It's a long road to Tipperary but not an issue, insist Dingle

...well at last not for the Kerry club's players and mentors. For some of their supporters, it's quite a trek but one they won't feel if they can annex a Munster Club SFC title on Sunday

HARD ROAD: Dingle coach Aidan O'Shea has been an important addition to the management team this season. Pic: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

HE'S scored a county final winning goal himself for Mid Kerry in 2008, guided his club, Glenbeigh/Glencar, to All-Ireland Junior Club success Croke Park in 2017 - and brought a talented Mercy Mounthawk, Tralee side all the way to Croke Park.

So Dingle coach Aidan O'Shea is not going to allow the length of road between west Kerry and Thurles derail preparations for Sunday's Munster Club SFC final against Cork's St Finbarr's.

"It's fine for us and the players," he explained. "We'll go up the night before. Mind you, it's tough on the ordinary supporter. Especially people that are moving on their years, it's a long day out to be going that far up the road. Someone said to me that you'd be as fast getting from Belfast to Thurles as you would from Dingle to Thurles - I looked it up for a craic and it was the case!.

"But from the squad's standpoint, it's grand. You're actually nearly better off. I think once you go over that two and a half hours, it's taken out of your hands that you have to stay someplace. It's when you're in around the two, two and a half hours; you're deciding whether you stay at home.

"So from a player point of view, we've parked it, it's fine. But it's definitely tough on families, bad roads this time of year. It's what it is now. I'm sure the people here will support us as best they can and hopefully the people who can make it might get another day out some other time down the year.” 

O'Shea, who has also spent two years coaching the Kerry U20 side, was an obvious catch along with Irish basketball coach James Weldon for a club desperate to break a 77-year hoodoo in terms of Kerry SFC success.

Since beating Austin Stacks in the county final, Dingle have had to make do with a one-sided provincial semi final against an understrength Mungret St Pauls, and even then, there were plenty of work-ons, O'Shea says.

"In the first half, we had the breeze and it was a strong breeze. I think we were 25 minutes in and only about eight points. It was more than an eight point breeze. I suppose there was handling and decision making. I know people say that decision making should be good all the time but there's a rustiness to that as well if you haven't played. The more you play, you tend to make better decisions."

O'Shea, the son of Kerry great Jack, traces the fundamental differences in coaching and playing between summer and winter football. “It is a different game. When you're passing the ball in winter, it has to be a 70-30 ball, whereas you can throw a bit more caution to the wind when you're in the summer time.

“Obviously, if you're playing against the breeze, then you have to box clever and you have to try and get territory up in the other half and see if you can hold possession for a certain amount of time and see if you can be patient and work shots. If you have the breeze in your back, you don't want balls going over the end line. There's a skill to that too. It definitely is a different game."

Jimmy Barry-Murphy is involved with the Barr’s and O'Shea struck up a conversation this week with his father about old rivalries. 

“I was talking to him during the week and he said that he (Jack) played Railway Cup with JBM. He switched more to hurling after that didn't he? He's a hugely iconic figure in the dressing room, for Cork and St Finbarr’s, he's their all-time great. He carries himself really, really well. It looks like there's enthusiasm pouring out of him. They're obviously a storied and a proud club. Those clubs tend to be strong mentally upstairs and they tend to be ruthless when they get into these finals. We'll have our work cut out for us.”