WERE it not for some career-ending injuries, Aidan O'Shea might well have gone on to match some of the feats of his legendary father Jack in the green and gold of Kerry. After breaking into the Kerry senior panel in 2009, O'Shea appeared set to make a mark on the game at inter-county level before a succession of injury problems forced him to retire prematurely from all grades a couple of years later.
He has found some solace in taking up management however as he leads Mid-Kerry side Glenbeigh/Glencar into the All-Ireland Junior Club Final against Rock St Patricks of Tyrone on Sunday in Croke Park while he also manages at schools level with Mercy Mounthawk Tralee where he is employed as a teacher. How much has management filled the void left by the absence of being able to play for O'Shea? "Just a fraction I would say. You expect to be playing until at least 35 or 36 and it's tough when it's taken away from at age it was for me. I'm 31 now and it is getting a bit easier to deal with especially as management can distract you from thoughts about playing when you have to prepare a team. You still would like to be playing though," he said of having to give up the playing side so early.
The team he is currently manager of in Glenbeigh/Glencar have a bit of a chequered history in Kerry when it comes to trying to match the success of some of the other Kerry sides in this grade. The last five teams in the Kingdom to beat Darran O'Sullivan's club went on to win the Munster Junior title at worst afterwards making them an unwanted yardstick for success at Junior level. Division One status in the County League in Kerry (of which there are entering a third consecutive year in 2017) heightened expectations of success only for the club to flatter to deceive when it came to Championship. O'Shea explains how the club approached 2016 differently.
"We treated it more as a bonus (Junior Championship) to just being competitive at all levels we played in this year. With the expectations placed on us with our position in the County League we had to get the lads mindset right for each game we played in the Championship so as to not look beyond what was in front of us," he said. Victory in Kerry came after a replay with Tralee side Na Gaeil in the County Final while in Munster they became the ninth consecutive side from the county to win the provincial title. Their All-Ireland Semi-Final success over Louisburgh of Mayo was a strange one as they conceded the opening seven points of the game in the opening seven minutes before going on to record a 4-14 to 0-13 win. Reflecting on the game O'Shea agreed that Glenbeigh/Glencar were probably lucky such a run for their opponents didn't happen at any other stage.
"If Louisburgh had got a run like that at any other stage of the match it would have been difficult to come back from but I think to go ahead at half-time after such a bad start was a big psychological boost for us," he said of their semi-final win. O'Shea acknowledges that the challenge of Rock St Patricks brings both advantages in terms of the Tyrone side having lost to another Kerry team in Brosna in the Semi-Final two years ago but a disadvantage in Rock having competed in an All-Ireland Junior Final before.
"We've obviously been trying to gather as much information on them as we can, playing Brosna so recently is of benefit but when you consider they have been in Croke Park before and have won three county and three Ulster titles in the time it's taken us to come out of Kerry it gives you a good indication of what we are up against in the final."
