Eamonn Fitzmaurice says Kerry's long layoff to the start of the championship may not be a bad thing after yesterday's trouncing by Cork.

The Kerry boss had expressed reservations about the 11-week break, but changed his mind after seeing the Kingdom slump to their heaviest defeat in 24 years to their arch-rivals.

"This morning if you asked me about the gap, I would have been giving out about it. I think I'm happy to have it now because we've a lot to work on," he said.

"It does seem a bit strange, alright, that we've played 10 competitive games so far in the first three months of the year. If you go the whole way, you've five for the rest of the year.

"But we've a lot to work on, we need the gap, we wouldn't want to be playing championship in a week or two's time now. We're going to Portugal Thursday week and after that, we'll train twice a week, Tuesday, Thursday. The lads will have club games right up to the week of the Clare/Waterford game."

Fitzmaurice is confident that Darran O'Sullivan will be fit for the championship after he was forced off with a hamstring injury not long after coming on as a sub for Donnachadh Walsh.

"We have time on our side. We're not playing until 11 weeks today so we'll get Darran right and he'll be fine come championship." Tweet

Most Read Stories