End Summer County Championship Football Says O’Shea

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Barry O’Shea watching his side in action against Feale Rangers last month.

SUMMER’S here, the ground is hard, conditions are perfect for football you may think? But for Kerins O’Rahilly’s their season is all but over.

Recently, the club has been rocked by the departure of 11 players from the senior panel going to America to work and play football for the summer.

From the beginning of the year ‘The Blues’ have lost 13 players in total to emigration which has led manager and former All-Ireland winner Barry O’Shea to call for an end to summer championship football.

Traleetoday.ie caught up with the former Kerry player to talk about the effect the departures have had on the club and the wider implications to Kerry football as a whole.

“It’s next to impossible to train a club team now. We don’t have a team to train at the moment, there’s no team that could sustain the hit of  13 players gone from the start of the year,” O’Shea said.

“One guy says he’s going to America, then the next thing you know a load of them are going and it’s hard to blame them,” O’Shea said.

From where Barry O’Shea is standing, the future doesn’t look very promising for club football in the county.

“I think it’s going to be a growing trend because what’s here for them? There’s no work for them, unless we see a dramatic change in the economy,” he said.

This year there has been a lot of discussion and calls in the county to change the structure of the senior football championship.

“The only way I can see anything being done about the standard, is by calling off football for the summer.  There is plenty of time at the end of the year to play the championship when most of the players will be back,” he said.

“I don’t believe in this myth that restructuring the county championship team is going to improve the county team,” he added

“Good players make a good championship. You can have all the rejigging around you want, it’s still the same pool of players,” O’Shea said.

As it stands now, Kerins O’Rahilly’s are staring at relegation from senior football after losing both of their games in the county championship.

The week after their county championship exit to Feale Rangers, the bulk of the players then left to begin their summer in America while at home, a severely depleted O’Rahilly’s side faced Dr Crokes in the league.

“We asked for that game to be called off, but the county board wouldn’t do it.  We played that game with a team which wasn’t even a B-team it was a C-team. We got hammered and what good does that do anyone?” O’Shea said.

“You hear a lot of stuff in the papers about what the GAA can do about players leaving, but what can they do? Tell guys to stay around and play football for what? It’s a reality check, these players need to earn a few quid too,” he said.

He also spoke of the current state of Kerry football and building for the future.

“I don’t think it is as low as what everyone is making it out to be. We’re just coming from a situation where people are spoiled. At the moment Dublin are the top side, but if you take Dublin out we’re probably on a par with everyone else or near enough to it. I think it’s the curse of the Premiership – people think managers can do everything, but a GAA manager can’t buy players,” he said.

“The Kerry U21’s will have the best management team they could have with Darragh O’Se and Seamus Moynihan, but the players have to be good enough to get the results and if the players aren’t good enough you can’t expect them to work miracles,” he said.

“The standard has dropped in Kerry. The county league is a poor standard of football – even in division one. You don’t have to be a great player anymore to hold your own,” O’Shea said.

“The players we need to improve are the average ones and that will boast the standard overall.”