With his mind made up, Peter Keane is now heading into the lions’ den.
Immediately after guiding Kerry to their second All-Ireland minor title in as many years, Peter Keane would give absolutely nothing away about his future intentions.
There had been murmurs around the county that the Caherciveen native would make the step-up from minor to senior boss to replace Eamonn Fitzmaurice, but Keane made it his business to quell the fire on All-Ireland final day.
“You could never say no in a situation in Kerry,” he said, when asked on TG4 if he’d take the job were it offered to him.
“It’s not like you’re asking me will we go for a cup of tea in 20 minutes and we’ll have quick cup of tea and that’ll be great. This is a commitment for three or four years if you’re going doing it,” he said.
Plenty of cups of tea have been drank in a month and now Peter Keane, according to reports from the Irish Examiner, is ready and willing to take on one of the toughest, most demanding jobs in the inter-county game.
We contacted the Kerry County Board to find out more information, and they informed us that details of the new manager will be confirmed at the county board meeting next Monday.
Maurice Fitzgerald had been dubbed as the favourite for the top job in Kerry, but the above reports claim that he may be a part of Keane’s backroom team as a selector. There is also still a live chance of Donie Buckley being involved.
Kerry folk are renowned for their ambition and their expectations. Former manager Paudie O’Shea famously once dubbed them as ‘the roughest type of f***ing animals you could ever deal with.’
More recently, Eamonn Fitzmaurice mentioned the large amounts of hate-mail he’d received from those within the county regarding perceived mistakes he’d made while in the hot-seat.
So Keane is going straight into the fire. He has plenty of managerial experience, having managed his home club St Mary’s, to an All-Ireland junior title in 2011, having managed stars like David Clifford as a minor, but this will be the biggest test of his career.
