ALL-IRELAND FINAL COUNTDOWN: Quill and Long aiming to return Kerry to the top

It wasn’t quite akin to the coming together of Ian Paisley and Martin McGuiness but when word was announced that a Narrie, Declan Quill, and a Rockie, Darragh Long, were to join forces at the helm of Kerry ladies football it certainly created a stir in their home town of Tralee.

How could two staunch rivals from opposite ends of the town who played for clubs that had a mutual dislike for each other come together and for any time of amicable relationship. It wasn’t as if the two lads were insignificant bit part players for the Kerins O’Rahilly’s or Austin Stacks either as they would both have been recognized as talismanic forwards for their respective outfits.

They were both good enough to play Kerry minor together in 1999 (Quill, a year younger than Long played again in 2000) but even putting togging out in a Kerry dressing room together didn’t seal any sort of friendship. In fact, the first time that the two dashing forwards had any sort of meaningful conversation was when Long picked up the phone to ring Quill.

“We were obviously rivals for a long, long time between playing a minor county league final against each other, and playing senior games against each other,” Quill recalled.

“Darragh rang me out of the blue one day wondering would I get involved with him with the Kerry minors. I thought that he was mad at first, the only experience I had was putting the ladies team together at Strand Road for three or four years. We did quite well out of it, and we had a lovely team put together, but I wasn’t expecting this.”

It wasn’t just a love of football that the two ace corner forwards down the road had in common and interestingly enough they ended up marrying two Waterford women that were only a stones throw away from each other.

“We wouldn’t have been friendly at all really for two guys that married two Waterford women that lived straight across the road from each other down in Waterford”, Quill laughed.

“We didn’t really hang out together or anything like that. Our wives lived within fifteen yards of each other, and they grew up together.

“I didn’t have any real grá for Kerry ladies football or anything like that. I would always have kept an eye on what was going on, but I had no real interest in it as such. I kind of agreed to go in; he sold it to me and told me that it would only be a couple of months and that the minor competition would be over and that I’d have the rest of the summer to myself and all this kind of stuff.

“I suppose myself and Darragh have just gelled really as co-managers. I suppose people were wondering how it work at the start; I mean what is a co-manager and who does what? Four years later we’re still at it”.

When Quill and Long initially took the reins as the new Kerry senior managers after a year with the minor team they held a press briefing at the Currans Centre of Excellence.

Like the two young potato gatherers in the Frank O’Connor short story, Quill and Long were full of enthusiasm for what lay ahead. They were bold enough to proclaim what they wanted to achieve, even if their lofty ambition of lifting an All-Ireland within four years did raise a couple of eyebrows.

“Was it a bit of a fantasy for us? Maybe it was but it was something that myself and Darragh had our eyes on; that we wanted to take that group to the big day. At the time we were behind the contenders like Cork and Dublin both physically and skill wise and game plan wise and all that. We were a good bit behind, and it’s probably taken the girls three year to get the standard up to scratch, and they’re flying it at the moment and playing brilliant football.

“We stressed as well that we wanted to get out of Division Two; I remember us saying that it was our goal. We were very hopeful of getting out the first year and we were going brilliantly until Covid struck and the competition was cancelled. The second year we did very well and again we were just beaten in the final, and I think we underestimated Meath a small bit maybe.

“The other thing that was in the back of our mind was getting to an All-Ireland semi-final at least, and maybe contesting an All-Ireland final. They’re the things that we had planned out; myself and Darragh didn’t go into this and put in hours and hours of work into it just to be reaching quarter finals and to be beaten in the group; we always had our eyes set on an All-Ireland final. It might have sounded far-fetched at the time but it’s something that we put a huge emphasis on this year”.

So much emphasis in fact that the management marked the date of the final on the wall at their very first meeting with the players at the start of this season, and the goal was set for the year ahead.

“We marked a date in the calendar for the girls and we told them that we were going to be in an All-Ireland final this year. I think some of them thought that we were mad but as the season progressed and the results were getting better and when we won the league final a lot more of them started to believe," said Quill.

“That’s why maybe we’re playing quite good football at the moment and the belief is gone through the roof in the group. I think the bit of silverware back on April 10th was a huge thing and it gave them massive confidence when winning a tight game in Croke Park, and you know this team has a great record and have lost very few games over the last couple of years. Winning is a habit, and it’s a habit that we got into, and we are hopeful for one more game but it’s a mountain to climb yet; we’re well aware of that”.

When Declan Quill speaks, he is constantly referencing the word ‘belief’. It’s like it has become as much a part of the training regime as any sprints, drills or S&C. The mental side will have to be mastered as well as the physical side. Ironically enough, Meath began to believe in themselves also when they mastered Kerry in the 2021 National League Division Two Final.

“I think a few of the Meath girls said to Louise at the All-Star banquet that the big thing was that they started to believe in themselves, and look at where that took them. I think that the girls realise that they have a massive chance to win an All-Ireland medal.

“They have a huge day ahead of them and an amount of work to do before that but we’re looking forward now; the past is the past and we’ve brought these girls along for three years and we’ve lost a few along the way, but the main group is together. We have some fantastic characters inside in that dressing room and they are driving the whole thing themselves really”.

This season it’s been noticeable that the skill levels of the Kerry players have gone through the roof. Gone are the sloppy turnovers and wild shots at goal that have dogged the team in the past; they are even scoring goals for fun now and have amassed thirteen in this years Championship so far. So how have Kerry gone from treating the ball like a hot potato to caressing it like a new born baby? Declan Quill has a simple answer to the question.

