John Griffin: I want to build something with the Kerry hurlers

Griffin was recently named as the Kerry senior hurling manager.

THY KINGDOM COME: John Griffin is looking to lay a foundation for Kerry Hurling. Picture: Eddie O'Hare

John Griffin is the first Kerry native to be appointed to the post of Kerry senior hurling manager since Maurice Leahy took up the role in 2007.

John Meyler, Tom Howard, Eamon Kelly, Fintan O’Connor and Stephen Molumphy have all come from outside the Kingdom in recent years.

In fact, Griffin played under ten different managers in an intercounty career that stretched from 2003 to 2017 and included him captaining Kerry to the 2015 Christy Ring Cup final win.

He won county championship titles in hurling with Lixnaw and football titles with Finuge before moving to take up a teaching post in Cork.

He served in different coaching roles in Erin’s Own, Ballygarvan, Carrigtwohill, MTU Cork, Imokilly and in 2022 he was goalkeeping coach in Kieran Kingston’s Cork senior hurling management before being ratified at the August as the new Kerry boss, replacing Stephen Molumphy who stepped down in May.

So why, at this time, did the Kerry job interest 'Tweek', as he affectionately known. “You don't know when you’re going to get an opportunity like this," said Griffin.

"Stephen Molumphy stepped down at the end of May and I thought it was a good opportunity. I feel at this stage that I have enough experience form a club perspective, from managerial and coaching experience, along with the year I did with Cork as well at inter-county level.

"I’m always dabbling with a bit of coaching and management, so I’m delighted to be able to have the opportunity to make my own mark on things. There’s not too many people nowadays who get to do with their own county, so just delighted to get the opportunity.”

But who would be crazy enough to take the Kerry job with so little reward of late and intercounty management now almost a full-time?

"You know nowadays with the time involved and how much the game has evolved, inter-county nowadays is nearly full-time in terms of the time involved from gym sessions to pitch sessions, match-days, the time players are expected to put in outside of collective sessions. It’s huge.” he explained.

“There was a lot of that towards the latter end of my playing career, the likes of maybe Éamonn Kelly they came in and changed the outlook on that and what exactly was involved and it’s evolved and evolved the last few years and you’ll read it every week the demands on the game and even players having to retire that little bit younger, because of the time involved and the expectations involved.

"Obviously there’s a step up, yeah, but just delighted to get that opportunity”.

The Lixnaw clubman explained that he has gone predominantly Kerry based when putting a management team together.

“I have Sean Maunsell (Kilmoyley) and Aidan Healy (Abbeydorney) on board as my selectors. Two good guys who are very balanced, who will be very fair, and I know already there are ideas you can bounce ideas off them.

"There’s a good team-dynamic there in that regard. Paudie O’Brien is one of the hurling coaches, the other hurling coach has to be finalised. Paudie was there last year. He can from a continuity point of view, knows the players. He’d a great career with Kilmallock and knows the players involved.

"Dan Breen is staying on as S&C and I suppose Mark Ryall is the goal-keeping coach. I went with predominantly Kerry. There’s 80-90% of them are a Kerry back-room team; we'll have a couple of outside coaches.

"I also have performance psychologist Paul Flanagan on board who retired a few weeks ago from the Clare All-Ireland winning set-up. I know he was involved with the minor footballers last year but it’s great to have him involved as he is a fellow who has just won an All-Ireland.

“I'm travelling from Cork, but I’m technically not an outside man so delighted to have a predominantly Kerry backroom. I think that’s important as well, it’s important to be self-sustainable in that you’re producing coaches and you’ve expertise within the county that can work within their own county.

"Not just this year but for down the line also. And for anybody else coming in, they'll all bring their own expertise. I’m delighted with my back-room team."

He added that he has talked to close on sixty players and he still has more conversations to be had with those who may or may not be able to give the necessary commitment, although he is delighted with the response so far.

Kerry will play in Division 2 of the National league with Kildare, Meath, Derry, Down, Donegal and Tyrone but Griffin says he can never remember playing against Donegal.

“We’ll see how the fixtures go! We’ve four northern teams. As a Kerry hurler down through the years, I’ve never been to Donegal, but you've always in the league, trips up north were always part of it.

“I suppose it's too early in the season to talk about winning, we know we’ve two competitions next year. We know we have the league, we know we’ve the Joe McDonagh. As I said to the players success will be a by-product if we get everything else right, just in terms of our preparation, buy-in from players, commitment, go after all these one-per center areas.

"I’m also conscious for me that success is not always a trophy on the table. It's a young group coming in there. Success for me might mean developing that group for the year after and the year after that. 

"Success for me could be developing a group who could continue on a cycle, we see other counties they can keep a squad together over a number of years and you get a cycle then, but if you're going year after year, losing x-amount of players, year after year, it's very hard to build something.

"I want to build something, really want to build something, and if that happens, success can and will happen. Not sure when, but it will happen. Right now [a good foundation is that I’m after]."