O'Shea 'very much at home' in full forward line
McGRATH CUP: Kerry playing Limerick in the McGrath Cup. Pic: Harry Murphy/Sportsfile
Kerry manager Jack O’Connor has admitted that Sean O’Shea is ‘very much at home’ in the full-forward line after another eye-catching cameo closer to goal from the Kenmare Shamrocks man during Saturday’s McGrath Cup destruction of Limerick.
O’Shea was introduced for the second half of last Wednesday’s home victory over Tralee and kicked six points while operating in the inside line of attack, and his opening 35-minute display at Mick Neville Park in Rathkeale over the weekend was even more impressive.
Dove-tailing superbly with the Geaney siblings, Dylan and Conor, the number 14 notched 2-4 before being called ashore as part of nine changes made by the Kingdom management at the interval. By that stage, the visitors were home and dry, leading by 19 points (5-10 to 0-6).
“It’s another good run-out for some of the younger fellas. Every minute that they get in a Kerry jersey is good for their development. It’s heartening again to see Joe O’Connor putting in another big shift around the middle of the field,” said the Kerry boss, who had a slight injury scare near the end with goalkeeper Shane Ryan being forced off.
“Obviously the forwards worked very well, particularly in the first half. The Geaneys were very good, Seanie O’Shea was excellent again, so I’m happy enough. There are obviously bigger fish to fry than this, but happy enough.
“At the moment, we are missing, basically, our whole full-forward line with the two Cliffords and Paul Geaney missing. It’s out of necessity really that we’re putting Seanie in there, and he’s very much at home there. He plays a lot of football with the club high up the pitch, and he looks very sprightly there at the moment.”
With Conor Geaney replicating O’Shea’s goal brace, and further green flags raised by Ronan Buckley and substitute Darragh Roche, it turned into a very tough day at the office for new Limerick manager Jimmy Lee. The Newcastle West man has his eyes firmly fixed, however, on the start of the National League.
“It’s a tough loss, it is what it is. It’s not about the game, it’s about what the lads showed, and the green shoots, and stuff like that. What we’re doing on the training field came out. This is all about Antrim, that’s the starting point. That’s where our focus is,” said Lee.
: S O’Shea 2-4 (0-1f), C Geaney 2-2 (0-2fs), D Geaney 0-4, R Buckley 1-1, K Spillane 0-3 (0-1f, 0-1mk), D Roche 1-0, J O’Connor, Stephen O’Brien, J Alfred (own point), K Evans 0-1 each.
D Siochrú (0-1f), T Griffin, D Daly (0-1f), J Alfred (‘45s) 0-2 each, B Nix, S O’Dea, A Meade 0-1 each.
: S Ryan; P Murphy, J Foley, D Casey; B O Beaglaoich, S Okunbor, G White; J O’Connor, Sean O’Brien; A Spillane, D Geaney, R Buckley; C Geaney, S O’Shea, D Moynihan.
: D Bourke for Casey (ht), J Nagle for O Beaglaoich (ht), M Breen for Okunbor (ht), P O’Leary for White (ht), B O’Sullivan for O’Brien (ht), Stephen O’Brien for Spillane (ht), K Spillane for C Geaney (ht), D Roche for O’Shea (ht), M Burns for Moynihan (ht), G O’Sullivan for Murphy (45), K Evans for D Geaney (45).
A O’Sullivan; J Liston, S O’Dea, B O’Sullivan; R Childs, C Fahy, P Maher; E Rigter, T Griffin; A Meade, B Coleman, B Nix; D Siochrú, J Hayes, E Hurley.
: J Alfred for A O’Sullivan (ht), J Sweeney for Liston (ht), T McCarthy for Maher (ht), T Siochrú for Fahy (ht), D O’Doherty for Coleman (ht), D Murray for Hayes (40), T Childs for Hurley (45), D Daly for R Childs (49), S Costello for Nix (53), A Neville for Meade (54), R O’Connor for B O’Sullivan (54).
: C Dineen (Cork).
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