Croker or own backyard, Quillinan just wants to win

Kerry’s Brian Mangan and Marcus Clifford celebrate after the All-Ireland MFC semi-final victory over Mayo in Ennis last week. ‘Cavan were bigger than us, and so were Mayo. I’d say Cork were bigger than us as well,’ says manager Wayne Quillinan. Pic: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

Wayne Quillinan bounds into the room. 

“Sorry lads for this late meet-up but I am just back from Galway. I was up there buying a dog for the kids.”

It’s 8pm and for anyone who has yet to meet the Kerry minor manager, suffice to say he is not lacking in charisma, confidence, and positivity.

He is also passionate and very protective of his young group who he has now taken to three successive All-Ireland minor semi-finals. This time he’s gone beyond and into Sunday’s final against Tyrone.

Should the final not be in Croke Park? It’s been a regular topic of discussion in recent weeks, with suggestions that it be played as a July 13 curtain raiser to the senior semi-final between the same counties.

“I do agree on Croke Park,” says Quillinan, nodding, “but look, at this stage there’s a week to go to an All-Ireland final. I’d play it in my own backyard if you know what I mean, if we were to win it.

“I agree it should be back in Croke Park, but at this stage we can’t control that or anything like that. So I haven’t put much thought into it. It’s on in Newbridge now, that’s where we’re going to try and win an All-Ireland.”

Quillinan takes pride in the fact that Kerry withstood a late Mayo rally in the All-Ireland semi-final. 

“It kind of panned out the way that we thought it was going to pan out. Two really good footballing teams just going at it, and that’s why it was such a good spectacle for supporters and stuff like that. In games like that, you want young fellas to take risks and express themselves.

“You have to understand there will be mistakes made, plus they’re young fellas on top of that. I just felt that we had momentum. It ebbed and flowed, the way we looked at it is we won the game, we lost the game, and then we won it again.”

He adds: “I thought our response to the penalty, losing a keeper, going down to 14 men against the wind, conceding two goals, and just being a point down at half-time was excellent.

“People would talk about the last five or six minutes and the way that we finished out the game. But I thought that really showed a huge amount of character on that team, and it showed that the work we’re doing with them, and I’ve said this from the very start.

“It is their ability to learn and take up messages and the willingness to play for the team, particularly in the pressure moments, really showed in two periods,” says Quillinan.

“It’s like, we were going into the Cavan game with concerns, we were going into the Mayo game with concerns. When you’re involved in coaching and managing, you’ll go into every game with concerns. And every game you learn and you take work on’s and stuff like that.

“Tyrone have different match-ups, different personnel, they have a slightly different style of play, but that’s up to you, that’s just the beauty of coaching and managing, those concerns, I don’t know if I’d use the word concerns, they’re just challenges. They’re coaching challenges that you have to try and overcome in that two-week period build up to the game.”

Tyrone looks a bigger team than Kerry, and... Quillinan interjects: “Well, Cavan were bigger than us, and so were Mayo. I’d say Cork were bigger than us as well. You’re talking about physical strength. What about the strength that’s inside in your heart? And I think our team has shown that time and time again. So yeah, they might be bigger than us in certain areas, but they’ll have to battle us as well.”