“It's the intensity at training”, he said. “Take for example Louise (Ní Mhuircheartaigh); she’s on some terrier every night tearing out of her, be it Kayleigh Cronin or Julie O’Sullivan or Aoife Dillane; Aoife’s a really good player on the panel for her first year, and she gives nothing soft to anybody.

“You’ve Danielle (O’Leary) in the other corner being hounded by Eilis Lynch, really tight battles and Anna Galvin out in the middle of the field against Scan, and against Cait, and they giving nothing easy to each other. That has really brought us on. I think that our panel is really strong; we brought on five girls the last day and any of the five of those could be starting on the team, it’s just that the girls that are in there already have taken their chances and have gotten in ahead of them.

“A huge example of this is Erica McGlynn; she had a fantastic league and she played out of her skin on Sunday. She was fantastic against Galway, and I thought that it was one of her best performances. A physical presence and she worked her socks off that day.

“Unfortunately, she got an infection in her kidneys afterwards and was in hospital for quite a while and lost that little bit of momentum and that bit of training, and Siofra got in the door and did very well against Westmeath and did very well in the last two games.

“The same thing might have happened with Caoimhe Evans who had a very good league as well and we might have changed Niamh Carmody from the wing to centre half forward and it just worked out for us. You know these girls have just come on and they are brilliant team mates to the girls; they are pushing every night and competition is huge in the panel.

Whilst Meath stole the heart of the nation last season with the drama and emotion of their All-Ireland win, they certainly mix the beautiful game with an aesthetically unpleasant defensive system that has served them well. When they have to come out and play football, they do so to devastating effect and Quill says that Kerry will be wary of what ever type of plan that the Royals bring.

“You’re looking at them having thirteen or maybe fourteen girls inside the ’45 and they are a good physical team, but we have good ball players, and we have girls that are well able to use the heads, good footballers with good football brains so we’ll work towards our strengths and see where it takes us.

“Watching the second-half of their semi-final against Donegal; we were sitting in the Hogan Stand after coming out from a bite to eat and they just totally changed their style of play: they pressed up on Donegal, they put more pressure on their kick outs and they moved the ball a lot faster than they had done in the first half and played a different style.; they pressed up on Donegal, they put more pressure.

“So, we’re going to have to counteract two or three things as well but look we’re going to focus a small bit on them, but an awful lot on ourselves. We’re going to be sitting down to try and get it right. We’ll look at our system and we’ll look at our own play and what we can improve there and we’ll go Plan A, B, C and D.

“If we’re winning well, if we’re behind, we need to be ready to go and we’ll have these girls very well prepared for what happens on the day. Hopefully whatever we go with will work and we’re just one step away from being All Ireland champions and it’s a huge prize that’s on offer; Kerry haven’t done it in 27 years and it’s something that we really want, you know”.

Declan Quill gives us a rundown on the management.

Darragh Long (Joint Manager)

“I think that we work well together; he has his strengths and does the jobs that need to be done. He’s the big contact with the County Board and takes a lot of that heat off me from dealing with that kind of stuff. I do a lot of the other sides of it like video analysis and organizing food and stuff like that. We do our own jobs, and we know what kind of jobs we have and it seems to be working”.

Geraldine O’Shea (Selector)

“Geraldine O’Shea who was on that last winning team in 1993 as a fifteen year old and scored 1-2 in the final and she’s given so many years to Kerry ladies football. She has a brilliant brain. You learn something new off of her every time you talk to her. If Geraldine tells you something, you listen to it. If she tells you that you’re going to win you can nearly be sure of it because she has everything sussed out”.

Anna Maria O’Donoghue (Selector)

“Anna Maria has been around Kerry football for ages, training U/14 teams, U/16 teams, she does her school football with ISK, and is a really really sharp coach. Anna Maria really knows her stuff and is a hugely important asset to the management team.”

Cassandra Buckley (Strength and Conditioning)

“Cassandra has played with Kerry up to recently and has the girls in great fettle and is a brilliant S&C coach. She’s still playing club football and is well tuned in to what players need. A really top class coach who is brilliant with the players”.

Michelle O'Connor (Sports Psychiatrist)

“She played in goals for Kerry and her dad David was a big part of Kerry ladies as well for a number of years before he passed away. She’s working a lot on the mental side of the game with the girls. We see with the Limerick hurlers how important working on the mental side of things is, and I think that Michelle is really helping us along as well. She is a brilliant professional, and brilliant craic also”.

Laura Fitzgerald (Goalkeeper Coach)

“Laura has played in goals for Kerry and she got a long term injury and probably won’t ever play ever again with the type of injury that she has, but she has our two goalies in tip top shape and we are lucky to have her”.

Sophie Houlihan (Physio)

“Sophie is just like one of the girls; she’s on the line, she’s as nervous as anyone else, she’s as intense before games. Before the last two training sessions she’s like ‘oh don’t let anyone get injured please’. If someone goes down in training, she’s like ‘oh no what’s this now’, and she’s running in hoping and praying!”

The County Board

"We’re getting great back up from Selina (Chairperson Selina Looney) and all the lads that are involved in the County Board have given us everything that we want and have been so good to us. Seán (Walsh) before Selina was brilliant as well, and a real joy to work with."