By John Harrington

Former Kerry footballer, Marc Ó Sé believes the Kingdom will have to find new players in midfield and attack if they’re to wrest back the Sam Maguire Cup from Dublin in 2024.

The five-time All-Ireland winner is particularly concerned about the Kerry engine-room after the news that Jack Barry is taking a year out from the game and doesn’t see too many likely replacements for the midfielder.

“I think goalkeeper we’re in good shape, defence we’re in good shape, midfield is a worry for me,” said Ó Sé at thelaunch of GAAGO’s 2024 championship schedule.

“Diarmuid (O’Connor) is a very good player but I think you need a kind of number eight that would guide him, the likes of David Moran and my own brother Darragh before that, somebody that would be the main midfielder.

“Joe O’Connor is back from injury, he’s going to be back in there.

“I really don’t know where you’re going to actually find (another midfielder). Cillian Burke is a good U20 but he’s young, he’s probably going to get league time this year. I know there was talk that he was going off to Australia but thankfully he’s staying at home.

“He’s going to be a player that Kerry are going to look at, possibly half-forward, does that maybe allow you to take Seanie O’Shea out to midfield? Would that work though?

“I think there’s a huge challenge in front of Kerry at the minute to be totally honest with you.

“In terms of our forwards, if I look back at the All-Ireland final and I look at the two managers, Jack O’Connor and Dessie Farrell. If you were planning ahead for the game, I think Jack would have had far more headaches than Dessie.

“Kerry had to plan for Basquel, Kilkenny, Mannion, Con; realistically Dublin only really had to plan for Paudie and David, Seanie obviously as well.

“I just think that Dublin have the better spread of forwards than Kerry do and that’s a challenge Kerry really need to look at this year and try and improve on.”

Stefan Okunbor is perhaps one potential candidate to come into the Kerry midfield, but he’s suffered some significant injuries since returning from a three-year stint in the AFL with Geelong and Ó Sé believes the jury is still out on him until he gets a consistent run of games with Kerry.

“It’s a big step up into inter-county and the worry about Stefan would be the injuries, the big thing there would be for him to get continuous games under the belt,” he says.

“The worry for me there would certainly be that he’s injury prone. He got a bad injury in Australia too I think so that’s a big one. If he can prove that he can go back-to-back game and keep going then you’re looking good.

“He’s a player than can probably play in a lot of positions, a strong lad but you don’t really know until you get those National League games into the system. If you come out the other end then he’s a huge option.

“Like I say, if you’re down the likes of David Moran, Jack Barry, Joe O’Connor was missing last year, for me it’s a huge area needed for Kerry. Hopefully Stefan can get a clear run and get to a good level of performing.”

Kerry mainly stuck with the tried and the trusted in last year’s League and Championship but Ó Sé hopes that team manager Jack O’Connor experiments a bit more in 2024, even if that means Kerry are relegated to Division 2.

“The one thing about Jack since he has been in charge is that he has always given players their opportunity,” he says.

“You saw that even as far back as ’04 when he threw Paul Galvin and Aidan O’Mahony in. Paul Galvin at the time was 24 years of age and you thought maybe the whole thing had gone past him. He came in and we saw the career he had.

“From that point of view, I think Jack is going to have to try a few more options.

“Someone like Dylan Geaney, it’s hard to know how he’ll do unless you try him out in the league and see what way he’s at because from what I can see, last year I think we maybe panicked a small bit in the league.

“Fossa were playing in the All-Ireland Club final, the Cliffords probably needed a few weeks off. Kerry played Monaghan, Kerry hadn’t that many points on the board and Paudie Clifford was fast-forwarded into the game. He kicked a goal the same day I think, but maybe try out a few more players, what’s the worst thing that can happen?

“You can go down to Division 2, look it didn’t do Dublin any harm really. I think it’s important that Kerry try out players and see how they go, you sink or swim.”