Speculation grows that O'Keeffe will go

Seán Moran on the crisis in Kerry football

There is increasing speculation in Kerry that John O'Keeffe will step down this weekend and that other selectors will join him. O'Keeffe, who is the team's fitness coach, declined this week to take charge of training "in the present circumstances" - pending a meeting between manager Páidí Ó Sé and the rest of the management team.

The crisis in Kerry was sparked by recent interviews given by Ó Sé in which he was seen implicitly to criticise his fellow selectors and O'Keeffe in particular.

Whereas the issues with O'Keeffe have received much publicity in recent days and the fitness coach is known to have been angered by what he felt were attempts by Ó Sé to distance himself from last year's disappointments and place the blame on others, the situation of the other selectors hasn't been publicised to the same degree.

But there is a growing feeling within the county that Ó Sé's comments on management decisions that went against him constitutes a breach of confidentiality and is unfair on other selectors.

In Kerry, the team manager is more a primus inter pares than a chief executive. He has to accept his management team as constituted and is expected to accept and even defend decisions with which he may personally disagree.

In seeking to distance himself from various issues - from Maurice Fitzgerald's retirement to the preparation of the team and in particular, the non-selection of Australian Rules player Tadhg Kennelly - Ó Sé has breached the protocol of that arrangement.

In the current issue of The Kingdom newspaper former Kerry manager Mickey Ned O'Sullivan makes the point in his regular column.

"Effective sports management is built on mutual trust between the players, the management, the selectors and officials.

"Betrayal of this trust is very difficult to rectify. Traditionally, there was always an unwritten rule in sport that whatever went on in the training camp stayed within the training camp.

"Whatever was discussed confidentially on a personal level stayed confidential.

"Decisions that were made collectively for the good of the team were made by the group and the responsibility of the decision was accepted by the chairman or the team manager once the decision was made.

"No finger pointing would be made towards any individual for holding or expressing certain points of view.

"Once the decision was made, everyone rowed in behind it."

The matter gained momentum yesterday when two former county players made much the same point on Radio Kerry. Ger O'Keeffe and Pa Laide are both clubmates of John O'Keeffe but the former played with Ó Sé and the latter played under him as manager in the 1997 All-Ireland success.

"There is a suggestion that he is trying to distance himself from recent failures," according to Ger O'Keeffe, "such as the Maurice Fitzgerald affair, the players not being right before the All-Ireland, with bringing in innovative methods of training, these are the innuendoes that are there. It seems to me that he is undermining his own selection committee."

He went on to make the point that the team management structures are well known to everyone involved.

"I think some people may have believed that they have more power than others, which is wrong, and if they are not happy with the system then they know what they have to do. They have go with democracy and if three selectors said that Tadgh Kennelly should not be played well that's it."

Laide, whose career was cut short by injury, echoed the words of Mickey Ned O'Sullivan.

"In the words of Clive Woodward, what goes on within the camp should stay within it, and I think that was the first unwritten rule that was broken.

"Everything should be done behind closed doors and it not right to be washing your linen in public," he added.

Earlier, Laide had expressed pessimism about the prospects of the matter being settled.

"I am not sure that this problem can be sorted or has too much damage been already done? Maybe everything would have been okay, but for Páidí's interview on national television on Tuesday night.

"That was probably the final nail in the coffin for John O'Keeffe and that's why he came out with the statement.

"I think that they would have met and everything would have been sorted, but I think the biggest problem here is the lack of communication between the selection committee.

"Obviously, while they were in two parts of the world it was hard, but if the communication had been better this matter would now be sorted."

Ger O'Keeffe added that the controversy was likely to impact on the players.

"I do think that all the issues that are going on in the media at the moment will have an effect on the players."