Jason Foley back in Kerry training, could feature in Munster final
KEY MAN: Jason Foley of Kerry. Photo by Ben McShane/Sportsfile
Kerry manager Jack O’Connor believes that the timing of Tuesday's draw (3pm) for the All-Ireland SFC round-robin group stages can be a potential distraction for players, in advance of this Sunday’s Munster SFC Final with Clare at Cusack Park in Ennis.
“Of course it can be a distraction. Purely, from a psychological point of view, you would prefer that it wasn’t done until after the weekend. Look, the GAA are in the sales game, and they want to hype stuff up,” he said.
“Obviously we’ll look at it, but then we’ll be parking it until after the weekend, and putting it aside. You can only play one game at a time. We’ll be looking for all our attention to be on the Clare game in Ennis, and start thinking about the round-robin series next Monday morning.
“You have to play every game as it comes anyway. We will just concentrate on the Clare game, and on getting a good performance. You see, this time of the year, obviously you’re looking to win, but you’re also looking to perform well in the areas that you’re working on in training.
“If stuff that you’re working on doesn’t come off, then you start questioning yourself, and you start doubting yourself - that’s when you have trouble. We’ll be just trying to park it, and concentrate on the areas that we felt that we weren’t great in the last day.”
Meanwhile, there is positive news on the injury front for the Kingdom ahead of the provincial decider with the Banner county, O’Connor confirming that defenders Jason Foley and Brian Ó Beaglaoich are back in training, and should be available for selection.
Ballydonoghue full-back Foley picked up an ankle injury in the penultimate Allianz League outing in Roscommon, while An Ghaeltacht wing-back Ó Beaglaoich had been troubled by a long-standing calf complaint. However, promising attacker Dylan Geaney is unlikely to feature.
“Brian played a game with his club the weekend of the Cork game, as did a few more lads who didn’t get game time. Most of them, along with Jason, are back training. Anyone that’s training, we’ll assess them during the week, there are two more training sessions to go, and we’ll take it from there,” he said.
“Dylan Geaney picked up a bit of a knock in the county league, he’s just a bit unlucky, but it’s a minor injury. We’ll have a look at him this week, and see how it goes. There is for and against playing them in the county league.
“Obviously there is the danger that fellas can get injured, but they need football. I’d be leaning on the side of letting as many fellas play as possible, because this time of the year, they need matches.”
When asked if it was important for Foley, a bed-rock of the team over the last five or six seasons, to see some sort of action in Ennis, O’Connor concurred.
“The same applies to any player that’s out injured, you’re trying to get minutes into their legs, because there is a big difference between training and playing a match.
“We’ll have a look at them all this week, and just see who we think is ready for action and take it from there. Everyone (involved in the Cork game) seems to be fine, they had no reaction, so that’s promising,” added the Dromid Pearses club-man.
With a certain degree of rustiness evident during the three-point victory over Cork a fortnight ago, O’Connor expects that, with that outing under the belt, and with pitches drying out considerably, Kerry need to start putting the collective foot on the accelerator.
“From here on in, we would need to be showing a bit of sharpness and a more clinical edge. There are no excuses now. The weather is better, there is a game every two weeks, so you would be expecting that the ball handling and stuff would be better,” he stressed.
“I don’t know if it’s by accident or design, because you know the kind of a winter that we had here in Kerry, it was hard to do proper speed training, or play football at a good pace this winter. We really didn’t play football at the pace that you would want to be playing at until we went to Portugal that week.
“Since we came back, the fields have dried up and they’re in good shape now, but you would feel that a month of that type of football would bring our lads on. That’s how you peak, it’s not a fitness thing, it’s a sharpness thing, and the pace of your play. We’d be hoping that that will happen in the next couple of weeks.”
Starting, of course, in Ennis at 1.45pm this Bank Holiday Sunday.
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