Football Analyst, Liam Hayes - Jack not up to job this time round

Instead of facing up to the discipline problem in his side, he sulked, complained, defended the indefensible and ended up paying the price for it

Kingdom of Hell: the people of Kerry deserved better than the leadership offered by Jack O'Connor

Tomás Ó Sé let his county down through his lack of discipline

Jack O'Connor's sulky ways and, generally dour, ungrateful demeanour will not be missed by Gaelic football supporters who live outside The Kingdom. Not seeing him around the place, for the remaining weeks of this Championship, was one of the great pluses which resulted from last weekend's wonderful and refreshing All Ireland quarter-finals. Whether the Kerry team boss is back in 2011 also remains up in the air. Jack O'Connor says he's got to think about it!

But if I was a Kerry man or a Kerry woman with any say whatsoever in who will be manager of the Kerry senior football team next season, I wouldn't be letting Jack O'Connor think for too long.

Jack wasn't up to the job at the second time of asking. And it doesn't give me any great pleasure in reaching this judgment because I was one of the first people to shout for his return and I forecast that we had so much to look forward to in watching Jack go head-to-head with Mickey Harte in possibly one of the great managerial showdowns in the modern history of the game.

O'Connor vs Harte, I predicted, would be right up there with Micko vs Heffo, and Boylan vs Morgan.

Everyone with a true love for Gaelic football wanted that to happen. It hasn't. Last weekend ruled it out for sure. But, in truth, Jack was in big trouble long before he got to Croke Park last Saturday week. Starting out the defence of an All Ireland title without four senior players meant that the man had to get almost everything exactly right this spring and summer. Instead, Jack O'Connor got so much so badly wrong and worse than that he has hugely contributed to a substantial amount of damage being done to the good name of Kerry football.

In Gaelic football terms, more than any other aspect of Irish culture and life, Kerry is without a shadow of a doubt The Kingdom and Jack O'Connor wasn't strong enough or sufficiently smart enough to be the leader of his own county in 2010.

The Kingdom needs a new man.

• • •

With the notable exception of Mickey Harte, there was widespread agreement from last Sunday morning and throughout the last week that the Kerry and Tyrone teams which lost to Down and Dublin last weekend had simply run out of time, run out of legs, run out of years… the works. Kerry, however should regret what happened last weekend more than Tyrone. This Down team would not have been nearly good enough to defeat Kerry at their best. And in 2010, there is a very good chance that Kerry left one more All-Ireland title behind them.

The loss of Paul Galvin and Tomás Ó Sé was ridiculous and unnecessary. They behaved disgracefully and selfishly in the Kerry jersey this summer. For Jack not to admit to that was, most probably, the lowest point of his managerial career to date. The pair of them had let O'Connor down and let their team down and their actions totally undermined O'Connor's fairly decent efforts in bringing so many talented young lads into the team.

There was a transition in progress in Kerry this spring and summer. There were points in time, in the last couple of months, when it was demanded of Jack O'Connor that he stand up like the man so many of us believe him to be. He was never to be seen. Instead he sulked, complained, defended the indefensible, and thereby helped Galvin and Ó Sé to tear the arse out of the Kerry team completely and also tear the arse out of a season which might still have earned an All Ireland for a patched-up Kerry team.

The people of Kerry expected better of him. The great Kerry teams of the past deserved better from him. The youngsters who will one day become Kerry footballers needed better example from him. Of course, in the process, Jack has also let himself down, and badly at that. As the leader of the Kerry football team he is also the custodian of the proudest and most inspirational name in Gaelic football. The man who manages Kerry carries a mammoth responsibility which outweighs the success which he might bring to his own dressing-room. None of this seemed to dawn on Jack O Connor these last nine months.

It is a great pity for Kerry, and it is a great pity for him personally. Within the dressing-room he also had problems to contend with. And while he introduced a number of notable young and talented footballers this season and gave them a fair taste of the heady life of a fully-fledged Kerry footballer, he did not sort out the urgent needs in so many of the principle positions on the team list which were screaming out for some sorting.

Starting with midfield! For many years I have been asking why is it, how is it, that there are no longer any midfielders (or full-backs either, for what it's worth) being manufactured in the county anymore? We had not seen a Kerry midfield pairing worthy of the name 'pairing' in more than a decade. And with the retirement of Darragh Ó Sé there was suddenly no greater task at hand more important for Jack O'Connor to deal with satisfactorily than finding two men on whom he could depend to compete against and live with any other two lads which any other county would put out against him.

Deciding upon two midfielders who can fetch ball, track back into defence and deliver decent passes by foot and by hand is not rocket science. But Jack O'Connor somehow made it look like a near impossible piece of work this season. By last weekend, the Kerry midfield still looked a complete hames.

