Gavin White had expected to be lacing up his boots for some knock-out football this weekend, but instead Kerry have the luxury of a break as they instead gear up for the All-Ireland quarter-finals.
Jack O’Connor side entered last weekend’s game against Louth believing even a win over the Wee County would probably not be enough for them to top the group, as Mayo were fancied to overcome Cork.
However, the Rebels pulled off a comeback victory over Mayo and with Kerry comfortably taking care of Louth, the round-robin series finished with the Kingdom top of Group One. It’s not where they expected to be after losing their opening match to Mayo, but exactly where Kerry wanted to be at this point of the season.
“It was probably in the back of our heads that we were going to play this weekend,” concedes White. “Time will tell, but I can certainly say I’d much prefer to have the weekend off than having to play.
Seán Moran: League’s championship promise may be clouding but it remains bright at the top
Malachy Clerkin: The GAA should make more of St Patrick’s Day - and more of its intercounty stars
Sports Review 2023: Mary Hannigan picks the best quotes from the sporting year
GAA happy that GAAGo has ‘bedded in well’ as 2024 season launches
“The weekend gone now probably gives us a bit more confidence that we can push on further. In the Munster championship, we had two very good wins and thought we were in a very good position physically, tactically and everything like that. Obviously, Mayo showed we were a small bit behind and we had to catch up and thankfully we did.”
White did not feature against Louth last weekend as he nursed a slight calf niggle, sitting the game out more as a precaution than anything else. He fully expects to be available for Kerry’s All-Ireland quarter-final on the weekend of July 1st-2nd.
“The physios didn’t think it was worth the risk to play at the weekend,” he explains. “The way it worked out, it was probably the right thing to do. There was a small bit of tightness in the calf the last night at the start of training so it’s nothing major. I would be okay to play this weekend if we had a game this weekend so should be fine the week after.”
As Kerry were going to town on Louth in Portlaoise, White was scanning for updates on the Cork-Mayo game.
“I was on the phone in the stand, when we were a nice bit up I was keeping an eye on it. We weren’t expecting it, to tell you the truth,” he says.
“We just kind of presumed we’d be looking forward to a prelim quarter-final. That wasn’t taking Louth for granted or anything like that, we just thought that was the way it was going to go. But look it, we’ll take it. It’s certainly a surprise but the week off is definitely a big help.”
The schedule for the teams playing in the preliminary quarter-finals means the winners will be entering the quarter-finals proper facing a third championship game in as many weeks.
There are likely to be some alterations to the championship format in the seasons ahead and this inaugural year of the new format is something of a test bed. White feels slightly bigger gaps between matches would be beneficial for the players.
“I suppose down through the years players have been saying the more games, the better. In Kerry if you won a Munster championship you might have had a break of six or seven weeks. It was just too long.
“When you’re training, it’s probably hard to keep up the motivation levels up for a longer period of time, so I’m certainly a big fan of [this format].
“Obviously, with that comes huge challenges. If you’re playing three games in three weeks over the next few weeks, it’s going to bring obvious challenges with injuries and being fresh and whatever.
“I suppose if I had to tweak anything it would be the two weeks – having a game every two weeks is probably optimal. But it certainly makes it a bit interesting that if you come second or third, you’re playing straight away rather than in two weeks. I think the next month will show how tweaks can be made but apart from that I’m very happy with it.
“It was probably a slow burner at the start from the outside looking in, but last weekend probably showed it’s worth keeping.”
