THIS is as golden an opportunity that up and coming Kerry footballers will get for some time.

For one thing the Gooch is otherwise disposed, for the beginning of the league at any rate. With Colm Cooper on All Ireland club duty getting a run in the Kerry forward line is a hell of a lot easier to get than one might otherwise expect.

Kieran O'leary won't be around either to take up one of those corner-forwards berths. Neither will Daithí Casey who is in the type of form right now that would make him close to an automatic starter for the beginning of the league at any rate.

The injury to Anthony Maher has re-opened midfield, but only to Seamus Scanlon. David Moran is still recovering from that horiffic cruciate injury and the other contender for a midfield berth is ... well guess? He's otherwise indisposed as well with the Crokes. Were he not then Jack O'connor would surely be calling upon him for the National League.

At the back with Tommy Griffin retired, with Tom O'sullivan yet to return and with Eoin Brosnan – you guessed it– on club duty with Dr Crokes places are up for grabs. For now at least. So who's in the running to grab these places? Who's got what it takes to make a name of themselves and give Jack O'connor the type of heachaces he likes once the Dr Crokes crew return to the fold?

Shane Enright

The Tarbert man will probably feel a little disappointed to find himself on a list of possibles at this stage. He did enough during the championship last summer, and the Munster Final especially, to suggest that his time had some. Injury, however, intervened and put him back to where he was this time last year – still with something to prove.

The big advantage Enright has this year over last is all that experience. If he stays injury free then he can build on his impressive 2011 and nail down a starting place in 2012. He's good enough to do so certainly. It's just up to him to prove it all over again.

Jonathan Lyne

Lyne is a really classy player. He's played at corner-back in a couple of challenge games this January for the Kingdom and at wing-back as well and that's where he's likely to make his mark. He's got great reading of the game and a great ability to snap up loose ball.

Those are attributes you'd like to see in a footballer in any position and at corner-back too, but at wing-back they'd be particularly invaluable. Stamping out the danger before it's too late.

Peter Crowley

The Laune Rangers man has had plenty of top quality football this past twelve months with UCC. He faced a really tough exam in the Munster Senior Club Final against Colm Cooper and while he mightn't have been 100% happy with his performance that day, how many footballers who've marked the Gooch can say they have been?

Cornerback is his best posit i o n and with Ki l l i a n Young likely to move back to the wing-back line this season and with Tom O'sullivan's odds of returning only viewed at fifty fifty as this stage he could well seal one of those corner-back berths (with Enright sealing the other).

Brian Moran

Slightly older than the other pretenders in this list, Moran is back staking a claim for himself following a difficult couple of seasons for the Kerins O'rahillys man, as injury curtailed his football.

Before h is run of injuries he was beginning to make a name for himself at this level. The question now must be, can he repeat the trick?

A couple of years older now it might be a difficult one to pull off. Jack O'connor seems to rate him and will surely give him a chance or two during the league to prove his worth.

James O'donoghue

We know all about O'donoghue after a brilliant couple of cameos in 2011, espeically in the Munster Final. The question now for the young Legion man is whether he can push on and establish himself in the first fifteen and move past the super sub label.

Darran O'sullivan has done so in the past so why can't O'donoghue? He can, but maybe not in 2012. Kerry's retirements seem to be coming at the back, their forwards remain relatively youthful. Still with Cooper, O'leary and Casey out of the reckoning for the time being it's up to James to make it impossible for Jack O'connor to drop

him.

Patrick Curtin

What chance another Feale Rangers man joining Paul Galvin in the Kerry forward line? Moyvane man Curtin is far more low profile than former Sydney Swan, Tadhg Kennelly who last joined him, however. Curtin's inclusion in the panel might as a surprise to some, but he's highly thought of in North Kerry. The former Kerry minor is well capable of scoring and should get a chance might surpirse a few people.

- Damian Stack