GAELIC GAMES: Ian O'Riordan reports on the continuing fallout from the unguarded views of the Kerry football manager about the county's supporters.

Páidí Ó Sé has taken a significant step towards calming the controversy in his native Kerry following his comments in a newspaper interview last Sunday.

In a statement issued yesterday morning from Cape Town, where the Kerry manager is holidaying with the county team, Ó Sé clarified several of his remarks, including that the Kerry supporters were "f***ing animals".

"I wish to clarify a few important items with regard to my interview in the Sunday Independent," said Ó Sé. "I have always had the highest admiration for the Kerry supporters. What I meant in the article about the Kerry supporters is that they are very hard to please, always demanding the highest standards because they are a very proud race of people.

"From time to time I unfortunately go about describing things the wrong way and I regret and apologise to the people of Kerry if I have hurt, disturbed or upset them in any way."

Not surprisingly, Ó Sé's comments were greeted with shock and some anger in Kerry - and appear to create a genuine threat to his position. The Kerry County Board issued a statement disassociating itself from the remarks, and assuring the supporters that the board did not condone them.

It is also clear, however, that Ó Sé's remark that the Kerry supporters were "f***ing animals" had lost some of its context. In the interview, he was outlining why he considered it necessary to restore lost prestige in Kerry this year, despite coming within a point of winning the All-Ireland final against Armagh.

"We didn't win the All-Ireland last year," he said in the interview, "so it didn't matter whether we lost by one point or 50. That's not acceptable to Kerry supporters. People will say that we're great losers and all that. We are gracious in defeat, but, deep down, Kerry people don't like to lose.

"Being a Kerry manager is probably the hardest job in the world because Kerry people, I'd say, are the roughest type of f*****g animals you could ever deal with. And you can print that."

Yesterday's statement from Ó Sé was faxed from Cape Town to Radio na Gaeltachta, who then forwarded it to Radio Kerry. Over half of the station's two-hour morning current affairs programme, Kerry Today, then dealt with the subject of Ó Sé's comments.

"We did have a huge amount of people calling us about Páidí Ó Sé's comments," said Kerry Today producer Treasa Murphy. "There was clearly a lot of anger, and many people that were on to us were calling for his resignation."

Ó Sé had added to the controversy with comments about his former Kerry team-mate and current county trainer John O'Keeffe. The interview referred to O'Keeffe's insistence that all team members complete the same rigorous training regime last year, and which was understood to be the main reason for Maurice Fitzgerald's withdrawal from the panel.

Ó Sé indicated that he would be taking more responsibility for future training sessions, and that they would also be more flexible. He also said that O'Keeffe and the other Kerry selectors, John O'Dwyer, Eamonn Walsh and Eddie Tatler O'Sullivan, didn't always let him get his way, and from now on he would be going with his own instincts.

In yesterday's statement, however, Ó Sé again back-tracked somewhat on the nature of those remarks: "Regarding John O'Keeffe," he said, "he was the one man I wanted and pursued for that job from the very beginning. He is the main cog in the Kerry machine, and I have no question mark of any kind over Johnno's techniques of physical training. As an individual he is a man of the highest integrity."

O'Keeffe refrained from commenting on the issue yesterday, saying that he would be talking with Ó Sé when he returned from South Africa.

Kerry County chairman Seán Walsh is also part of the team holiday in Cape Town, but it is now expected that the county board will make some reference to the matter when they meet for the first time this year on Tuesday week.

County PRO Willie O'Connor said yesterday that any talk of Ó Sé's possible resignation was purely speculative, and that O'Keeffe's position as trainer would certainly not be under threat as he had been appointed for another year by the county delegates.

Already the Kerry supporters club have stated their desire for further clarification. Spokesperson Martin Leane said that the statement rectifies some of the damage, but that the tone of language used by Ó Sé is still there.

"He must come back and apologise over the airwaves to the people of Kerry," said Leane. "There is no doubt that Kerry supporters do demand results and you are judged by your success rate. But I am sure the county board will be taking up the matter with him when he gets back, and we will let the executive of the county board deal with the matter."

Ó Sé's comments may also have some implications on his position as a board member of Bord Fáilte. The Minister for Arts, Tourism and Sport, John O'Donoghue, appointed Ó Sé to the eight-man board last June, with the responsibility of helping to guide the implementation of the Department's tourism policies.

"Any review of Ó Sé's position would be strictly a matter for the Minister himself," according to a spokesperson for Bord Fáilte. "But it was not an open-ended appointment."

As it happens, the board is likely to be reviewed in the coming months as Bord Fáilte is amalgamated with CERT to form the new tourist body Fáilte Ireland. In the meantime though, Ó Sé's mind is more likely to be dominated by football matters.