'I doubt we’ll have anyone extra back for the Cork game': Jack O'Connor on Kerry injuries

With Shane Ryan, Paul Murphy, Brian Ó Beaglaoich, Joe O’Connor, Sean O’Shea, Graham O’Sullivan and Dylan Geaney all missing, the visitors lost Tom O’Sullivan early in the second half.

Players from both teams compete for the ball. Pic: Paul Phelan/Sportsfile

The Kerry injury list shows no signs of reducing in advance of the Munster final against Cork at Fitzgerald Stadium in a fortnight’s time, with Kingdom manager Jack O’Connor now having an added concern in defender Tom O’Sullivan.

With Shane Ryan, Paul Murphy, Brian Ó Beaglaoich, Joe O’Connor, Sean O’Shea, Graham O’Sullivan and Dylan Geaney all missing, and Sean O’Brien and Gavin White restricted to substitute appearances, the visitors then lost Dingle corner-back O’Sullivan early in the second half.

“You must remember that we have quite a lot of fellas who have been out of football for a long time so it was good to get them on the field. It was good to see Gavin (White) back, Evan Looney, Paul Geaney, fellas like that,” he said.

“Unfortunately, it looks like we’ve lost Tom (O’Sullivan) there to a bit of a muscle injury, which is a pity now. There is loads of work to do, but glad that the second half was a bit closer to what we were hoping for.” 

When pressed further on the current state of the walking wounded, O’Connor wasn’t full of optimism that there will be members of the cavalry ready to jump into the Killarney bear-pit on Sunday, May 10, with little recovery time available.

“They’re injured, that’s it. I doubt we’ll have anyone extra back for the Cork game. That’s the way it’s looking at the moment. It would be a bonus if we did, but it’s not looking likely at the moment anyway,” added the Dromid Pearses man.

On goalkeeper Shane Ryan, who has been slow to recover from a very troublesome quad injury picked up in the McGrath Cup final, the Kerry boss simply stated: “I couldn’t tell you (when he’ll be back). He’s not close at the moment anyway.” 

On the overall Kerry performance, O’Connor felt that his side got to grips with the midfield battle better in the second half, but that there were clearly elements of rustiness, especially in an opening 35 minutes where Clare were hugely competitive.

“If Cork were watching it, I’d say they wouldn't be quaking in their boots. We’ll have to up it a bit for the game in Killarney, but the name of the game was to get up here, have a decent performance, get down the road and prepare for Cork.

“We were a bit better in the second half. I thought we struggled around the middle of the field in the first half, particularly on breaks. We spoke about that and I think Seán O'Brien coming into the middle of the field helped. It just gave us a bit more physical presence there. There’s plenty of work to do.

“A lot of fellas were probably a bit undercooked. Trying to get up to championship pace after being out of football for a good while is tough going, and that showed at times. Fair play to Clare, they were very spirited and they put up a good performance.

“They were missing a couple of important players as well, like Bohannon (who came on late) and (Dermot) Coughlan. Look, we have a lot of improving to do. At the moment now, that performance wouldn’t be good enough to beat Cork.” 

Clare manager Paul Madden was disappointed with the end result. Holding the All-Ireland champions to eight points was no moral victory. Indeed, with the way that the hosts competed all afternoon, there was possibly more that could have been achieved.

“At half-time, we felt the game was there for the taking, to be honest. Obviously, we know their pedigree, and we know that they’re going to have purple patches, and so you have to curtail the damage doing their purple patch,” said the Éire Óg man.

“I thought, over the whole course of the game, bar six or seven minutes there in the second half, I thought we were as good as they were. I really did. If you can park that for a second, which is hard, you’d have to take a lot of positives out of the game.