Deep thinker MacGearailt leaves no stone unturned

By John Harrington

The name Kobe is never far from Kerry selector Aodán MacGearailt’s thoughts, but not because Mayo star Kobe McDonald is living rent-free in his head in the run-up to Sunday’s All-Ireland Final.

Coincidentally, Kobe also happens to be the name of MacGearailit’s Golden Retriever, named after the American basketballer rather than Crossmolina footballer.

MacGearailit is a deep thinker on the game, and he does a good chunk of it every morning when he brings Kobe for a walk to Béal Bán beach on the Dingle peninsula where Kobe, and sometimes Aodán, like to go for a swim.

On the way MacGearailit will call Jack O’Connor or another member of the Kerry management team, and he also has his own local brain trust of former team-mates he “rings religiously” for a fresh perspective.

You’d imagine that Kobe has had his hind legs walked off these past couple of weeks to give MacGearailt the head space to find a marginal gain or two ahead of Sunday’s All-Ireland against Mayo.

Post FRC rules there’s a lot more to consider than previously when strategizing for opponents, but that also means more opportunity if you’re the sort of coach who’s always looking for a new edge.

“There is more to pick apart, definitely,” says MacGearailt. “It’s not as simple as if things are going against you, you park the bus and let the game settle. It doesn’t work like that.

“Mayo are a very front-foot team, they play very exciting football, so obviously you have to counter that. How you approach a team like that might be different to how you approach another team.

“So obviously you have to look at all aspects of their play while building on your own. You don’t want to forget about what you are doing and what you need to work on.

“But at the same time you need to think about what they are bringing, what their skillset is and what their strengths are, and how you can match that, how you can ensure that you are still playing your game while you are managing what they are doing.

“You definitely have to come up with new ideas, whether it’s in training or around analysis sessions. Even something as simple as where you might go to recover or where you go to eat, because if you keep doing the same thing it becomes a small bit stale.

“You have to put yourself in the players’ shoes first and foremost before you ever make a decision. What’s the best fit for this particular group at this particular time? Sometimes it might be something as simple as taking a session off, if that’s what’s needed.”

One of MacGearailt’s main roles in the Kerry management team is to link the medical and S&C teams with the coaches so sessions can be planned properly and tailored to the specific needs of individual players where required.

Some players will benefit from a different training load than others, especially those on their way back from injury.

“Sometimes you have to protect them from themselves in a way, because they want to get back on the team, they are anxious to get back in the team, but they might be a week off that, or they might be a session off that, and rushing it might force an injury that is unnecessary,” says MacGearailt.

“I find that side of it fascinating. I have a sit-down meeting with Jason McGahan and either Paudie McQuinn or Donnachadh (Walsh) before every single training session.

“And that’s after phone calls to all the various people. Every intercounty team are doing this, because certain aspects of training might be fine; there mightn’t be a lot of accelerating and decelerating, but other parts mightn’t be suitable.

“So you are trying to get them back into the football, but in a way that is safe for them. We have had a lot of injuries. A lot of them, I suppose, are just lack of recovery. That is something Jack has spoken about and it’s a huge part now with the split season. Win or lose, those lads are going into football again two weeks after the All-Ireland.”

MacGearailt’s role must have been an especially busy one earlier this season when Kerry suffered an injury-crisis that at one stage looked like it might scupper their defence of the Sam Maguire Cup.

“I’m sure when I look back on it now I’d say, how did we get through that?”, admits MacGearailt.

“We have huge trust in the panel, genuinely, I’m not just saying that. We have players we feel we can bring in and will perform for us. Sometimes by doing that you stumble across players as well that you mightn’t have thought of and you might say, I never would have seen that coming.

"Mark O’Shea is a great example. We have spoken about him before. We played a game in the League last year up in Castlebar and Mark struggled. We weren’t sure if he’d be able to perform at this level and I’m sure he questioned it himself. But once Mark got to Croke Park last year against Armagh, he just seemed to blossom and the confidence grew.

"The same has happened with the likes of Keith Evans, for example, Evan Looney; there are a lot of players, Tomás Kennedy. I remember I got my start because I think it was Liam Hass’ who got injured.

"When you get your opportunity you need to be ready to take it, so we put trust in the players that are on our panel. We don’t have another option, by the way, you have to work with what’s in front of you.

"If a player is injured, you are not risking them. You move on very quickly and you have to be proactive, you have to say, this is what’s available, let’s put a plan together with this group, and then as players start to come back maybe they catch a bit of form, there is an injury that opens the door for them.

"But there is no guarantees that fellows that have played in the past will automatically come straight back into the team. I think when players know that, it creates a very positive scenario with the group.”

Timing is everything in sport and after riding out the storm of that injury crisis earlier in the year, Kerry now have a very strong deck to deal from for Sunday’s All-Ireland Final.

They managed to beat both Tyrone and Dublin in their last two matches without ever hitting top gear, and MacGearailt is hopeful they’ll produce their best performance of the campaign yet against Mayo.

“I feel we have more to give," says. "I just feel that the group, we’ve had to dig very deep in the last two games just to get over the line. That’s very obvious. I mean, it took a ferocious effort, even right down to the Keith Evans block right at the very end, just to get over the line against a very hungry Tyrone team. It was the same against Dublin.

“It looked like they were starting to get a small bit of momentum. So we definitely feel there is more to give and there will be more to give to get over the line, because Mayo obviously looked really motivated, very lively, very enthusiastic and very energetic, and you have to match that energy first and foremost. If you don’t, it doesn’t matter what skillset you have, you have to match that on the day of a final.”