Minor road full of potholes

Few would have expected it at the time but exactly six years ago today, the most successful minor team in 30 years lined out in the All-Ireland football final. Galway didn't even win the match against Kerry, but judged on the number of players who went on to win senior medals - seven - no team had or has emulated this harvest since 1970.

Then, ironically, it was a Kerry team beaten by Galway which was to supply seven players to the county's phenomenally successful All-Ireland campaign of the 1970s.

But strangely when Galway and Kerry face each other in six days' time in the 2000 All-Ireland final, whereas Galway's seven - the Meehan brothers, John Divilly, Paul Clancy, Michael Donnellan, Padraig Joyce and Derek Savage - are again present, Kerry may not start a single player who lined out that day in 1994.

There are qualifying points. Full back Barry O'Shea would certainly be playing were it not for injury. Michael Francis Russell came on as a substitute and Denis Dwyer may yet be named this week in the Kerry team for the final. But in general it represents a poor return on a minor winning team in a county contesting a final six years later.

"I'd say we would have been surprised if we had been told how it would all turn out," according to Derry Crowley, long-serving Kerry minor selector and father of current player John. "We thought we had a fairly good team and that those fellas would come on a bit better than they have.

"But it's all a bit random. Minors are unpredictable. This year we thought we'd a good team. The 1993 team we felt was better team in 1994, but five points up with three minutes to go, we conceded two goals and Cork went on to win the All-Ireland."

When he looks back at eight years of minding the fortunes of minors, Crowley feels that the pressures of modern senior inter-county play have taken a toll on some young players in the transition between minor and senior.

"There's no question in my mind about that. There's only a certain sort of person prepared to do it. I don't think you can be successful unless you accept that it's all go from one end of the year to the other. A lot aren't prepared to do that.

"I think at minor level, most fellas have that commitment. They have no money, no other distractions and are still at school. Senior level is more demanding, there's more going on in their lives. Some fellas haven't got on well in their exams and get disillusioned. Others expect to get a job out of football. The head has to be there as well."

Of the players under his charge Crowley remains perplexed at the failure of the forwards to graduate to senior level. The disappointed expectations concern Jack Ferriter ("He had all the ingredients to make it as a senior footballer but he used socialise a lot. The question is, is he prepared to give that up?") and the disappearance of Gerry Lynch ("We had great hopes for him, he had great promise and he's not even playing at club level now.")

Corner forwards James O'Shea and Gerry Murphy were regarded as star performers on the team yet they never made the cut at senior level. Even more interesting are Crowley's views on Michael Francis Russell, then a 16-year old substitute.

"He was impressive and he was younger than the others. Then, as now, he had great skill and was certainly better than average. But I wouldn't say he was exceptional at that stage."

Whereas Russell has gone on to confound that assessment at senior level, so many of his team-mates of six years ago have done the reverse. Maybe in Kerry, the supply of talent is such that players get fewer chances and fall by the wayside more easily. With smaller reserves, the onus on the county to make something of them is greater.

But Crowley sees a broader principle. "I think it's true that you have to have skill but attitude is the kernel of it. Particularly now with the amount of effort required at senior level."

1994 MINOR TEAMS

GALWAY: Lloyd Kelly; Richie Fahy, Kevin Keane, Tomas Meehan; John Divilly, Declan Meehan, John Lardner; Aidan Donnellan, Michael Higgins; Paul Clancy, Michael Donnellan, Padraig Joyce; Derek Savage, John Concannon, Derek Reilly. KERRY: Bryan Murphy; Kieran O'Driscoll, Barry O'Shea, Sean O'Mahoney; Timmy J Fleming, Charlie McCarthy, Fergus O'Connor; Denis Dwyer, Gene O'Keeffe; Jack Ferriter, Liam Brosnan, Gerry Lynch; James O'Shea, Pat Sullivan, Gerry Murphy.