Seán O’Shea and Kerry may want to keep their pedals to the metal

Seán O'Shea possesses the most relentless tacometer in Gaelic football, but it would be no bad thing to give him a pass for the Athletic Grounds.

STANDARD SETTER: Jack O’Connor relies on Seán O'Shea to set the bar six days a week and twice on Sunday for Kerry. Pic: Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile

THE slow bicycle race to a Donegal-Kerry League Division 1 final is gathering pace. Off-hand comments from their respective managers suggest the prospect of playing each other in Croke Park on Sunday week doesn’t make their socks roll up and down. 

Yet that doesn’t really stack up. Donegal will find it tricky to lose twice in a week and Kerry won’t want to hex their fine vein of form with a lame effort in the Athletic Grounds. Their respective team selections for Sunday’s final round games in Monaghan (for Donegal) and Armagh (for Kerry) should be informative.

Kerry have an Algarve training camp in the books over Easter where they may get in eight sessions over five working days in Quinta do Lago. Watching Sean O’Shea against Mayo last weekend and Declan Rice for Arsenal in their midweek Champions League win over Bayer Leverkusen, a similar thought prevailed: they could do with a lie down.

Rice admitted he was ‘shattered’, O’Shea wouldn’t make such a concession. That gait of his frequently makes O’Shea looks like he’s got one more wire-to-wire in him before he falls down, but he possesses the most relentless tacometer in Gaelic football. The comparison to Rice is again appropriate - setting standards in the stuff that takes minimal technical talent.

A few weeks ago at a coaching conference in Tralee, Kerry mentor James Costello presented the benefits of video review, not least being its ability to highlight the crucial blue collar bits that get missed or overlooked. He red-circled Joe O’Connor tracking back in Croke Park to slow down a Tyrone counter last summer, but there must be a library of Sean O’Shea moments. The Kenmare man kicked 0-11 against Mayo last Saturday and with his standing as the game’s finest all-round centre forward not in contention, there was little need to draw a nice nine-iron off the ground for a two-point score that no-one had seen before. He did it anyway.

Sean O'Shea with an outrageous 2 pointer off the deck for @Kerry_Official 🎯

#AllianzLeagues #KERvMAY pic.twitter.com/eSqCiH1Cdr

— The GAA (@officialgaa) March 14, 2026

O’Shea, like Declan O’Sullivan before him, doesn’t say much because his attitude and performance on the pitch speaks loud and clear. Jack O’Connor relies on him to set the bar six days a week and twice on Sunday, but it would be no bad thing to give him a pass for the Athletic Grounds. 

The manager has noted the continuing development of Dylan Geaney as a playmaker and finisher as he is eased back into things after Dingle’s annus mirabilis. Ditto with Tom O’Sullivan who got 50 minutes against Mayo. Asked whether Armagh was an opportunity to get game time into some other returning players like Brian O’Beaglaoich, O’Connor felt it better to park those consideration for a few days and consider his hand of cards. To check the GPS monitors and, more likely in O’Connor’s case, go with his gut in terms of who to sit down. O’Shea must be on that list but here’s the dicey call: such is the camp feeling that Kerry are cutting through smooth waters that management does not need any kelp on the blades. The sense from within is they may as well go hard for Armagh and come down the gears as needed.

With any relegation sweat long since dismissed and fresh options presenting in the shape of Keith Evans, Armin Heinrich, Donagh O’Sullivan, Tomás Kennedy, Eddie Healy, Cillian Trant and Liam Smith the scaffolding is in place for a right crack at the summer. It’s why Kerry can take their time reintegrating Shane Ryan, O’Beaglaoich, Gavin White, Diarmuid O’Connor, Paudie Clifford and Tony Brosnan. Five of that sextet are All-Stars. In the half back line, Kerry can turn to seven All-Ireland winners that don’t include Paul Murphy, Jason Foley or Dylan Casey.

Putting 2-29 on a Mayo side Kerry gave a five-point start to may not be the best way to dampen down 2026 expectations, but the view within the Kerry set-up remains that they’re still some way short of hitting their straps. But you ride the bucking bronco as long as you can, and with only one wide in nearly 80 minutes of football in Tralee last Saturday, the All-Ireland champions looked imperious.

The manager has name-checked Armin Heinrich several times, and of Milltown-Castlemain’s Keith Evans, he said “very lively, very game. He took off after (Sam) Callinan like a man who has gotten the bit between his teeth. He’s been around the place for a few years but said he’d go after it and give this thing a real go.” 

In observing what’s going on around him, Sean O’Shea likes “the good balance” in the group, “the fact that different lads are coming back at different times. Lads have been given opportunities and are taking them,” he said.

What Kerry could do without is an injury to their full back, Jason Foley. As plentiful as defensive cover is, the Ballydonoghue man is Kerry’s go-to back to tame a marquee attacker and no-one has that 0-60 speed from a standing start like Foley.

But O’Shea can’t be far behind, not least for his do-as-I-do not as-I-say approach. He is as aware as his manager of the value of momentum for Kerry, both in-game and from game-to-game.

He explained some of Kerry’s power plays after stacking the scores high against Mayo. It’s hardly the first time the champions have blitzed an opponent with a killer combo.

“With the kick out now, and with that wind, once you’ve killed the ball, you get a chance to press. Next kick out comes, and if you can win that again, you’ve momentum. When you have it, the trick is to nail home the advantage. You get energy from winning opposition kick outs, and from scores, and then the crowd get involved.” 

Kerry will get their pulses tested by the Athletic Grounds crowd and Kieran McGeeney’s charges. Whatever approach the visitors take, it will be instructive.