because those lads that have got game-time and starts have come on and developed. We are hoping now a couple of them will see championship action and will come good in the championship.

“So I would say that if anything our panel is stronger than it was last year.”