IT’S the perennial if awkward question posed to every inter-county manager once their season ends after a loss but Fermanagh boss Kieran Donnelly took it in his stride on Sunday at Croke Park when he was asked – ‘What’s next?.
The Brookborough man has now completed four years at the helm in the Erne hot seat and smiled when it was put to him what the future now holds.
“The next step is just to relax and switch off.”
Delving a little deeper Donnelly felt that there was genuine reason for the county to be optimistic despite missing out on the Tailteann Cup decider following the seven point loss to Kildare at the weekend in a weather-battered semi-final.
“The county season is so intense. It stretches over nine months from when the boys started their strength and conditioning. But these players definitely have the potential for growth.
“You look at the age profile of our team – 24, 25, 26. If you look within our own county there is lads who have come through from St Michael’s. Josh Largo Ellis for example has played at senior inter-county level this past three years in Division Two and Division Three and that is a credit to him and them.
“We have to maximise everyone available in the county. This is a young group of players who have competed in a tough environment in the League and Championship – so there is definitely growth in them.
“To play for any county team at that level requites massive commitment in itself and their age profile factored in too is a positive.”
Fermanagh have had two run-outs at Croke Park now in the space of a month, and while Sunday clearly didn’t go to plan against the Lilywhite man-mountains, Donnelly was hopeful that his squad could absorb the lessons, however painful.
“It is a learning curve and that is part of it. It’s a big occasion, the itinerary, getting used to that environment, prepping for a big game. The Wexford game was useful to us as well. You train all year to get to play games at Croke Park and it’s something these players need as it is the next step for us to develop.”
The Fermanagh manager admitted that he could have few qualms about Sunday’s result, though the battling qualities his side demonstrated ensured they grimly hung onto Kildate’s coat-tails throughout.
“While Kildare was the toughest draw you were going to have to beat them at some stage anyway if you were going to win it. We’ve had a good year. We felt that our performance levels have been good throughout Division Three and we were probably unlucky not to go up, just being pipped by a point.
“Our performance levels were also high in the Championship. We have progressed since last year and feel we have grown as a team. We just have to hold our hands up and say we met a very good Kildare team today.”
No doubt the weather had a big bearing on the pattern of the contest, with a couple of monsoon type rainfalls hampering the ability of the nimble fleet-footed Erne players to express themselves on the wide open expanses of Croker. Not that Donnelly was keen to offer an excuses.
“Kildare were the favourites going into the game because of the quality they have within their team, as well as size and pace. They are also backboned by that Under-20 team which won the All-Ireland so we were very aware of their qualities.
“We were disappointed with how the second half went. There was junctures where we made bad decisions on the ball, we got squeezed down sides and got turned over.
“Conditions were hard on the players. We are a mobile young team and a day like that didn’t help us. We hadn’t played in those type of conditions all year. But no doubt Kildare were the deserved winners on the day and good luck to them. They were favourites for the competition from the very off and it will take a good team to beat them in the final.”
In spite of their shortcomings on the day Fermanagh could still have grasped victory from Kildare’s grasp in the closing stages with both sub Aogan Kelm and Josh Largo Ellis going close to goal. Donnelly acknowledged they needed to raise a green flag at that juncture to have any hopes of rescuing the match.
“We had to maximise those chances. Josh has been exceptional for us all year and it could have potentially been a goal, while we had one cleared off the line. They were chances we needed to take as we were living off scraps. It was hard to get our hands on the ball.
“We had brought a bit of variation to our kickouts in the last game but that was nearly impossible in those conditions because the short kickouts were too risky to even try. That suited Kildare’s size. Once the game went like that they were always going to dominate around the middle.
“The stats at half-time were even. We felt we had the same amount of shots but in the second half they controlled possession. That was the difference.”