FORMER Kerry ace Marc O Se believes the “fighting instinct” picked up during his AFL days will help Conor McKenna bring an extra edge to Tyrone heading into this year’s Championship.
McKenna enjoyed a successful six-year stint with Essendon before returning home last month, and has since joined up with Mickey Harte’s Red Hand panel as they plot their All-Ireland assault.
Quite apart from the physical attributes McKenna brings after being immersed in a professional environment since his teenage years, O Se feels the mental toughness brought home from Australia cannot be underestimated.
The An Ghaeltacht stalwart, a five-time All-Ireland winner, was part of the Kingdom panels when Tadhg Kennelly and Tommy Walsh returned, with Kennelly a major player as Kerry landed the 2009 All-Ireland title.
And he expects Tyrone to benefit from McKenna’s experience Down Under.
“They do bring back that professionalism, they bring that kind of tough mentality,” said O Se.
“What I found about players coming home from Australia, particularly Tommy and Tadhg, they were very mature, because you have to go out there on your own, you have to fend for yourself - basically that fighting instinct in you, and that kind of reverberates around the whole team.
“I think that will be great for the team when he [McKenna] comes back in. There’s a huge challenge going to Australia, it’s either sink or swim. They certainly had that never-say-die attitude, and it was something we noticed in training.
“I even remember in training sessions watching Tadhg Kennelly work on sideline kicks and players moving to create space for other players, and it was something that even Jack O’Connor as a manager embraced.
“Here was a fella coming in that was able to teach us something that helped our team, whether it was a decoy run, a fella moving into a space… there’s all sorts of nuggets like that.”
The inter-county season will resume later this month once club action has largely been completed around the country, an indication of what lies ahead in years to come as momentum behind a split season increases.
As manager with Linstry in Kerry, and a man who played at the top level for so long, O Se can see the benefits of the proposal from all sides.
However, he also feels there is a need to “scrap” competitions like the Dr McKenna Cup, O’Byrne Cup, McGrath Cup and FBD League to alleviate the burden on inter-county players.
“It was refreshing because you had access to your players, players didn’t have to be second guessing if an inter-county team won or lost.
“In this system they would be able to plan a holiday, there’s a distinct time for the club season and the inter-county season, that’s really important. In a given scenario, as it was, inter-county players would be back to the club on Thursday night - now what can you achieve on a Thursday night, between then and a Sunday?
“You would have them for one training session, where if you have players at your disposal at all times, everyone is there, everyone knows what the system is.
“That said, it’s the inter-county player who’s still going to be suffering because all of a sudden he has this long, drawn out season. In theory, it’s very good, but the GAA need to sit down and look at certain competitions.
“In my view, there is no place for them, the McKenna Cups, McGrath Cups, O’Byrne, FBD… they need to be done away with. The emphasis needs to be put on the National League, the provincial Championships.
“I also think the Sigerson needs to get a special mention – college football is fantastic. That needs to be looked at. If anything this pandemic has taught us we’re very adaptable and for the sake of the club player, the inter-county player, the whole thing needs to be reviewed.
“I would scrap all of those competitions at the start of the year.”
