IT’S UNUSUAL that a Kerry football captain should be fighting for his place in the team, but then Darren O’Sullivan is not your usual Kerry captain. Nor is this a usual Kerry team, as the strength and depth of the panel continues to dazzle.

O’Sullivan started his trade with the Tir Chonaill Gaels club in London, where he lived until age 12, and – God forbid! – could have ended up at Queens Park Rangers, having spend two years with their youth academy. Sense prevailed and once he returned to his roots it was pure football all the way.

He came into the senior set-up under Jack O’Connor in 2005 (before the manager took his brief hiatus) and when he helped Mid Kerry claim the county title last December, O’Sullivan was presented with the captaincy. The only problem was he was better known as a “super sub”, as he says himself, and wasn’t sure of his place on the starting 15 – not that too many of them in Kerry are these days.

“People have been telling me I’m the super sub for the past couple of years,” he says. “So I’ll try to get rid of that tag for a while. Of course I’m happy just to be part of it, but obviously there’s only so much sitting on the bench you can take, and the captaincy is really just the added incentive to get on the team, to lead out Kerry, and hopefully, in Croke Park.

“But I don’t think there’s that much more expected of you because you’re captain. I put the extra pressure on myself to make the starting 15. And I think I’ve learnt a lot from coming off the bench. You have to vary your game, from when you’re starting, to when you’re coming off the bench.

“It’s 100 miles an hour for the 10 or 15 minutes that you come on for, because there’s no point coming off the field with anything left.

“When you’re starting you have to pace yourself that bit more, be a bit smarter. I started most of the league games this year and learnt from that. Hopefully, I can prove now I am good enough to start in the championship, and not just be an impact sub.

“But it’s definitely an incentive in these weeks leading up to the first game. You’re thinking you don’t want to be watching it from the bench, as captain. You want to be leading out the team.”

O’Sullivan will almost certainly get his chance to start against Cork on June 7th – provided, naturally, Cork beat Waterford this Sunday. Kieran Donaghy will definitely miss that game with a stress fracture in his foot, while Paul Galvin still looks doubtful with a groin strain.

Kerry’s strength, however, was evident again in a challenge with Meath last Friday. Darragh Ó Sé looked as robust as ever at midfield, while Tommy Walsh returned from a hamstring injury to play up front. At the same time Tadhg Kennelly suffered a concussion playing for Listowel, but should be fine for the Cork match.

For O’Sullivan, Kerry’s run of injury problems will merely test just how strong the panel is; “Maybe it’s time to give other players the chance to stand up and be counted, and maybe take the place of some of the more established players if they are injured.

“To be honest, I’m really looking forward to Cork. It’s nice to get the concentration working straight away. There’ll be no problems focusing on this.

“Cork had a very impressive league campaign, and personally, I feel it will be the hardest game we’ll play all year.

“They’re a big, physical team, and won Division Two of the league this year playing within themselves, I think. I actually know a lot of their players from my time in CIT, and they won the All-Ireland under-21 a couple of weeks ago as well. So we’re under no illusions how tough it’s going to be. But we’ll be concentrating on our own game more so.”

Having started mostly at right-half forward in the league that would appear to be his best position: “It depends what kind of game it is,” he says. “I do like playing close to goal, but some games I like to roam out more, and collect more ball. But we’ll see. I won’t give too much away about that.”

There’s a usual Kerry answer anyway.