O'Connor: Mike Mac return unlikely
MATCH REACTION
Credit: PICTURE: BRENDAN MORAN / SPORTSFILE
Kerry's Anthony Maher gets the better of Derry's Brian Mullan in a battle for possession during last Sunday's National Football League Division One clash at Austin Stack Park, Tralee
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KERRY boss Jack O'Connor has confirmed that Mike McCarthy is "unlikely" to return to the Kerry panel for this year's league or championship. O'Connor did leave the door ajar, however, to the possibility of a return by the Kilcummin man later in the season. "You never say never with Mike," he said. "He wasn't coming back last year either, but we managed to convince him in the end. It's unlikey at this stage, because Mike has other commitments outside of football and they're important as well."
Kerry's injury situation has is beginning to clear up with Aidan O'Shea, selected to play Derry last weekend but withdrawn before kick-off, on the cusp of a return to action. "Aidan [O'Shea] was due to start, but he had a set back there, with an injury to his groin, a bit of soreness. We just felt that if we played him today it would have put him back a couple of weeks," he said.
"Outside of that we're not too bad. Donnachadh [ Walsh] has a bit of a hamstring injury and he might be back for next week. After that you're only looking at Paul [Galvin] and Tómás [Ó Sé] to come back and we'll have a full deck then," O'Connor confirmed.
Sunday's victory saw the Kingdom pick up their first points of the year – a source of major relief to the Kerry supremo. "It just kind of validates what we're trying to do in training.
"The lads are working very hard and they have done for the last number of weeks. It gives us a boost, it gives us morale and sets us up for a tough game above in Galway. It was important to go up there with a couple of points and not staring at relegation and while I'll say relegation is still a live possibility at least now we're off the mark," he said.
While happy with the victory the performance wasn't totally to the Dromid man's liking. "We were turing over a lot of ball and making unforced errors and that, but I think confidence was an issue early on, because once we got the couple of scores in the second half the confidence soared. I think the main thing we were looking for was a bit of attitude and a bit of heart. The crowd really started to get behind us in the second half as we began to fight back and that was a big boost for us," he noted.
The performances of young guns David O'Callaghan – "He's very lively and I think he gave a fantastic account of himself" – and Brendan Kealy impressed the Kerry boss. "I didn't realise that Kealy had gotten a hand to it [Fergal Doherty's shot at goal], but fair play to him if he did, because it was a magnificent save because it was virtually point blank and if we were six points down instead of three. I think we'd have a mountain to climb.
"One of the things that stood to us last year was that our panel was strong, we used everybody in the league, we used five subs in every league game and I think we did the same in the championship and we're adamant we'll do the same [this year]. Kieran O'Leary there came in and he's been going well in training and he contributed well," he noted.
- Damian Stack
