KERRY MANAGER ÉAMONN Fitzmaurice expects to find out during January whether long-serving trio Aidan O’Mahony, Kieran Donaghy and Colm Cooper will be part of the Kingdom setup for 2017.
O’Mahony (36), Donaghy (33) and Cooper (33) have yet to offically announce their intentions whether to stay on this season, or follow another veteran Marc Ó Sé into retirement.
The trio have all been part of the Kerry setup for over a decade, amassing 13 All-Ireland senior medals and 13 All-Star awards between them.
Cooper won Kerry and Munster senior medals with Dr Crokes at the close of the 2016 campaign and is now getting set for the All-Ireland club semi-final against Corofin next month.
“Aidan is still thinking about his future, Kieran the same while Colm is focused on the Crokes at the moment. I have nothing firm on any of those at the moment.
“I haven’t set any deadline as such but I would be expecting to hear from them during the month of January one way or the other.
“At that stage I think it is time to have made a call and be ready to move forward whether they are going again or not. But I would be expecting to know during this month either way.”
Kerry are scheduled to commence their 2016 campaign next Sunday in the McGrath Cup against Tipperary but Fitzmaurice has revealed that Jack O’Connor’s Kerry U21 side will fulfil that fixture.
The Kerry senior charges will return to action on 15 January against Cork.
“We are doing something slightly different in that the Kerry U-21’s are going to play Tipperary on Sunday. We (Kerry senior squad) are back training tonight (Tues) and we will have only two sessions under the belt.
“I spoke to Jack and we were looking at it and I was interested in looking at a share of the U21’s in the first couple of games.
“We said you what it makes sense for us as a management to look at the whole lot of them playing that first game.
“With regard to the senior squad there is a good lot of coming and going at the moment because of the club situation obviously with Glenbeigh/Glencar, Kenmare and (Dr) Crokes.
“So the Crokes players are going to stay with the Crokes until they are finished. Similarly with Darran O’Sullivan (Glenbeigh-Glencar) and Stephen O’Brien (Kenmare), who might do a small bit of training with us early in January but for the most part they will be with their clubs as well.”
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