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Tomas O'Sé Had Issues With Jack O'Connor's Management Style

Tomas O'Sé Had Issues With Jack O'Connor's Management Style
Conor Neville
By Conor Neville
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Jack O'Connor's first stint as Kerry manager yielded two All-Ireland titles and an All-Ireland final defeat in three years.

After quitting in 2006, he wrote an autobiography with the help of Tom Humphries.

'Keys to the Kingdom' was a startlingly frank affair. O'Connor, who described himself as a 'truculent bollocks' within it's pages, wrote about his fears about getting beaten up by Tom O'Sullivan's brother and ruminated on the clannishness of the O'Sé's.

After Pat O'Shea's two year spell in the hot-seat, in which he won a largely forgotten All-Ireland final in 2007 and then lost a hugely remembered All-Ireland final in 2008 (O'Shea was unlucky like that), O'Connor was back in time for 2009.

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Tomas O'Se wasn't thrilled.

In his new autobiography, 'The White Heat', O'Sé admitted his misgivings about O'Connor's return before the 2009 championship.

I'd have been sceptical anyway because of the trust issue I'd had with him in his first stint. But in the second stint he had, I was dubious.

Trust is important in a team set-up like that, and specifically trust between management and players.

While O'Connor guided Kerry to the All-Ireland in 2009, with the team taking a licking from Cork in Munster, then limping through the qualifiers before taking flight in the All-Ireland quarter-final in Croke Park.

However, O'Sé is quick to point out that O'Connor failed to win another All-Ireland with Kerry, guiding them to an All-Ireland final in 2011 and two disappointing quarter-finals in 2010 and 2012.

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We won the All-Ireland in his first year back, but not afterwards. Did it make a difference? At that level, the very top, I think it does.

I have my own views on his management style. I think the sanctuary of the dressing room is sacred and at times I don't think you have the right to breach that.

Despite O'Sé's comments, O'Connor may well be Kerry manager again before long. In two years with the Kerry minors, he has won two All-Irelands in a row.

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Read more: Balls Remembers... Kerry: The Lost Years 1987 - 1996

 

 

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