O’Neill aims to bring his expertise to repairing Lilies’ shattered morale
KILDARE’S footballers emerge back into the Newbridge light today, 154 days after their darkest hour.
Their meeting with DIT in the Bord na Móna O’Byrne Cup clash will hardly constitute a footnote come the end of the year, but it does serve as a new beginning, and it has never felt more needed.
Cian O’Neill their new manager, serves as both a source of optimism and a reminder of the shambolic way they left the stage last summer.
He was standing on the Kerry sideline as it rained in goals, seven in total, as their Championship clash was reduced to a riddling session.
That 27-point defeat (7-16 to 0-10), allied to their status as a Division 3 team, means O’Neill has inherited a team ranked deep in the game’s pack and with psychological scars to show for it.
However, O’Neill believes that results holds no relevance now.
‘A lot of that disappointment was in the moment I would imagine. It is a long time ago and you are back into pre-season and it is almost like the sins of the past have been forgiven,’ he says.
And, perhaps, lessons learned too.
O’Neill’s arrival, after an apprenticeship which included All-Ireland winning stints with the Tipperary hurlers and Kerry footballers, to manage his own has helped inject some optimism into a county still seeking to come to terms with their plummeting stock.
From a serial last-eight Championship team to summer cannon fodder and a fall into the League’s underbelly during Jason Ryan’s two-year stint, the good news for O’Neill is the only way is up.
Whether he agrees to that or not, he will put his name to one commitment – that last August’s events will not be repeated while he is at the helm.
‘One thing I would like to think is that nothing like that will ever happen with the current group of players, with the current management.
‘That’s not to say there’s not going to be defeats, of course there will, everyone loses sometimes but I think the most disappointing thing for the players that day was that they just stopped performing, they didn’t play ‘till the end and four goals going in very quickly is not a reflection of what they could do but it was a reflection of what they did do that day.’
It could be argued that it was also a reflection of what they had done for the bulk of their two years under Ryan, where an inability to defend was their undoing.
The 11 goals they conceded in losing to Kerry and Dublin last summer was just the tip of the iceberg; they also posted the worst defensive record (7-100) in the top half of the League last year, while 12 months earlier only Westmeath and Carlow conceded more in League football.
There is another obvious area too where improvement can be made, cutting the casualty list and ensuring personnel are available.
In Ryan’s first season in 2014, 10 of his players underwent surgery in the close season, and while that load lightened significantly last year, Kildare’s lack of depth meant that any loss is deeply felt.
In the two months he has been working with the players, he has brought with him a change of emphasis.
‘The focus from the medical side from November to Christmas was injury prevention and injury prevention management, so I think the players are actually surprised that they are not working harder.
‘It is to make sure that when they hit the pitch in January that they are in the best possible condition,’ he explains.
O’Neill’s sports science background – he is currently head of Sport, Leisure, and Childhood Studies in CIT – made him one of the hottest coaching talents on the GAA circuit, and ‘training smart rather than just hard’ is at the core of his philosophy.
The latest stats, issued pre-Christmas, offered further evidence that Gaelic football has a serious player welfare issue, particularly with protecting players from overuse. Just one in four injuries suffered in football are as a result of contact, 28 per cent per cent are recurring injuries, while 14 per cent are directly linked to ‘overuse.’
It is a subject O’Neill believes lies at the core of good management, and is an issue the GAA must move on by demanding that a coaching ‘pathway’ is put in place, where the expertise of those involved has to be certified.
‘There is a distinct difference between training hard and training smart.
‘It would be good to ensure that there is a level of qualification to ensure that people working with players are effective in what they do and have the appropriate skill-set and knowledge.
‘It is something that should be looked at in the GAA, that you don’t just come in off the street or just finished playing and suddenly you are parachuted into a role.
‘You see it in rugby and soccer where the coaching pathway is quite defined. I know they are looking at it and that would help.’
Kildare may find an edge in terms of physical conditioning – something he gifted Kerry in his three seasons there.
For now he is working off a panel in excess of 45 – Eanna O’Connor, son of former Kerry boss Jack, is among the new faces – but Paddy Brophy or Seán Hurley will not be returning from the AFL.
So, he will go with what he has and will set no target, other than a commitment that if his players put in the effort, he will meet his end.
‘They are going to get the best coaching, they are going to get the best set-up from a backroom perspective and if they respond to that, they are going to be competitive. With that, you would like to think that they will challenge for every competition they are in.’