Tag Archives: Barry O’Shea

GAA, Sport

Barry O’Shea: Kerry Could Be Working On Something New, But We Won’t See It On Sunday

 

Former Kerry star, Barry O’Shea, expects Kerry to win on Sunday, but don’t expect a drastic change in tactics from what we’ve seen in the past few months…

Barry O'Shea
Barry O’Shea

THE defeat to Dublin in the league final feels like a long time ago now.

There’s been a lot of soul-searching since. Some Kerry supporters will have written off the team and will have resigned to handing Sam over to them now.

I think Kerry realise what needs to be done. Every aspect of their game was tested in that league final – strength, power, aggression, skill, everything.

A number of U21s have come into the panel but I’m not sure how many are ready for senior championship football yet – I would think probably none of them.

They will have worked very hard since to get back up to a high level, but they will be timing for August and September, not the visit of Clare to Fitzgerald Stadium this Sunday.

Traditionally, Kerry have been slow starters as the summer football begins to move into action. There’s no substitute for game time, but this is just one of those games that they will be expected to win and move on.

If Kerry go out and play great, putting up a big score, people will say “shur it’s only Clare”. If it ends up being a tight battle people will be wondering what’s happening.

Clare beat Kildare in the division 3 final, they will be a division 2 team next year. They have some very good players, most notably dual star, Podge Collins and midfielder Gary Brennan.

Maybe in the past they may not have been prepared well, but I know under the present management of Colm Collins, they will be prepared and well focused.

Clare football is at a reasonably good level at the moment,  but the gap between playing division 1 and 2 is a big one.

Kerry are the same level above Clare in championship as they are in the league and I think we will see that on Sunday.

I think it’s all there for Kerry to go again this year. Same as last year, I don’t think they’ll be all that far away. They need to improve and no matter how good Dublin are, if Kerry don’t win an All-Ireland it’s seen as a failure.

It will be interesting to see what Eamonn Fitzmaurice and his management team can come up with. There is so many facets of the game where they have to bridge the gap, but it’s not a huge one.

Football in a lot of ways is a simple enough game, when you boil it down there is still an awful lot of man-to-man. Players still engage in individual battles. It’s very difficult to play this ultra-defensive game and also keep an emphasis on attack.

We need to find that type player who can go from defence to attack, covering the ground quickly, if we’re going to play that game.

In the league final, when we do go back into defensive positions we found it very hard link defence and attack.

It frustrated the full-forward and left us with the sight of Colm Cooper and Darren O’Sullivan drifting back into defence and away from where they can do damage.

Eamonn Fitzmaurice, doesn’t need me telling him what to do. He knows all these things, he knows where the side is weak and where it is strong. I’m sure they have been working on all aspects of their game.

He knows that something will have to change and I’m sure we will see something new this season, but it won’t be on Sunday.

GAA, Sport

Barry O’Shea Steps Down As Manager Of Kerins O’Rahilly’s

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Barry O'Shea
Barry O’Shea. File Photo

BARRY O’Shea’s time as manager of the Kerins O’Rahilly’s senior football team has come to end after two years in charge.

At the club’s AGM last Friday night, Chairman Frank O’Connor, thanked Barry and wished him all the best for the future. He said that a committee will work to find his successor in the coming weeks.

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In his time at the helm, O’Rahilly’s failed to make inroads in the county championship, although there is a keen sense an opportunity was missed this year when Strand Road went out narrowly in the quarter-finals to eventual finalists, Legion.

Because of that exit, O’Rahilly’s were faced with a relegation play-off against Laune Rangers which ended in victory for the blues.

Barry O’Shea had taken over from Morgan Nix at the beginning of 2014, after which the club were hit by numerous departures from the senior team inflicting a mortal wound on any championship ambitions that year.

O’Shea’s departure follows the news that Maurice Horan has stepped down as trainer and is to take up a role with the Mayo senior team backroom staff.

GAA, Sport

Barry O’Shea: “Kerry Were Lucky But We’ll Take It”

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Barry O'Shea
Barry O’Shea

Former Kerry player, Barry O’Shea, says the home side were lucky on a Sunday to remember in Killarney… 

KERRY were lucky, it was a bad call by the referee, but we’ll take it.

The penalty has been highlighted, but if you look back over the game, Padraig Hughes gave Cork some very soft frees.

