Kerry manager Jack O’Connor doesn’t believe that he is in line for a hostile reception from the Kildare faithful when he returns to Newbridge on Sunday.
The NFL Division One clash arrives just a couple of months after O’Connor finished up two seasons in charge of the Lilywhites.
Having guided the Leinster county back into the top flight of the League, with a Leinster final appearance against Dublin to boot in 2021, the Dromid Pearses man is satisfied he did a good job in Kildare.
“The people that mattered up there to me; the players, the county board, and the management I worked with, I have a good relationship with all of them. I have nothing but good things to say about them,” he said.
“They are a group that are ready to really take off because there is a great grá for football in Kildare.
“There is a huge fanbase there, maybe a bit dormant the last few years because of Dublin’s dominance, but I think they have the right management in place now with Glen Ryan, who is a kind of folk hero up there, and then you also have Johnny Doyle, Dermot
Earley, Brian Lacey.
“All those fellas were heroes of the noughties. Kildare need new heroes now, and this team has the capability of doing big things.
“From my own point of view, I have no regrets about Kildare because I think we did a good job up there.
“I really feel I left Kildare football in a better position than where I found it.
“If everyone can say that about their job, then they wouldn’t be doing too badly.”
Meanwhile, the Kerry manager defended the decision to introduce Tony Brosnan and Jack Savage in the closing stages of the McGrath Cup rout of Tipperary in Templetuohy on January 12, just a few hours after they had lined out for MTU Kerry in their Sigerson Cup triumph over UCD in Tralee.
The move led to criticism in certain quarters, most notably from Westmeath’s Ray Connellan, who lined out for the Dublin college.
“I was putting no pressure on them, in actual fact, three or four times I said to the two of them ‘lads, sure there’s no point in you coming on here’ and they said, after coming up, sure we will stretch our legs,” he explained.
“Of course I got a bit of flak after, and maybe some of that flak was justified, but you’re looking at two young fellas – one who wasn’t on the panel last year, the other who’s been injured for the bones of two years – they are stone mad to play every minute with Kerry.
“Maybe I should have stopped them from that, but do I see it as any great player welfare issue? Not at all.
“In actual fact, player welfare is mental as well as physical. If they went up, and I didn’t give them a few minutes, I think that would be harder on them than actually going on.”
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