{"id":9978,"date":"2022-03-27T10:32:34","date_gmt":"2022-03-27T10:32:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/?p=9978"},"modified":"2022-03-27T10:32:34","modified_gmt":"2022-03-27T10:32:34","slug":"kerrys-class-attacking-acts-league-ambitions-under-jack-and-injury-battles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/?p=9978","title":{"rendered":"Kerry’s class attacking acts, league ambitions under Jack and injury battles"},"content":{"rendered":"

THREE GAMES IN to the third coming of Jack O\u2019Connor and it\u2019s smooth sailing so far in the return to the Kerry hotseat.<\/p>\n

Top of Division 1 of the league. Still unbeaten. The potentially awkward assignment in Newbridge, given his personal history with Kildare, negotiated with a draw claimed.<\/p>\n

Dublin defeated at home on a wild night in Tralee. Donegal dealt with comfortably yesterday on an afternoon of weather turbulence in Killarney.<\/p>\n

In O\u2019Connor\u2019s previous two spells as manager, he began with a National League title in the opening season (2004 and 2009).<\/p>\n

What are Kerry\u2019s current motives surrounding the competition?<\/p>\n

\u201cLook we\u2019ll assess it this week, it\u2019s not a huge priority to win the league or anything like that,\u201d said O\u2019Connor.<\/p>\n

Click Here: <\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cBut if we can experiment a bit and win a few matches that\u2019s basically it. Very tough (conditions) but our fellas showed a good attitude and adapted well to it. The goal was important because it just gave us the breathing space to be able to play with a bit of freedom and confidence then.\u201d<\/p>\n

The manner in which Kerry closed out this game pleased O\u2019Connor. A fortnight ago they only posted a single point when facing the second-half wind against Dublin. They didn\u2019t retreat into their shell in a similar fashion yesterday, closing the match down, and indeed outscored Donegal 1-4 to 0-5 in that time frame.<\/p>\n

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\n Jack O’Connor and Patrick McBrearty.<\/p>\n

Source: James Crombie\/INPHO<\/p>\n

\u201cWe probably got too defensive against Dublin and didn\u2019t push on. We knew at half-time we\u2019d have to score because seven points (as a lead) was never going to be enough and it was very pleasing that we scored the 1-4 into that gale.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Connor praised the \u2018fantastic attitude\u2019 of Adrian Spillane and the emergence of defensive newcomer Dan O\u2019Donoghue.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s plenty of football in Dan. He can play it both ways, he can mark a man and he can play ball, so it\u2019s great for im and we\u2019re delighted.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n Ryan McHugh and Dan O’Donoghue.<\/p>\n

Source: James Crombie\/INPHO<\/p>\n

But on a day consisting of some humdrum fare, it was the contributions of Sean O\u2019Shea and David Clifford that were most valuable. Clifford\u2019s presence on the pitch after his second-half arrival boosted Kerry. He finished with 1-1, albeit his goal stemmed from Shaun Patton fumbling a shot that looked straightforward to take care of.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Shea eclipsed him with 0-7, dazzled throughout and back in his customary berth of centre-forward, seems at home in directing attacking operations.<\/p>\n

Last August the pair scored 0-16 out of Kerry\u2019s 0-22 tally against Tyrone, they remain absolutely critical to the county\u2019s hopes.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously David gave us a great lift when he came in. He\u2019s fine, he\u2019s played a lot of games in the last three or four weeks and it was great to be able to bring him on there.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeanie had a great second half. Great leader and he kicked some savage scores today, including a sideline in the first half, when scores were hard to get. So he\u2019s playing great football and probably back in his best position, which is good for him.\u201d<\/p>\n

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49 n\u00f3im #KERvDON
@Kerry_Official 1\u201309@officialdonegal 0-03<\/p>\n

C\u00fal faighte ag David Clifford!! \ud83d\udc40<\/p>\n

Kerry have taken a huge lead after a rare mistake from Shaun Patton!
@GAA_BEO @officialgaa
#GAABeo | #AllianzIreland | #AllianzLeagues<\/p>\n

BEO\/LIVE AR @TG4TV pic.twitter.com\/CV4ItLb2hH<\/p>\n

— Sp\u00f3rt TG4 (@SportTG4) February 20, 2022<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

On the injury front, Gavin White (hamstring) and Mike Breen (leg tendon) continue their recovery, while David Moran, Stefan Okunbor and Joseph O\u2019Connor are others that are a few weeks away from a comeback.<\/p>\n

It has been a fractured start to the year in terms of preparation with the club campaigns of Austin Stacks and Na Gaeil, along with the Sigerson Cup involvement of UL and MTU Kerry, particularly pertinent for Kerry.<\/p>\n

All the football focus is on Kingdom matters now for their players. Monaghan, Armagh and Tyrone await before the end of March, then they will face Cork in Munster on 7 May.<\/p>\n

\u201cTraining has been a bit disjointed, there\u2019s times when we have been missing seven or eight players and then you have a few injuries on top of that, so our panel has been pretty stretched, but hopefully it will settle down.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe may use more of the panel in the next couple of games to try and get as many fellas as possible up to speed. We\u2019ve a tough game next week above in Monaghan and it\u2019s a place where you will find out a lot about people and players.<\/p>\n

\u201cCan they handle that kind of atmosphere? Monaghan are going to be fighting for their lives for points, they were very good (Saturday) night against Armagh.\u201d<\/p>\n

Buy The42\u2019s new book, Behind The Lines, here:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

THREE GAMES IN to the third coming of Jack O\u2019Connor and it\u2019s smooth sailing so far in the return to the Kerry hotseat. Top of Division 1 of the league. Still unbeaten. The potentially awkward assignment in Newbridge, given his personal history with Kildare, negotiated with a draw claimed. Dublin defeated at home on a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9978"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9978\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}