Tomás Ó Sé: Munster U20 structure 'cracks me up'

Kerry boss unveils panel for Waterford tie

Kerry manager Tomas O'Se. Pic: Matt Browne/Sportsfile

Another U20 campaign for Tomás Ó Sé. Another campaign of pure frustration at the wildly contrasting and unequal provincial championship structures.

Kerry begin their five-in-a-row Munster U20 bid away to Waterford this Thursday (Lemybrien, 7pm). The date on the calendar will read April 9.

Ó Sé’s gripe is that there are teams in Connacht and Ulster, who Kerry could very well meet later on in the championship, that opened their provincial account three weeks ago on March 18. 

Those very same teams in Connacht and Ulster could end up playing six and seven games before landing into an All-Ireland semi-final.

As for Leinster, which threw-in on March 25, there’s the possibility for six games en route to provincial glory.

And then there’s Munster. The maximum number of games Kerry and Cork can play in their provincial championship is four, and two of those will be against Clare and Waterford on this occasion.

Ó Sé's frustration is two-pronged. 

There’s the ambition for short-term success and the need for long-term development, both of which are hindered by a format the Kerry boss described as “totally ludicrous”.

“I’m not going to go into it now because I'd keep you here for an hour, but the structure of it cracks me up,” the Kerry boss began.

“I'm looking at teams [up the country] getting four or five good championship matches, even Connacht who only have five teams in it have a brilliant structure to their championship because the teams are on level par with each other as well.

“Yet we're sitting here, and Cork are in the exact same boat, sitting and waiting and waiting and waiting and we didn’t even know our first opponent a week out.

“It’s a totally ludicrous situation.” 

In last year’s Munster U20 edition, Tipp were seconds from dumping out Cork at Páirc Uí Chaoimh and advancing to a provincial decider against Kerry.

With Tipp part of the Phase 1 group, along with Clare, Limerick, and Waterford, the top two sides from this quartet have three championship games under their belt before they progress on to meet Cork and Kerry in Phase 2.

Both inside and outside provincial borders, he feels it is somewhat weighted against Munster’s strongest pair.

“There’ll be a time where Tipperary will come and beat Kerry and Cork in a championship, and they’ll have seven games played coming out of Munster,” continued Ó Sé, now in his fourth season at the helm.

“It was straight knockout before, and it was worse. You'd get only two games coming out of Munster.

“I'd love to be getting games, but you see, we can't go anywhere for a challenge game for the last five or six weeks because nobody's available, everybody else is playing. To be fair, Cork is in the same boat. 

"Locally, we can't get clubs because the days that they are off from County League, they want to take the weekend off, so you can't get a club team suitable there.” 

Ó Sé expects players from last year's beaten All-Ireland minor final team to feature on Thursday, while also in the set-up are Eoin O'Flaherty, Máirtín McKivergan, Gearóid White, and Ronan Carroll from the Tralee CBS side that lost the Hogan Cup decider last month.

Ó Sé’s Kerry U20 panel, released on Tuesday, features seven starters from the side that came off second best to Tyrone in last year’s All-Ireland semi-final.

They are Gearóid Evans, Aodhna Ó Beaglaoich, Daniel Kirby, Evan Boyle, Killian Dennehy, Tomás Kennedy, and Paddy Lane.

Kerry U20 panel: Adam Byrne (Dr Crokes), Alex Tuohy (Austin Stacks), Aodhna Ó Beaglaoich (An Ghaeltacht), Barry Fitzgibbon (Kenmare Shamrocks), Ben Kelliher (Dr Crokes), Daniel Kirby (Austin Stacks), Dara Hogan (Milltown Castlemaine), Dara Stack (Kilcummin), David Mulvihill (Tarbert), David Sargent (John Mitchels), Eoin O’Flaherty (Ardfert), Evan Boyle (Ballyduff), Gearóid Evans (Keel), Gearóid White (John Mitchels),Issac Brosnan (Castleisland Desmonds), Jack Joy (Ballymacelligott), Jack O’Sullivan (Kenmare Shamrocks), Jamie Moynihan (Glenflesk), Joey McCarthy (Spa), John Curtin (Ballyduff), Kacper Robak (Dr Crokes), Killian Dennehy (Cordal), Mairtín McKivergan (Ballymacelligott), Marcus Clifford (Firies), Mark O’Carroll (Dr Crokes), Michael Horan (Scartaglen), Michael Lynch (Milltown Castlemaine), Pa Walsh (Listowel Emmets), Paddy Lane (Austin Stacks), Paudie Finucane (Tarbert), Paudie Fitzgerald (Castlegregory), Ronan Carroll (Austin Stacks), Ronan Sheridan (Duagh), Ruairí Kennedy (Kerins O’Rahilly’s), Seán Ó Cuinn (An Ghaeltacht), Tomás Kennedy (Kerins O’Rahilly’s).