O'sullivan hopeful for season
WHILE he may have much on his hands this year in terms of combining managing the Kerry Senior Ladies team with that of the Legion Senior team, William O'sullivan remains as committed as ever to a job he has made steady progress in during his two years in charge.
The Killarney native's third year in charge sees him having to make do without one of the main stays of the team in recent years in the form of Margaret O'donoghue who has retired, while Caroline Kelly has also emigrated to Australia, however, O'sullivan says the team is ready to meet the challenge of the coming year despite the two departures.
"We can't be lamenting these things forever; it does give other players on the panel an opportunity to stake their claim. Margaret's departure was bound to happen sooner or later, she gave great service for years but unfortunately the day was going to come eventually." the Kerry Ladies boss said about O'donoghue's departure.
A change in format to the structure of the Ladies League sees only the Division Two winners promoted this year and O'sullivan admits the team is looking at the League in a different light this year.
"We obviously want to get promoted and getting out of the blocks early will be one of our main targets in the first half of the year. Mayo and Galway having dropped down from Division One will present the biggest challenge while Cavan come up from Division Three having won the Intermediate All-ireland as well last year," O'sullivan ( pictured) told The Kerryman.
Home games against both the Breffni county and Fermanagh mean the Ladies won't have quite the logistical nightmare in travelling to games up North but there will be long trips to the West as Kerry play both Galway and Mayo away in this campaign. The desire to go a step further and claim silverware should be one of the big motivations for the Ladies in 2012 and O'sullivan believes it won't take too much to motivate the current crop.
"If hunger can't spur a team on then nothing will. We've put the Championship to the back of our minds at the moment. We don't intend to chop and change as much as last year, we hope to have a settled team come Championship time. The players who have been there over the last few years will be more mature this year and hopefully stand to them. We're still not up to the strength in depth the likes of Cork and Dublin have but with some of last year's Junior panel coming on board we're certainly getting there," the Kerry boss said.
Overall O'sullivan feels the structure of the game in the county is heading in the right direction.
"Both the County Leagues and the County Championship are giving us the opportunity to go out there and have a look at new players. The Ladies Board are working hard behind the scenes to improve things all the time and that can be only of benefit to the county team."
- Jason O'connor
