Keeping the faith is key to Kerry glory
Kerry star Colm Cooper with, from left, Zoe O'Carroll, Kerry-Anne D'Arcy, Darragh O'Brien, and Tomas O'Carroll along with the Sam Maguire Cup on a visit to Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin yesterday.
TRIUMPHANT Kerry manager Pat O'Shea admitted yesterday he faced a serious selection dilemma after their one-point All-Ireland quarter-final escape against Monaghan but resisted huge pressure to reshuffle his defence.
"Our biggest decision this year came then, when we hadn't done so well defensively and there were questions asked," O'Shea admitted.
"A lot of people wouldn't have been surprised if we'd made wholescale changes but we didn't, we gave a vote of confidence to somebody like Padraig Reidy," he said.
"At that particular time, if he had been dropped, it could not alone have finished his year but it could have had major implications on his career but Padraig came on, he played very well against Mark Vaughan and was superb again on Sunday," he added.
Reidy and Killian Young, both just 20, were members of the squad under Jack O'Connor.
But O'Shea took the gamble of entrusting them to fill the huge defensive vacancies left by the retirements of the legendary Seamus Moynihan and Michael McCarthy. Both youngsters rewarded him in spades, with Young already being tipped for an Allstar. And O'Shea said yesterday he never had any doubt about throwing them into the deep end of elite senior county football.
"One of the biggest problems you have, with young players in particular, is not whether they have the ability but whether they have the strength of character to perform on big days," he said.
"I would have been involved with them when they were minor and they showed a lot of character coming up in their careers. They always showed that they had the capability to play there." O'Shea also described centre-fielder Seamus Scanlon as one of the team's "unsung heroes."
The big Currow man could not nail down a starting place in the previous regime and only clinched a starting spot in midfield for their last three championship but had a fantastic All-Ireland final.
O'Shea admitted that it was their narrow escapes over Cork (Munster final) and Monaghan that ultimately helped him identify his best starting 15.
"No question or doubt about it," O'Shea said. "We tried to talk it up before the Monaghan game that we had done hard training sessions, that it was tough and hard, but you can't replicate serious, tough championship matches when you go down the stretch and you learn about your team."
Darragh O'Se's future -- he and goalkeeper Diarmuid Murphy are the team's elders at 32 -- is not yet clear. The five-time All-Ireland winner said he wants some time to decide if he will continue.
But wing-back Killian Young was in no doubt as to what his teammates are hoping.
"I couldn't see Darragh retiring. Why leave a three in-a-row behind you, especially as so many of the team are eager to get it? I'd be shocked if he retired and I hope he doesn't." Young said.
