![Jack Barry and Tadhg Morley of Kerry clash with Tyrone's Michael McKernan during the Kingdom's defeat at Healy Park earlier this month. "Jack [O'Connor] will have them right coming up to championship," says Tomás Ó Sé. Photograph: James Crombie/Inpho](https://www.irishtimes.com/resizer/v2/HFHVFR2VIJHAVAA77D6J7AVC7A.jpg?auth=11d7b59bdbb4ab0194a80edf56b4ec1080afd8d4196bbb69c7e2cb6acb75b414&smart=true&width=1024&height=664)
Tomás Ó Sé is not about to fret over Kerry’s middling start to the 2023 season.
The Kingdom have lost three of their opening five league games, but Ó Sé does not foresee Jack O’Connor’s men sliding out of Division One. They have Roscommon and Galway to play in their remaining two matches and after that the focus will turn to championship. And come championship, Kerry will be ready.
“Kerry have the National League and they will then have a break to championship. And there are teams all over the country that don’t have the gap Kerry do,” says Ó Sé.
“Is it fair? I don’t think it’s fair but that’s the way the provincial championship is and that is the argument that is always there.
“So, I wouldn’t worry about Kerry, Kerry will be there or thereabouts again this year. They’ll be focused on getting themselves right for championship.
“Is the Munster Championship as tough as Ulster or Connacht? Probably not in the last number of years it hasn’t been, so Kerry have time a lot more time than other teams around the country and they will have more players back.
“And Jack will have them right coming up to championship, so they will be there or thereabouts this year again.”
Ó Sé is aware of the talent coming through in Kerry, he is managing the county’s under-20 footballers this year. The five-time All-Ireland winner was actually set to become Offaly senior football boss last year, only for a change in his professional circumstances – he took on a school principal role in Fermoy.
Liam Kearns was subsequently appointed as Offaly senior manager. Ó Sé knew the Offaly scene as he had spent time as part of John Maughan’s backroom team in the Faithful County, so before Kearns agreed to take on the role, Kearns got in touch.
“I spoke to him before he took the Offaly job and I always had great time for him,” says Ó Sé. “I had fierce respect for him for what he achieved with so-called weaker counties. His name was always bandied about Kerry when the job came up in Kerry.
“Great football man, he had a lovely way about him. Jesus, it’s shocking, shocking when you’re not expecting something like that to happen. Very sad, very sad altogether.
“What he achieved, everybody would talk about what he achieved with Tipp and with Laois, but what he achieved with Limerick was phenomenal on the base that he came in.
“I don’t think people realised where Limerick were when he actually came in. And I don’t think people realised or saw the potential there.
“I saw it written that that Limerick team should have beaten us in the Gaelic Grounds that time and it was purely driven by Liam.
“I’d say had he won [Munster] with Limerick it would be very hard to overlook him [for the Kerry job]. And they were very, very close.”
Ó Sé admits he was “going to go at” the Offaly role but for the work promotion, and having now experienced the commitment needed to manage an under-20 county team, he doesn’t believe he would have been ready for a senior gig.
“I know now I made the right decision because I’d hate to commit to something that you wouldn’t give full commitment. Right now, it’s hectic, even with the 20s and travelling.
“I think an intercounty job in terms of the organising of it, I’m not sure would I have the full experience of running an intercounty team. But I do know now, based on what I’m seeing in Kerry at the moment, it would have been a mistake by me. Because the commitment at intercounty level has gone above and beyond.
“I would love to have got involved with Offaly. There’s a great group of lads inside there who were hungry to improve. I would have loved it. But it just didn’t happen.”
And one managerial appointment that Ó Sé says won’t be happening at any stage in the future is him managing Cork, the county in which he works and lives. Ó Sé played in an All-Ireland club final with Nemo Rangers in 2018 and Billy Morgan has previously tipped the former Kerry player to take charge of the Rebels.
“I’m not going to get the Cork job, I’m not going to take the Cork job either,” he smiled. “I wouldn’t, I can say that, I’ll never ever manage Cork.”
Managing the Kerry under-20s is now his total focus. They begin their Munster campaign against Clare or Tipperary on April 17th, but the ultimate goal is to try lead Kerry to a first All-Ireland title at the grade since 2008, when it was under-21s.
“It’s about producing senior players but it has been a while since they have won it and do we want to be successful? We do of course want to be successful.”
Tomás Ó Sé was speaking at the launch of the 2023 EirGrid Under-20 All-Ireland Football Championship.
