Kerry junior football manager Stephen Wallace has reached tomorrow's All-Ireland final by placing an emphasis on youth.
Seven of the Kingdom squad - which will lock horns with Cavan in tomorrow's All-Ireland decider at O'Moore Park Portlaoise - are eligible for county U21 action again in 2015.
"I nailed my colours to the mast early on in terms of wanting to promote young players this year. I wanted to give youth its fling and so far so good," Wallace told The Irish Examiner.
"A lot of them at minor and U21 level have unfortunately missed their chance. They had one U21 game this year, what was the alternative? Leave them off and let them return to the intercounty scene in 2015. They have a chance here of winning a junior All-Ireland.
"I think a lot of them grew up in Cusack Park, Ennis against Sligo. We were after playing with a strong breeze and we were going down the tunnel at half-time tied at 0-8 apiece. Serious questions were asked, we had a few choice words with them and a lot of them stood up. Next year's U21 team will benefit from our campaign and I think a lot of these lads will play National League for [Eamonn] Fitzmaurice next spring.
"We are going up confident, but they are very young in comparison with what they are going up against. We got a dream start against Cork in the Munster final, we got an early goal and the lads drove on from there. Cork cut it back to four early in the second half. We made a couple of substitutions and ended up winning by 10 points. Monkey off the back."
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