COULD ONE SIMPLE catch have altered the course of Liam Kearns’ management career, ultimately preventing him from ever getting a shot at managing his native Kerry?

The catch was Darragh Ó Sé’s, in front of his own crossbar at the end of the drawn 2004 Munster final, and it denied then Limerick manager Kearns what would have been the most remarkable triumph of that era.

Limerick could have won the replay too but were eventually beaten and Kearns, when his stint with the Shannonsiders finished up, went on to enjoy relative success with Tipperary, Laois and most recently Offaly before his unexpected passing last weekend.

Liam Kearns. Brian Reilly-Troy / INPHO Brian Reilly-Troy / INPHO / INPHO

He is among the game’s most influential management figures of the last 20 years yet still never got a chance with Kerry, something Ó Sé’s younger brother, Kerry great Tomas, reckons could have been different if Limerick had won that game in 2004.

“I don’t know, the politics of Kerry football are complicated enough,” said five-time All-Ireland winner Ó Sé before homing in on that near miss in 2004. “I’m not sure, I’d say had he won with Limerick it would have been very hard to overlook him. And they were very, very close that time.

“But he was based up the country, he was working up the country. I’m not sure if that makes any difference nowadays – Kerry have a coach who is travelling from Tyrone. I don’t actually know why he was overlooked but he certainly had the qualities.

“You saw the rugby lads there last weekend and the hardest thing is to get a team to show up and actually perform at three o’clock on a Sunday, or whenever you need to perform, and he had that ability.

“Every single team he had, he got the very most out of them. And he kept them together. Yeah, his name was bandied about every time (a Kerry vacancy arose). Was it taken serious? I don’t know. I don’t know how seriously it was taken within the county in terms of county board level.”

If things had worked out only slightly differently, Ó Sé would have taken on the Offaly job himself last year, instead of Kearns. The schoolteacher was poised to step up from the role of coach to manager when John Maughan left but a change in work circumstances prompted him to pull out. He was later confirmed as the Kerry U-20 manager.

“Basically I was going to go at it in Offaly,” confirmed Ó Sé at the launch of the EirGrid 2023 All-Ireland U-20 championship. “But another opportunity then came up for work and I took it. I know now I made the right decision. It’s hectic, even with the U-20s and travelling. There was longer travelling to Offaly and I think an inter-county job in terms of the organising of it, I’m not sure would I have the full experience of running an inter-county team.”

For all of those reasons, Ó Sé hasn’t any particular grá to manage an inter-county senior team anytime soon. Offaly may sound him out again about becoming Kearns’ long-term replacement – Martin Murphy has taken over the Faithful on an interim basis – but Ó Sé said he wouldn’t be interested.

“I couldn’t take an inter-county senior job right now, not a hope,” he said. “Where I’m living…look, I’m not going to get the Cork job. I’m not going to take the Cork job either! So you’re going to be travelling. I wouldn’t be able to do it.”

As for managing Kerry at some stage, he shook his head.

“I wouldn’t even have the right to think about it,” said the former wing-back. “There isn’t a plan there, there isn’t. I’m just trying to do what I’m doing at the moment and to see where it takes the Kerry U-20s.”

Landing a first EirGrid All-Ireland U-20 title since 2008 would raise Ó Sé’s stock considerably. He admitted that gap ‘would have to be…a bit of a concern’ within the county and acknowledged that his principal job is to end the drought.

“Your job is to win an All-Ireland, like,” he said.

On the Kerry senior team’s current difficulties – the league and All-Ireland title holders have lost three of their five games - Ó Sé isn’t overly concerned.

“Kerry will have a National League and then they will have four or five weeks to Championship,” he said. “There are teams all over the country that don’t have that gap but Kerry do. Is it fair? I don’t think it’s fair but that’s the way the provincial championship is and that is the argument that is always there.

“So I wouldn’t worry about Kerry, Kerry will be there or thereabouts again this year and you can talk away….look, they’ll be focused on getting themselves right for the Championship.

“Then the argument is, ‘Is the Munster championship as tough as Ulster or Connacht?’ Probably not going by the last number of years. So Kerry have a lot more time than other teams around the country and they will have more players back. And Jack will have them right coming up to the Championship so they will be there or thereabouts this year again.”

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