In what must seem like no time to Pat O'Shea his career as Kerry manager is about to begin. He has taken the reins of a county which has won two All-Irelands, two National Football Leagues and two Munster titles in the space of three years.

It's no secret O'Shea's predecessor Jack O'Connor would have been more than welcome to stay on had he wished to. So, no pressure there, Pat?

"I'd be telling you a lie if I said that everyone I spoke to prior to taking up the position were positive about me taking it up. A lot of people felt that it was the wrong time and that it was a poisoned chalice and all of that but I could only see positives, to be honest. It's probably the biggest job in football and outside of the Dublin job, possibly the biggest in terms of media attention."

A highly qualified technical coach and development officer, O'Shea was catapulted into the job after O'Connor's departure and widely seen as the only suitable candidate.

From a tactical point of view he arrives at an interesting juncture. In response to last year's Munster final defeat, Kerry improvised a way back to the table by throwing a rookie centerfielder up to full forward and scorching to the All-Ireland, as Kieran Donaghy rewrote football manuals.

"Kerry going back to the very direct model of last year and having someone of the capability of Kieran Donaghy inside definitely gave the team an added option," says O'Shea. "It made swarming and double teaming difficult for teams and pressurised defending was made more difficult because the ball was going in so early."

As someone who would be more associated with a short, movement game, the new Kerry manager could find himself tactically strait-jacketed by the revived traditionalism that effectively won the county last year's All-Ireland.

"It only confines you if you allow it," he says. "We would hope to improve other aspects of our game. The whole idea is that you have a number of options so that it's not just one particular tactic because if that's stopped you're in trouble, but I think what Kieran gave Kerry last year was a primary ball winner in a very important position.

"If we can accommodate that with maybe a little bit of extra movement and controlled ball then maybe we might have more options."

Immediately the task is to travel to Mayo, now under the management of John O'Mahony - another who ended up with an offer he couldn't refuse after an unexpected resignation - to revisit the All-Ireland final in which the Connacht champions were demolished.

But there is also the longer-term pressure of knowing that success in the league has become more and more a stamp of All-Ireland credentials. Failure to reach the semi-finals in the past two years has gone hand-in-hand with All-Ireland failure for both Tyrone and Kerry - something not lost on O'Shea.

"We'll be striving to the utmost to do well because it has stood to us. We'll see how the results stand at the end of the year. The extra games at that time of the year would be superb and whoever gets them will benefit enormously. We would hope that it would be Kerry.

"It's going to be a very competitive league. We've four away matches in Donegal, Fermanagh - two long journeys - Mayo and Dublin. It's a tough schedule and in the end can hinge on scoring difference and draws and things going your way.

"There's no guarantee. With the Australian trip and Kerry in the All-Ireland last September pushing back the club schedules I would say we're a little bit behind the other counties but we'll see as the league goes on."