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Darran O'Sullivan has dismissed any suggestion that Eamonn Fitzmaurice is too close to the players he inherited from Jack O'Connor in Kerry to oversee the important business of transition over the next few years.
O'Sullivan believes Fitzmaurice, whose club playing career has been extended by another few weeks after Finuge's All-Ireland intermediate football semi-final win over Monasterevin, is too smart to let friendships get in the way of his management of Kerry.
"I came out straight away (to support him). I wasn't going to be beating around the bush. People were saying he knows fellas too well, but I think it's a bonus that he knows them as well as he does," said O'Sullivan.
"Fellas aren't going to be plámásing Eamonn because he knows the plámásers. It's good that he knows us. He knows our characters. He knows football.
"The fact he's still playing is very important. It has been an easy transition."
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O'Sullivan, who is close to overcoming the injuries that badly disrupted his 2012 season after establishing that it was an issue with his back more than tight hamstrings, is doing most of his training in Dublin at the moment as he is studying marketing in DIT.
"It's not realistic to be driving down, especially with the injuries that I had. I think I'm around long enough to know what I have to do to keep myself in shape."
O'Sullivan is part of a minority of those who believe Gaelic football is actually slowing down instead of speeding up and would like to see any measures supported that would quicken the pace.
"I know I came out last year and I said I don't like the way the game is going, but I watched a lot of games last year, I watch a lot of football, county and club games," he said.
"I have gone to a couple of Dublin championship games as well, it's not just in Kerry. And the game did seem to have changed, it got quite slow. It was a very quick game, so if the rules can help quicken it up, then it would be good for the game as a whole."