Cork got about three or four 14 yard frees for innocuous enough incidents, you can pick out the penalty as a bad decision, but it wasn’t the only decision in the match that wasn’t the right call. I think when you look at the game in its entirety he wasn’t that kind to us.

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It was a hard day at the office for Peter Crowley. Photo by Dermot Crean.
It was a hard day at the office for Peter Crowley. Photo by Dermot Crean.

The big turning point in the match was David Moran’s black card. After that Kerry totally lost the run at midfield. For about 20 minutes we couldn’t win a ball.

Cork started well, then Kerry came into it halfway through the first half, they went ahead and looked very good. In the second half they just took the foot off the pedal and Cork upped their game and started running hard.

Peter Crowley looked wrecked when he was taken off with ten minutes to go after Micheal Shields ran passed him for Cork’s third goal.

Kerry could not win a ball in midfield and I don’t think our kick outs helped us either. We spent last week talking about how strong the bench were and we got nothing really from them when it came down to it. It just shows how things can change.

Cork will be happy with their performance but they won’t be happy with the result because they deserved to win.

One thing Kerry have been good at is their tackling, but for the three goals on Sunday, Cork just ran straight through us. It was just a bad day at the office in that regard.

But look, there are positives as well. A lot of those players needed a game to bring them on. James O’Donoghue got a full match under his belt. David Moran, who has been out with a shoulder needed a game as well, so in that regard there are positives. Also any time you get a chance to redeem yourself it’s good.

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Marc O'Se coped well despite wave after wave of Cork attacks. Photo by Dermot Crean.
Marc O’Se coped well despite wave after wave of Cork attacks. Photo by Dermot Crean.

 

With limited possession, I thought Barry John Keane did very well, he was taken off in the second half, but the ball wasn’t getting into the forward line. I think management just wanted to try something different. I don’t think Barry John, did a whole pile wrong, he scored 0-3, two from play, he definitely made a positive contribution.

For the next day, I think there will  be one or two changes. I would definitely think Geaney could start – instead of who is the question, but it could be Donaghy.

Fitzmaurice has shown in the past there is no one immune to losing their starting place in the team, so anything is possible. They’ll take a few days to take stock of the situation, but there will be definitely fellas fighting to keep their place on the team.

Cork looked very fit. Ex-Kerry trainer, Pat Flanagan is after making a difference in their fitness. Although I still Kerry will be favourites again – having not played well they still didn’t lose the game – they will have a lot to learn and a lot to improve on.

History has shown that if Kerry get a second chance they are a different animal.

Cork will be kicking themselves because they had the game won. If Colm O’Neill had even kicked that 45 wide they’d have probably won the game because the way midfield was going they’d have won the kickout.

It was fantastic score by Fionn Fitzgerald. In the lead up people were talking about the weakness of the full back line. I thought they did well considering the pressure they were under. The whole second half Cork dominated possession and came at Kerry in droves.

All told, it was day to remember in Killarney – massive crowd, brilliant atmosphere and hopefully we can get the same in two weeks time with a better result on the field.

GAA, Sport

Barry O’Shea: Kerry Selectors Have A Strong Panel They Can Trust

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Barry O'Shea
Barry O’Shea.

Our football columnist, Barry O’Shea, says Kerry has built an impressive squad of players over the last year,  which is something that will be vital later in the year…

MAYBE some people expected a bit too much from Tipperary.

They’re building a young side and Kerry are All-Ireland champions who have been around the block.

The game went along the lines I thought it would; Tipperary put up a battle for the first half, but once Kerry came back from the early deficit and went ahead, the game was never really in danger.

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Jonathan Lyne, takes a challenge, from Tipperary's, Robbie Kiely. Photo by Gavin O'Connor.
Jonathan Lyne takes a challenge from Tipperary’s Robbie Kiely. Photo by Dermot Crean.

Kerry showed their experience, keeping Tipp at the end of the jab while in the second half they just saw the game out until the finish, without being too spectacular.

Seven of last year’s team that started the All-Ireland final were missing, so that gave a lot of guys who , while maybe not new to the team, but were looking to nail down a place.

I thought Jonathan Lyne was impressive at right half back, also, Bryan Sheehan in midfield – who was put on the edge of the panel last year because of injury – showed he was still up for it.

