SEPTEMBER 2006. Cusack Park. John Kennedy is standing on the pitch – a place that become almost like a second home to him during this three year tenure as Clare manager. And yet he was exactly where he didn't want to be – on the losing side in an All Ireland final.

Worst still he was there as manager of a Kerry team. Not only was he desperately disappointed as a proud Kerry man and a leader of men, but he knew, as we all do, that failure isn't looked upon kindly by what Páidí Ó Sé once described as the 'roughtest type of animals'.

"You're judged in Kerry by silverware," he admits.

Managing the Kingdom's minors for four years and falling agonisingly short of the ultimate success is something that would scar a man's soul, make him question his judgement, make him take stock. Kennedy takes self analysis seriously, he has asssessed his tenure as minor boss. Regrets? He's had a few.

"That's maybe the one that when I look back on it I say that's the one we let go," he says of that fine September day when his dreams turned to dust. "It was an exceptional Roscommon team, we had them beaten above in Croke Park, maybe we made a few mistakes, maybe the referee made a few calls, but look I wouldn't dwell on those things."

Instead the Asdee man chooses to focus on the positives. He remembers the good days, remembers the brilliant displays against Galway and Donegal in subsequent seasons. He remembers working with the Tommy Walshs and the David Morans.

"Getting fellas onto senior panels and things – that's a victory in itself. I'd always consider this to be a big wheel, where there's various cogs and we're just one of those cogs. It takes a lot of people to get players to where they are at senior level and we all play our part.

"No one manager or management team can claim total credit for a player, because the player has to have the ability number one, but it takes a lot of effort and a lot of dedication to get them to the top. There's huge satisfaction seeing fellas playing at Under 21 or senior level having trained them as minors," he says.

Last August when his minors lost out to a powerful Armagh combination John Kennedy thought that would be that – at least for the time being. For the best part of a decade his life had been filled with the sights, smells and sounds of the training pitch and dressing room. As a selector, as a manager at senior and minor level his life was spent in the service of football.

He loved it – loved every minute – but it was time he felt to take a step back. Take a rest, recharge the batteries, maybe take on some additional responsibilities with the club at home in Asdee. Then the phone rang. On the other end? Jerome Conway. The County Board Chairman wanted to talk. John knew what was coming.

"Jerome asked me would I come back and take on the Under 21s. It was an easy enough decision in a way because you don't turn down jobs in Kerry. While one hand I was looking for break on the other hand I was looking for a change," Kennedy says.

It was easy to accept, partially at least, because he would have worked with the majority of the players he would be calling upon in his new role. Still he was eager not to be blinkered in his approach. Just because a certain player had done a job for him before didn't automatically qualify them to do a job for him at Under 21 level.

"The thing is is that you can get tied up with fellas who you've worked with," Kennedy notes. "When we sat down as a management team, Tom [Prendergast] and Liam [Brosnan] and myself, we were very concious of the fact that we needed to look at every player at Under 21 level.

"There are guys obviously who have developed in different stages. Fellas that haven't made minors have improved and fellas who were minors have maybe gone back a bit. It was a help to know guys, to know their temperaments and things so it was an advantage."

Managing an Under 21 team is a very different challenge to managing minors. It's closest thing you can get to managing a senior panel, Kennedy feels. Having managed the Clare seniors to their most successful season in well over a decade in 2004, when they won the Tommy Murphy Cup, this latest campaign isn't totally new ground for the North Kerry man.

Not getting the nod until late November meant that Kennedy would have to wait two months to get his charges onto the pitch. "December is off season so we couldn't train. We did core work and a gym programme, which Gary McGrath put in place in conjunction with Pat Flanagan," Kennedy says.

"January then, because of the weather, we weren't actually out on a pitch until the middle of the month. The timespan is very short. The you have Trench Cups and Sigerson Cups and thankfully we had ITT and UCC both into the finals of those and we had eight or nine fellas involved there."

The performances of UCC and ITT were a boon to the Kingdom's chances. It did mean that the Under 21 panel had to do without some of their key players for weeks on end, but with Billy Morgan at UCC and former Kerry trainer John Sugrue over ITT they were in good hands.

" We worked well with John, liased well with him, and if fellas got knocks we informed him and vice versa. He's a great guy and guy with great experience and knowledge having coached Kerry. A great guy to work with. It's all about having a good sensibility and having a good working relationship with other teams when your players are involved," says Kennedy who is, nevertheless, pleased to have his players back full-time.

Over the last couple of weeks Kennedy has watched with a great deal of pride and optimism (as well as fear that they might get injured) as several of his players have had the chance to prove themselves with Jack O'Connor's seniors in the National League. The two Barry Johns have staked a claim, as have Tomás Mac An tSaoir and Paudge O'Connor.

"It's great exposure for them," Kennedy enthuses. "It's a great opportunity and a great shop window for our lads come on up there and try to get on that panel over the next two or three years. There's a great opportunity for them. It's the guys that want it and who are ready for it that will step up."

So now here stands Kenneday again at the beginning of another championship campaign. Its success or otherwise will to a large extent be determined next Saturday. Victory over Cork will mean Kerry stand an excellent chance of at least a provincial title, lose and it's all over.

"They're still a good side, they've got the nucleus of last year's panel still there," Kennedy says of the reigning All Ireland champs. "The advantage Cork have is that they're in the second year of a two year programme. When their campaign finished they were able to start working again in September, October, November and they had a pretty good idea of the nucleus of their panel again this year."

After the comprehensive defeat Kerry suffered at the hands of the Rebels at this stage of the competition last year and with most of that Kerry team still in place, Kennedy feels that his players have a point to prove. "Our lads who were involved last year, there's huge disappointment there. That's a tremendous incentive for thsoe guys to show that they're not as bad as that, we know they're not as bad as that. It's up to them now to prove it. That rubs off on players, they're all Kerry men, they're all proud in the green and gold," he says.

Having battled long and hard in the trenches in the service of the green and gold, perhaps, this will be the year that John Kennedy will catch a break.