And this despite the fact that the Kerry manager had Seamus Scanlon to start with. That's one midfielder who has survived and earned his place, and stepped up to the mark more than adequately in last September's All Ireland final. Scanlon is not in the top 10 of the country's midfielders, but he was still a start for O'Connor, who just needed to find one other man. That could have been David Moran or it could have been Anthony Maher. It could have been Kieran Donaghy – as Michael Quirke at number 14 and Donaghy stepping into Darragh Ó Sé's boots would have been eminently sensible and workable.

After this season, I'm not so sure too many people in Kerry should trust Jack O'Connor to complete the rebuilding work which is now necessary – and with Kerry needing a full-back, a centre-back, a midfield pairing of course, as well as a full-forward if Kieran Donaghy is to be remolded and reignited in a different role on the field, this work will have to be of the highest possible standards.

In the next few days, we're told, Jack O'Connor will be letting people know if he has the heart or the hunger for another year or two in the job. On the evidence of the last five years, on and off, Jack O'Connor is quite likely to tick both of those boxes for himself. It might be better, however, after what we have seen and heard from him in the last nine months, to question the man's overall leadership abilities.

For too long, Jack O'Connor has been led by the nose, by the actions of his own senior footballers. That's been his problem.

This season, it also became Kerry's big problem.

lhayes@tribune.ie

August 8, 2010

Comments

#1 Niall commented, on August 8, 2010 at 9:26 p.m.:

Maybe a fair assessment Liam but any chance of praise for the opposition Down. Instead you chose to focus on Jack O'Connor and his recent failing despite many successes? One eyed journalism instead of reporting on the matches that shaped a wonderful weekend of football. Meath may not be involved but put aside peronals please
Niall

#2 el Goocho commented, on August 9, 2010 at 6:07 a.m.:

I'd predicted this jack-bashing,attack-the-man piece earlier in the week from you Liam. His comments last week were ill-advised but to question his leadership abilities? Did he become a bad manager overnight? Every other country (maybe bar tyrone) would love to have him. Your history of personal attacks against him reflect your own shortcomings

#3 seamus mac gearailt commented, on August 9, 2010 at 11:43 a.m.:

It will be a lonely September, we will not know what to do with ourselves, it has been ten years since we last did not play in September.There are no 6 best forwards in the country to watch either [Meath were hammered by Kildare and 3 of Liams best 6 forwards in the country were taken off!], no neck braces to be seen from the Tyrone crowd or no new book from lord and master Harte on how to win 3 All irelands in 150 years. At least we will have you Liam , ranting and raving and generally making an ass of yourself, some things will never change.

#4 Corrxxx commented, on August 10, 2010 at 9:53 a.m.:

You're definitely right about the Kerry midfield and it certainly looked like management never got their head around it despite the warning signs of Dara's departure coming for a number of years.
Jack O connor won 3 All Irelands (in five years),3 national leagues,3 munsters,an U-21 all ireland, a hogan cup and 3 vocational schools as a manager. Theres not many, not even a former carlow manager, are qualified to question Jacks overall leadership abilities. He's not without his faults, but to devote an entire article to lambasting Jack O Connor smacks of petty childishness.

#5 declan commented, on August 11, 2010 at 6:04 p.m.:

Liam must have some issues with Jack outside of football because this seems to be a personal attack on one of the most successful managers in Gaelic football. What your saying is absolute rubbish. Show us your list of achievements with Carlow. Stop writing rubbish about Kerry we are sick of it.

#6 ENDA WALSHE commented, on August 11, 2010 at 6:08 p.m.:

now liam,on discipline, i can assure you had the cccc been as vigilant with kilkenny hurlers as they are with kerry footballers it wud be easier for brian cody to pick his team.jabbing hurlers into various parts of the oppenents body is a speciality.unpunished.on jacks personality,brian cody makes him look like mary poppins.and come here i ave complete admiration for kilkenny but thats what makes them tick.to be honest just come out and say u hate kerry and u wudnt ave to give em grudging praise every so often.ps met gerry mc entee last week.said he must ave surgery on an old back injury.must be from carrying u around all those years

#7 Ciarraiabu commented, on August 11, 2010 at 8:41 p.m.:

Wow, sure Quirke has never been tried at full forward before and failed there. Ever seen a Kerry league game where Quirke has played there Mr Hayes, didn't work out. This article is utterly malicious tripe with no regard for any factual content. O'Connor's success negates every single argument made by Mr. Hayes bar the failure to find a solid midfield pairing. Also is he seriously trying to say that Daly and O'Shea were not a good midfield partnership.

#8 john commented, on August 11, 2010 at 10:49 p.m.:

this is becoming a bit of a joke u slagging of kerry,there players and the manager.kerry people have more class in there baby finger then u have in your whole body.get over it liam,kerry are the greatest team in history and dont b deserved to b disrespected and rubbish talked about them the way u do.get a life...