Tony Leen
SO who’ll lead Kerry now? No, I know that Bryan Sheehan and Killian Young will share the captaincy, but who will actually lead Kerry in defence of their All-Ireland title in 2010?
Time was when if Seamus Moynihan wasn’t there, Eamonn Fitzmaurice was. And then came Dara O Cinnéide. When O Cinnéide went, there was Declan O’Sullivan, and, for all his idiosyncrasies, Paul Galvin.
The Ó Sé’s were always there in a jam, and there was always Darragh, defending the realm. Maybe the midfield maestro has been playing with his head and employing his tactical smarts to get by these past two campaigns, but he’s been there, in the dressing room. A presence.
Note what his erstwhile colleague and current selector Fitzmaurice said in an article for this newspaper after their 35th Championship success in 2007. “All the current Kerry panel would have been fans of Darragh Ó Sé the footballer before he became Darragh Ó Sé the team-mate. They would have learned from the sidelines before soldiering with him. When he speaks, they soak it up.”
With Darragh gone, Mike Mac on the brink and Diarmuid Murphy retired too, the Kerry captaincy should now belong to  Tomás Ó Sé but for the antiquated ‘honour’ of county champions nominating the skipper. You’ll hear plenty of rabbiting about ‘natural leaders’ not needing an armband, but look around - they’re in short supply.
Tomás, perhaps back to Declan O’Sullivan, or even Paul Galvin.
Galvin! Well, if you were Jack O’Connor and you needed to keep the talisman/liability (delete as per your perspective) between the tramlines, you have three options: 1) jettison him, too much trouble and strife at this stage; 2) deliver last chance saloon speech, repeat the riot act delivered so effectively in 2004 after an altercation against Limerick, or 3) provide him with new responsibilities like the vice-captaincy.
Don’t underestimate Jack’s capacity to kick ass here (Option 2). Despite all the pious platitudes, he’s been planning for life without Darragh for a few seasons and the Galvin issue is a greater concern going forward. Is he going to be a liability every time Cork or Tyrone are in opposition? Jack is beyond the pressure-point this time around, his legacy secure after another (his third) All-Ireland. And he hates being held to ransom by anyone. It cracked him up in previous years to be relying on a particular defender who’s head was too often up his own rear end.
Galvin was rightly rattled when a seething O’Connor bellowed down the phone to him after pucking a Limerick defender in the stomach at the Gaelic Grounds six years ago - so much so, he thought his Kerry career was over before it began. Galvin may be six years older and four All-Ireland medals richer now, but the prospect of having his career in green and gold terminated would destroy him.
Jack O’Connor should put Galvin on notice now, irrespective of his level of culpability at Páirc Ui Rinn last Saturday night. Spare us the 'provocation' muck, too. Poring over video evidence to construct an appeal case for a player does not constitute good time management for any County Board, not least when there’s plenty of previous.
This is not the kind of leadership All-Ireland champions require. Darragh Ó Sé’s retirement strips Kerry of another go-to figure in the dressing room (Tadhg Kennelly, Diarmuid Murphy and Tommy Walsh already gone) and if Galvin is hit with a double whammy suspension, that’s him out of the equation until May. At the moment, there’s inexperience in goals, in the full and half-back lines and up front. The old guard is disappearing fast and the young guns are showing nothing like the form they promised in flashes last season.

Cork were cleaned out at midfield, were in all sorts of bother at full-back, played two-thirds of the game with thirteen men and still were handy winners last Saturday night.
Kerry have enough other issues to be getting on with - like dusting down those hibernating elders to rescue their Division One campaign. They’re talking about all able-bodied men being back in harness for the Division One tie with Derry on the first weekend or March. That might mean Colm Cooper but it won’t mean Tomás Ó Sé or Mike McCarthy.
I spotted McCarthy walking down the street in Castleisland last Saturday with his wife and newborn son and it struck me that “the biggest challenge” that Jack O’Connor referred to yesterday will be just that.
There’s plenty of fodder there to test the Kerry management - and while they’re getting on with Galvin, they’ll be teasing out the pros and cons of drafting Kieran Donaghy out from the edge of the square to partner Seamus Scanlon.
A decision that might be made easier if Tommy Walsh wasn’t 12,000 miles away.