Mickey Ned O’Sullivan: Hype hurt Kingdom’s young guns
Mickey Ned O’Sullivan has hit out at the “crap” and the “propaganda” in Kerry that followed the senior footballers’ 17-point Munster final win over Cork.
The former All-Ireland winner and All-Star believes the expectation placed on the team’s young players since last month’s victory in Páirc Uí Chaoimh has done them no favours and may have manifested itself in Sunday’s opening Super 8 defeat to Galway.
And he feels the vagaries of youth and the lack of a battle coming into the game ended up punishing Kerry.
You have seven new young lads in there and they were exposed to Clare and Cork over the last three months and they had no baptism of fire and it’s a natural progression, it’s a learning process. I expect them to bounce back the next day but whether they have bounced back altogether remains to be seen, because it takes a couple of years for a young lad to adapt to senior inter-county battles.
“If they don’t make it (to the All-Ireland semi-finals) this year, I wouldn’t regard it as a failure but an experience. You’re throwing guys into the deep end. It doesn’t matter how talented they are, they need the experience and the vast majority take a couple of years to get up to standards physically and mentally.
“At 19 and 20, they’re physically not mature yet but they’re going in the right direction. The problem is they’ve been without a serious game for 12 weeks or more and they’re listening to all the crap like ‘oh, you’re brilliant’, ‘you’re a great shot for the All-Ireland’ and suddenly young lads begin to believe this propaganda and Éamonn Fitzmaurice can’t do anything about it because they’re exposed to people telling them how good they are. They have got to go out now and perform in the heat of battle but they might not be ready for it.”
O’Sullivan doesn’t want to see wholesale changes against Monaghan. He believes it would send out the wrong message. “You’re basically then telling young lads they aren’t good enough. It’s about showing confidence in them. Make drastic changes and you’re saying you don’t believe in them. Killian Young will be out and I don’t know if (Tadhg) Morley will be fit. Jason Foley too is a doubt so he’ll have to make changes. You’re going into the lions’ den above in Clones and you will be physically tested so you have to have a bit of strength. But does that mean you change your whole approach? If you throw (Kieran) Donaghy in, they will be ready for it and double team him. It would be manna from heaven for Monaghan.”
O’Sullivan’s fellow Kenmare man Seán O’Shea is one of the young bloods and O’Sullivan praised the centre-forward.
I worked with him when we coached the local secondary school and he has a wonderful attitude. He’s a grafter and his feet are on the ground. If he doesn’t do it this year, it’ll come next season.
O’Sullivan also backed the manager as he continues to oversee a transformation of the group Jack O’Connor left behind in 2012. “Éamonn is doing a fine job. He won an All-Ireland when Kerry were in transition and they’re still in transition but they’re going in the right direction.”