The performance of these players has created a bit of a selection headache for Eamonn Fitzmaurice; David Moran and Paul Murphy, two men who won All-Stars last year, will be chomping at the bit to get back into the side.

The selectors always say they pick the team on form so the next three weeks of training will dictate what form they’re in. It’s true that in a few positions, who starts the Munster Final will come down to who’s producing the goods in training.

With the full forward line, looking at the way they’ve finished on Sunday – James O’Donoghue, Kieran Donaghy and Paul Geaney – I think management showed their hand a little and gave us an indication of who they will start in the Munster Final.

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Barry John Keane, get's on the ball against Tipperary. Photo by Dermot Crean.
Barry John Keane gets on the ball against Tipperary. Photo by Dermot Crean.

If Barry John doesn’t start he definitely put himself in line to come on. He played very well and was efficient with the chances he got. But look, it’s not all about starting any more.

In my time, if you didn’t start it was an awful downer and a huge hit to a fella.

Nowadays, teams can bring on six subs who now have a huge impact on games, no more so than Barry John, who performed very well off the bench last year for Kerry.

Just because a guy doesn’t start, doesn’t mean he won’t have a huge bearing on how a game is decided.

A lot of things can change in a year, people were saying this time 12 months ago the panel wasn’t strong enough.

The progression through last season showed that selectors have a lot of players they can now trust.

You look at the amount of players used in the replayed Mayo game last year, management almost used every player on the panal that day and they all made a contribution to the result.

That’s a great sign of a squad – that you’re able to go all the way down to number 26 and still have confidence to bring a guy in and do a job for you.

We’ll need that as the year goes on. If the squad is evolving and players are fighting for places that’s a good thing. The management have obviously made it known that if a player is performing they’ll get their chance, which gives every player a chance to develop.

Sport

Barry O’Shea: Kerry’s Quality Could Make The Difference

barry_oshea_1Barry O’Shea says there are many ifs, buts and maybes about Saturday’s Kerry V Mayo clash, but the Kingdom’s quality up front could prevail…

ONE of the major talking points coming out of Croke Park last Sunday was what happened to our extra man?

I have a feeling the players didn’t do what they were told at half-time. There was no way Eamonn Fitzmaurice sent them out on the pitch the second half and do what they did. He’s far too shrewd for that.

At half-time Kerry were leading and had Mayo on the back foot. I very much doubt it was the plan to funnel players back and let Mayo dictate play.

Kerry had to put pressure on Mayo because we had the extra body. The extra man was taken out of the game because we allowed Mayo to run at us. If you have three or four guys chasing you down it makes it very difficult to move the ball to the free man.

Mayo had nothing to lose as well – they were a man down and also down on the scoreboard. They have good players so they just threw caution to wind and it suited them.

I said it at half-time that after the sending off, referee David Coldrick would attempt to even it up. Their were numerous occasions in the second half where Kerry players were fouled inside scoring range and didn’t get a free. Donnchadh Walsh in particular could have had at least three frees.

When momentum is going against you a free can settle the side, all these things make a big difference.

Mayo outnumbered us in the stands so Croke Park was really rocking when they had their big spell, but Kerry shown guts to hang in there and wait. You need a  bit of luck I suppose, but they got the scores to avoid defeat which looked a real possibility with only a few minutes remaining.

The difference Donaghy made was obviously crucial. We have been waiting for a ball like that into Donaghy for O’Donoghue’s goal for the last few years. David Moran hit caught the ball perfectly, it wasn’t just a punt into the clouds where the backs had time to deal with it.

The ball was floated in at a right trajectory for him and as soon as Donaghy caught the ball it was as good as a goal.

There is a lot to be learned from the drawn game, but the replay will probably be a completely different game. I don’t think Mayo will come out the same way they did on Sunday, I’d expect them to adopt a more running game.

We had sweepers back last week that hoovered up kick passes. If Mayo run, they may take that out of the game. On the other side of that, is it possible to keep that level of intensity up for 70 minutes?

One of the questions on everyone’s lips all week is whether Fitzmaurce will start Donaghy? If he plays midfield, although he would be well able for it, I’m not sure if he would last the game and if we put him in full-forward we could fall into the trap of pumping high balls into all day. A team cops onto that after a few balls in.

The choice of venue has been another talking point. From a supporters point of you Limerick is closer, but parking will be a nightmare and there is already a few lads complaining that there is only two pubs close to the ground!

