Marc Ó Sé: 'Mike Breen could be the answer to Jack's midfield conundrum'

Football analyst Marc Ó Sé in attendance at the 2024 GAAGO match schedule launch at Croke Park in Dublin.

Marc Ó Sé reckons midfield is a problem zone or 'needy area' for Kerry again and that Mike Breen could be the unlikely answer to Jack O'Connor's conundrum.

With Jack Barry opting to take a year out from the Kerry setup, and the shockwaves still being felt from David Moran's retirement last January, the Kingdom need to nail down a new long-term pairing.

Barry and his Na Gaeil clubmate Diarmuid O'Connor lined up at midfield for All-Ireland finalists Kerry this year though O'Connor will have to find at least one new man for the vital zone in 2024.

Former captain Joe O'Connor is back after a cruciate injury though isn't an established figure in the team while ex-AFL player Stefan Okunbor is in a similar situation following a serious hamstring problem.

Set in the context of thriving midfield partnerships around the country like Dublin's Fenton-Howard-McCarthy axis, Derry's Glass-Rogers partnership and the Tyrone combination of Kennedy-Kilpatrick, it is a significant challenge for Kerry manager O'Connor.

"Trying to match those (midfields) is one thing but trying to match that day upon day upon day, and having that consistency, is another huge thing," said five-time All-Ireland winner Ó Sé who was speaking at the launch of GAAGO's 2024 fixtures schedule.

"That's an area where I think Kerry need to get players in, give them time over the National League and hopefully come championship then you have a formidable pairing. Going back, you had the likes of Jack O'Shea but then for a few years that was a very needy area in the middle of the field. Darragh (Ó Sé) eventually came along. 

"After Darragh went, again, it was a very needy area for a few years and then David Moran comes along. Now it's a very needy area for Kerry again. We need somebody strong there for Kerry that will do a job."

Which, in Ó Sé's mind at least, is where Breen, best known as a wing-back for Kerry could come in. Breen won an All-Ireland minor title with Kerry from midfield in 2016 and his senior career was bubbling up nicely, mainly in the half-back line, until a bad hamstring injury at the start of 2022. He didn't feature in their All-Ireland winning campaign that summer though returned to make four appearances in this year's Championship.

"Mike Breen is certainly a player I think could be tried there," said Ó Sé. "He played all his minor football with Kerry at midfield. A lot of these players are playing midfield with their clubs anyway. The backs is an area where we can kind of get six that will be good. Whereas Mike Breen, he's back from injury now, he's a player that could certainly play there (at midfield) in my view. 

"He's not the big midfielder that we come across but he's certainly a player who could get up and down the field. And he's a ball player so I think Mike Breen is one that Kerry could look at playing midfield. He's a strong lad as well so he'd be well able to throw himself about. He's a player that I would actually like to see out there."

Cillian Burke, who rose to prominence during Milltown-Castlemaine's county intermediate championship success, is another option and he looks set to get a chance at least.

"He's a good prospect but I mean you can't go from zero to a hundred," said Ó Sé. "He's going to get game time in the league. Are they going to play him at midfield or in the half-forward line? It'll be interesting."

O Se believes that Seanie O'Shea and Gavin White are other potential midfield options, if O'Connor is of a mind to rejig and reshape, though the bottom line is that there are far more questions than answers just now about finding a partner for O'Connor.

Another challenge for Kerry in 2024, according to Ó Sé, is developing their spread of scorers.

"It doesn't necessarily have to all come from the forwards," he said. "I just think that we need to get a few more players taking that bit of pressure off because God forbid if something happened to David or Paudie (Clifford), Kerry are very reliant on them."

O Se himself is preparing for Saturday's Munster club junior final as coach of Listowel Emmets who will face Cork's Kilmurry in Mallow.

"Getting out of Kerry is a hard thing to do," he said. "When you get out then, like, you see Fossa won the competition last year that we won, the Kerry championship, and then you saw where they got to with the All-Ireland so you can kind of begin to dream when you get out of Kerry. But it's very much focused on the game that's in front of you too, there's no getting away from that."