7 days ago
Aaron Kernan plots out Kieran Donaghy's coaching path after leaving Armagh
Aaron Kernan believes that Kieran Donaghy is a Kerry manager in waiting.
Donaghy recently stepped down from his role as Armagh coach after five years working under Kieran McGeeney, the high point being last year's All-Ireland success as they beat his native county en route in the semi-final.
Kerry turned the tables in this year's quarter-final as they ended Armagh's reign, after which Donaghy announced his departure, but former Orchard star Kernan believes that he will take a senior position in the Kingdom's management team in the future.
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'Yeah, absolutely,' he said. 'Whether that is as a manager or certainly a head coach or someone who is heavily involved within Kerry.
'As much as we're grateful for everything he gave to Armagh football, you would have to imagine that that was all really a learning experience for him in terms of trying to take something back to Kerry, whether that's maybe doing a stint with Stacks and then obviously you would have to imagine ultimately it would be with the view to getting involved in Kerry football and management at some level.
'So I think it started out maybe as a learning experience for him and then something that he just went full out and became completely ingrained in. But yeah, you would have to imagine that somewhere down the line, the experiences and the learnings that he would have had over the past few years will go a long way to shaping him as a head coach or a manager somewhere in Kerry in the near future.'
Kernan paid tribute to Donaghy for the commitment he gave to Armagh, which involved a hellish commute from his base in Tralee.
'The big one is obviously just simply time and effort that he would have had to put in to commit for five years. I think that speaks volumes, even if there was no success and no All-Ireland. As an Armagh person you couldn't but say fair play to him for being so committed. (He) has a young family, busy with work, but to stick at something like that for five years given the travel that was involved was incredible.'
Aaron Kernan was speaking as a BOYLE Sports Gaelic Games ambassador.
