*Clare senior football manager, Peter Keane. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill.
ATTACKING football which brings an element of entertainment is how they like to play gaelic football in Clare according to senior manager Peter Keane.
Keane who managed Kerry’s senior footballers for three seasons begins his first championship as Clare manager this Saturday when they face Tipperary in the Munster semi-final.
His appointment was first reported at the end of October, the Cahersiveen man was the last of the candidates to enter the frame to succeed Mark Fitzgerald.
Since his three year term as Kerry manager ended following their All-Ireland semi-final loss to Tyrone in 2021, Peter had been linked with taking over Derry but coming on board with Clare is his first inter-county role outside of his native county.
On the Clare appeal, he said, “geography was probably a big factor. I’m pretty much self-employed I suppose. I’ve a good few people working for me, and with me, I’m probably very lucky and blessed that it’s a family business and my wife and sons are all involved in the business and that allows me a bit of latitude to go, but equally how far can I go, like? I want to be home that night, I was to be asleep in my own bed. There’s only so much you can do and where we’re located here down in Kerry, there’s only so far you can go”.
He added, “I don’t think you can ever have research done going into a role like this, because you’re removed, no matter what way you twist it, you’re very removed from geographically from where they are. You get a feeling and you just go in and dive in and see how you get on. I am [enjoying Clare]. There’s a great bunch of lads there, we’ve put a very good management team together. We’re having a bit of fun and, obviously, there’s days you say ‘oh, Jesus’ and it might not go your way, but in general it’s been good”.
Given that the bulk of Clare’s training has been in Caherlohan, Ballyline and Cusack Park, he travels by car as opposed to getting the ferry.
Building up fitness levels has been a strong focus for Keane with S&C coach Shane O’Rourke having previously worked with him in the Kingdom. “I think there’s a great spirit in the group, I think there’s a good bit of fitness in the group. They’re very honest, very willing. There’s a great determination in them, and you know, maybe if we’d been a bit more clinical early on against Offaly we could have asked questions that they may or may not have been able to answer”.
Passion for gaelic football is strong in Clare, he said. “They like their football and I’ve found that they like to see good football, attacking football, they, like everyone, want to be entertained to some extent. I think the lads have done that for them. The few games we’ve had in Cusack Park, it’s great, there’s been a great atmosphere after the game when you see kids coming out to the players and looking for photos and selfies and autographs, and interacting with the players. The players have been tremendous with them, and making themselves available for that. There is a real want of football in Clare”.
After taking a year out both Eoin Cleary and Keelan Sexton returned to the Clare cause which certainly strengthens their attack. “They would bring a bit of experience as well, but if say watching over the league, what we have done, we’ve about seven or eight fellas who’ve got debuts as well. So, there’ s a bit of a churn going on all the time and maybe that’s one of the things in some of these other counties, where fellas have a tendency to go away or take a year out or whatever. That might not necessarily happen in the bigger counties. So you do have a churn going on all the time and that churn loses experience, so a guy who might have got a bit of experience the last two years, that’s gone again and you’re starting from scratch with somebody else”.
Avoiding Cork in the semi-finals does not mean Clare got the handier draw, he maintained. “I don’t know about the kinder side of the draw. Look, you’ve a game to play, you play Tipperary so I don’t think you can afford to take anything for granted. If you look at the history of it in Munster, you’ve the big two in Kerry and Cork and the other four teams probably on any given day they can all beat each other, so that’s something we’ve to be very aware of. The big focus for us is Tipperary. I don’t think we can afford to take anyone for granted and you wouldn’t want to be getting too carried away with yourself and thinking about the what ifs and the what maybes”.
Such what ifs include a potential Munster final against his native Kerry featuring many players whom he guided to win three All-Ireland and Munster championships in a row (2016, 2017 and 2018) along with provincial senior honours in 2019 and 2021. “We’d worry about that if it did happen. If you started twisting and turning about something that might never happen… I remember reading something in a desktop calendar years ago ‘worry is like a rocking chair, it gets you nowhere’. And it’s very true. We’ll worry about Tipperary and then we’ll see how it goes from there”.
Had he known about the amount of rule changes, the former Kerry minor and U21 footballer may not have returned to inter-county management, he admitted. “Maybe had I known that there was going to be so many rule changes I mightn’t have gone back. I might have left other guinea-pigs be stuck in it, because it is a huge ask of management, it’s a huge ask of players, even it’s an ask of supporters watching the game. ‘Why is that?’ And people questioning things the whole time. Then you find you can’t even question a referee in the middle of it, because something could go against you if he doesn’t like the fact that you’ve asked him. You’ve had something like 47, 48 or 49 rule changes. That’s a huge ask mentally for a player, there’s a physical demand in this game with more running going on around the middle eight and then you add into that that they’re meant to be stretched trying to stay up with where they’re at… ‘have I breached the three up? is there three behind me?’ … or whatever. Fellas have got to be more tuned in”.
On the differences between preparing a Division 1 side versus a Division 3 outfit, he explained. “Probably one of the things from my perspective that I wouldn’t have been that familiar with is the teams and I wouldn’t have been that familiar with the players, whereas you see a bit more of a consistency with the Division 1 teams. Where you had a player last year so you’ll know he’ll be there this year or whatever. Or there’s a panel that they have of 25 and you’re watching them whereas there’s wholesale changes in the squads probably at a lower division. It’s probably where I thought it would be, you know? You’ve some very good players, you’ve some very good teams, probably one of the things that I would see at that level is teams that have had managements for a period they can become more consistent than teams that are changing a management every year or every two years, because there’s new things coming in, there’s new players, there’s a bigger churn”.
“By and large pitches have been very dry and the wind hasn’t been that bad except for the day we were above in Antrim. I think your pitch conditions haven’t been too bad, scores look like they’ve been high and there’s a bit of inflation in that with one becoming two, but I think it’ll take time. Maybe there is a concern that with the three up and the three back that maybe some of the weaker teams could get a thumping in the provincial championship. That probably remains to be seen”.