For the players, it is a smaller pitch which will suit Mayo who are a bit more physical than us at the moment.

Last week I gave a tentative nod to Kerry, my feeling now is the same, but there are so many, ifs, buts and maybes about this game. It will come down to Kerry’s unforced errors and those small little things in the game. If Kerry can tidy up those mistake we will still score, but not heap pressure on ourselves.

In the first half last week, Kerry scored nine points with eight different scorers. They could score even when Mayo were playing ultra defensive. The longer we have the ball in our hands the better it will be.

Kerry have the quality that can make the difference.

GAA, Sport

Barry O’Shea: ‘Kerry Against Cork Is Like Brazil Against Argentina’

Former Kerry star Barry O’Shea writes for TraleeToday.ie on Sunday’s big match between Cork and Kerry

barry_oshea_1THE Kerry v Cork rivalry is the Brazil v Argentina of the GAA.

There’s something special about it, the effects of which linger off the pitch as well.

I remember if you met any other inter-county player from around the country you’d always go over and have an easy conversation because you held something in common with them.

But there was always a coolness when dealing with the Cork lads. There was always a bit of bite in the air.

It does mean a lot to Kerry players to beat Cork, but the rivalry isn’t the be all and end all anymore. Since the back door came in we’ve lost to Cork and won All Irelands.

Still, the guy you always want to beat is the guy next door and Sunday will be no exception. The players won’t spare each other one bit.

This will be the last Munster final played Pairc Uí Chaoimh and while most of my memories of the place involve rain and bad days, we’ve had a few good ones down there as well.

1996 sticks out in my mind as a good day. We made the breakthrough in Munster under Paidi and it had been ten years since we beat Cork in a final down there. We followed it up with a win in the league final in ’97 which was also, predictably, a very wet day.

The way the weather is shaping  up for Sunday, the old stadium will probably get an appropriate send off – added to a Kerry win of course!

Cork dispatched of Kerry very easily in the league this year, but I wouldn’t read much into that game. For a start it was three months ago.

I remember thinking while watching the game that Kerry didn’t look fresh, they looked like a side that had trained a lot and were not on their toes. I think we’ll see a different team on Sunday.

There’s a lot of negativity around the county about this Kerry side, but I still see a lot of excellent players in the squad. It honestly wouldn’t surprise me if they won.

Cork have a big reputation coming into this and are the favourites, but I don’t know what it’s built on.

Ok, they got to a league final, but they’re not world beaters.

Recently, from a few quarters there have been calls for Kerry to adopt a more defensive game plan, but I don’t think it’s in our DNA to play that way.

For a start we don’t have the personnel to adapt that system effectively.

Also, you’d feel if Kerry went out and beat Cork by six to seven points, it would nearly be treated as a loss. I don’t think Kerry people would stand for it. It just isn’t in our make up to go out and be cynical.

Take the 2011 All Ireland final against Dublin for instance, we tried to kill the game off by adopting a defensive system and it ended up costing us. The Kerry way of football is to have a go and beat your man.

One thing that has raised eyebrows with the Kerry team this week is the amount of switches in the team, particularly in the back line.

Peter Crowley has been relegated to the bench, Paul Murphy has taken his place in right wing back and Aidan O’Mahony has come in at full back.

The management have seen more of these players than we have so it’s very hard to know whether it will work or not. We just have to trust Eamon Fitzmaurice and his men on that.

I have to say though, having watched Killian Young this year, he looks fresh, strong and back to his best.

The one worry I would have is in the forwards with Donnchadh Walsh, James O’Donogue and Declan O’Sullivan all having problems with injuries lately.  The Cork full back line is physically strong and a wet day will suit them.

The key battle will be in midfield where we are a bit more experienced. Aidan Walsh is an excellent player, but it remains to be seen if Fintan Goold is really a dominant performer in the middle of the park at this level.

It’s a very hard game to call because I’ve friends in Cork and they’re saying they are not firing on all cylinders. The same noises are coming from the Kerry camp.

The weather will have a big bearing on it and it will be a close game like it always is.

We’ve had a lot of replays in recent years so I wouldn’t be one bit surprised to see the sides bring the game back to Killarney.

 

GAA, Sport

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.

Blasket ad 4“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.”