Depleted Kerry down to bare bones for Munster final clash with dangerous Banner
Kerry boss Jack O'Connor revealed that he will be without a number of key personnel for the Kingdom's bid to beat Clare for a third consecutive year in a Munster SFC final.
The injuries could not come at a worse time for O'Connor and for Kerry, considering Paudie Clifford will be serving a one-match ban after being shown a red card against Cork and then having his appeal to get the red card rescinded fail.
O'Connor was brief and to the point with his pre-Munster final chat with local media when asked about the injury situation heading into Sunday's meeting with the Peter Keane-managed Clare.
'I think Diarmuid O'Connor will still be out of the equation for this game," said O'Connor.
"He is back doing bits and pieces but not fully back yet. Paul Murphy went off in the game (against Cork) and has a bit of a calf issue and he won't be available. Graham O'Sullivan won't be available as he has a kind of an ongoing groin issue.
"Then, obviously, there is a doubt about Shane Ryan who hasn't trained since and obviously Paudie Clifford is suspended so that is four or five right there.
"Mike Breen (calf) and Tom O'Sullivan are back training so they should be in contention, yes. So we could have a few changes, yeah. Shane Ryan has a fairly substantial cut on the knee."
O'Connor believes that the reports that provincial championships were dead took a bit of a hammering over the past couple of weeks.
'Firstly I would say there is a bit of life in the provincial championships despite what people were saying about it. People were saying that the Munster and Leinster Championships were dead ducks but both games (Kerry v Cork and Dublin v Meath) proved that is certainly not the case.
"There is no question that the two point rule now has ensured that no lead is safe. That was obvious out here (in Austin Stack Park) when we played Dublin in the league, we were 13 up at one stage and they reeled us in and eventually got ahead of us, mainly due to two pointers.
"Particularly when there is a wind there the two pointers are crucial. Meath kicked some outrageous two-pointers against Dublin (on Sunday) particularly in the first half. Yeah, I think that is the biggest factor (in making every game more interesting) as it was in the Cork game. The two- two pointers in a row that preceded the goal, that is what Cork back into it.'
O'Connor also cannot fathom why the draw for the Sam Maguire is being made this Wednesday with none of the provincial finals played.
'I am not too sure what the rationale is behind it, I would not be sure now. Can any of ye figure out what the rationale is? I don't know, I honestly have no comment on it because I don't why they do it; it seems a bit strange all right.'
The Dromid Pearses club man has accepted that Paudie Clifford will not be playing and Kerry are not going in further with his appeal plus O'Connor was not best pleased with both red cards that were issued by referee Barry Tiernan.
'We will find out how big a loss he is Sunday, won't we?" said O'Connor.
"Yeah he is playing great football. He is, I suppose, coming into the best years of his life, prime years football wise. He is just in a great vein of form and it's a pity he is missing the game. I thought in the context of the game that Paudie was a bit unlucky.
"Now, of course, it was a clumsy challenge but I did not think it was a dangerous tackle. I mean we had three or four players who left the field at various stages after collisions, whether they were caused by the conditions or not I am not too sure. The conditions were very slippy on the night and I just thought the referee could have taken that into consideration in both instances. In Sean Brady's case as well, I thought he was very unlucky as well.
"I mean what was annoying was that the referee was quite close to the action on both occasions and it seemed to be the linesmen who made the calls. I thought maybe in the conditions, and with the physical nature of the game, that a yellow card would have been sufficient on both occasions."
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