Kearns aims for consolidation in first season as Offaly senior football manager

LIAM Kearns will be setting no big targets, resisting the temptation to heap pressure on an evolving Offaly senior football squad in his first year as manager.

The Kerry man still doesn't know if two of the squad's most experienced players , Niall McNamee and Johnny Moloney will be back for another season. He is leaving the door open for both and hopes they will return but he is accepting the possibility that one or both will opt out.

He knows that he will definitely be without goalkeper Paddy Dunican who is going travelling in Australia and Clara's Carl Stewart who is also heading away. Jordan Hayes is going on a six month tour of duty with the Army and will miss the league while two of the most exciting talents, Keith O'Neill and John Furlong are battling injuries – he hopes both will make it back for the new year.

Cian Farrell and Cian Johnson still have road to travel on their recovery from injuries and it means that Offaly are facing into a transitional phase.

“We are losing a lot of leaders and experienced panel members,” Kearns said last weekend.

He held a trial game in Faithful Fields, Kilcormac last Saturday evening and will hold another one there in a couple of weeks: a very experienced manager Kearns has also unveiled his managerial team – selectors, Martin Murphy (Gracefield) and John Rouse (Tullamore); head coach, Alan Flynn (Galway); strength and conditioning coach, Keith Carr (Galway); goalkeeping coach, Paul Fitzgerald (Tipperary); nutrionist Brendan Egan (Sligo) and physio, Alison Holmes.

He has surrounded himself with people he either worked with previously or knew – he worked with Keith Carr in Roscommon, Paul Fitzgerald in Tipperary and he has known Alan Flynn for a number of years. He also knew Martin Murphy from the club scene and is satisfied that he has quality people working with him.

Kearns has previously managed Limerick, Laois and Tipperary and was the manager of Clann na Gael in Roscommon for the past two years. Prior to taking over Clann na Gael, he went for the Galway senior football job but that went to a local folk hero, Padraig Joyce. “I went at the wrong time. I went against a legend from Galway and I hadn't my mind made up whether that would be me finished or not,” he said last weekend.

A glut of vacancies this year meant that his phone started ringing again and he soon decided that he wanted another go at inter-county managemnt.

“I decided I had enough hunger. If you don't have the enthuasism for it, you shouldn't be doing this. This is a tough job and getting tougher but I had the enthusiuasm to do one more.”

The Offaly job appealed to him on a couple of fronts. He lives close to Limerick city and the comparatively easy 1 hour 15 minutes commute was a big factor. He didn't want to be spending hours each night in a car while he was impressed by Offaly GAA chairman Michael Duignan and the committee he met as well as the facilities in Faithful Fields.

“All of those things came into play and I decided this was the job that more interested me. They are very realistic about where they are.”

He drew comparisons between Offaly and Limerick and Tipperary, pointing out that both had promising underage players emerging when he took them over. “I like the challenge of bringing players throuugh and Limerick and Tipperary competed with the best in the country while I was there,” he reflected.

Kearns knows there is talent in Offaly from the All-Ireland U-20 football winning side and he said:

“I really want to make a positive impact with Offaly football and leave it in a better place than I found it this year. There are good young players here and good underage teams but there is no guarantee they will make senior. That is the challenge.”

He will be patient with the young players, though he was uncertain when told about a local rule that U-20s can't play senior championship while that team is still in their championship. It is a national rule that players can't go back and play U-20 championship if they play senior championship, though they can play league. Offaly took it a step further under previous chairman Tommy Byrne, deciding that those players must play U-20 championship and not senior, until the U-20 team in out.

Kerry for example played David Clifford and Sean O'Se at senior level a few years ago, ruling their out for the U-20 team and Kearns stated that he will be speaking with Offaly GAA chairman Michael Duignan to ascertain the exact situation.

He did state, however: “Unless they are exceptional, they are not ready for playing senior at U-20 and I am not for rushing them in. Unless they are David Clifford, Sean O'Se or those guys who were ready to play senior practically when they came out of minor but they are the exception to the rule. Most players need time and a couple of years before they can develop and play at senior level.”

New Offaly U-20 manager Ken Furlong met him in Faithful Fields at the trial last Saturday evening, informing him of his plans.

Kearns has been given a three year term with a review after the second year and he is initially keeping the bar low.

“This first year may be a little bit difficult. It is a condensed season, it is our first year in and we have all the issues we mentioned with players missing and injured. That is where we start and we will see how we get on. You would hope the injuries will settle. You have to get a break on them at some stage.”

He is not setting big targets of promotion to Division 2 of the National Football League and winning the Tailteann Cup – unless they are promoted or get to the Leinster final, Offaly will go into the Tailteann Cup once they are beaten in the Leinster championship.

“I think we have to first of all consolidate our place in Division 3 and I am not putting any goals about when we get out of it. If you are asking me would we like to get out of Division 3, long term before my term is up, I would say yes we do but are we going to get out of this year? I don't know and I am not going to put that burden on the players to begin with and certainly not in the situation we find ourselves in.

“The first year is realy about creating a panel and getting a depth in that panel. I would say getting stability into the panel and getting the best players onto the field. That is not happening at the moment. If we can get all of those things right. . . . I want to create a culture in the Offaly senior football set-up. If we come to the end of this year and feel we have improved, we will see where that takes us. I am not saying Division 3 or the Tailteann Cup or anything like that. We will take every game as we find it, do our best to get a result and see where it takes us.

“Division 3 is tough. Westmeath, Cavan and Down will be favourites. Then you hav four or five more that all feel they can beat each other and we will be in those. Tipperary, Longford, ourselves, Antrim and Fermanagh. We will find out where we stand and we will take it from there.”