Cork U20 boss Keane unhappy with impact of kickouts on games

Cork U20 football manager Ray Keane watching from the sidelines. Pic: Noel Sweeney

Cork U20 boss Ray Keane has added his voice to the growing chorus of football managers unhappy at the extent to which kickouts are dictating games.

In last week’s Munster U20 fixture at home to Kerry, Cork did not have a single clean possession for the opening five minutes and 56 seconds.

Kerry half-back Seán Ó Cuinn fired the visitors in front straight from the throw-in, and with the Kingdom winning the resultant Cork kickout, as well as the next three after that, Cork were spectators to proceedings until Danny Miskella won the break on Cork’s fifth restart just shy of the six-minute mark.

The rule preventing short kickouts inside the 40-metre arc, added to the inability of a Cork defender to wriggle into space and accept a kickout just beyond the arc, meant Cork goalkeeper Billy Curtin had no option but to continue punting long until such time as one of his restarts landed into a red hand.

The hosts were fortunate to be just two behind when Miskella denied Kerry a fifth successive win on the Cork restart; they could easily have trailed by five.

“I just don’t think the new rules are fair in certain aspects,” said Cork manager Ray Keane when reflecting on Kerry’s early spell of dominance, a dominance exclusively tied to their consistent claiming of the Cork kickout.

“Personally, I think there was nothing wrong with the old rules, just how lads were sending lads out to play the football.

“You take a team that is winning the ball in the middle of the field. With their three-up, they could have got a goal or two in that and next thing, it is game over. 

"You swing one ball up [the other end] and next thing you’re saying you’re back in the game, which is ultimately what happened. It is down to momentum. It is down to the middle of the field.

“I hear Kieran McGeeney going on about it every few weeks. It is a quagmire. People say there is fielding, there isn’t as much fielding as people think. I may be a mad man for saying that, but I don’t really care!” 

During his short spell as Clare manager last year, Ray's brother Peter also advocated for kickouts not having to travel a minimum of 40 metres.

Cork’s first win over Kerry at U20 level in five years owed much to the second-half pair of orange flags launched over by the aforementioned Miskella and Mark O’Brien.

But again, Keane questioned whether this new element of the game is totally fair.

“The two-pointer is a bit of a momentum-changer. Is it right to have two-pointers because you kicked from a different angle, I am not so sure.” 

Keane’s side will progress to the Munster U20 final with victory or a draw at home to Waterford on Wednesday evening. Keane is wary of their Déise opponents. 

Waterford went to West Clare last week and took maximum points back down the road, a feat Cork were unable to manage the week previous.

“We have a lot of work to do because Waterford got over Clare in Kilmihil and any team that can go back to Kilmihil and win, it says an awful lot about them,” the manager continued.

“It is great for the competition that you have two semi-finals, in effect. Whoever wins both will be in the final.”

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