Peter Keane’s stewardship of the county seniors has started sublimely with five wins in their first five outings, the injection of so much new blood into the panel providing a massive transfusion for a squad that had lost yet more experience and a management team in the off-season.

But there’s more to it than just that. We are in the midst of the fourth season since the 22-year-old first joined up with the county seniors and, while he has a Munster medal and an All-Star nomination in the bank, he is yet to make an appearance in the Allianz League.

That’s quite an oddity. His call-up in 2016 came after his Leaving Cert and he passed the summer soaking up the scene from the fringes of the squad. Another club run through to March 17 followed in 2017 and then injury kept him beyond the whitewash again last spring.

“That’s the reason I’m looking forward to it after Patrick’s Day,” he explained. “I want to play league football. It is a different type of football to championship so we’re hoping that Paddy’s Day goes well and, who knows, we might be out the following week against Roscommon.

“That’s down to Peter and the management but I’m more than willing to go back in.”

He looks back now and wonders what might have been under different circumstances but there is the realisation with it that there would have been no guarantee of an earlier bow had he been available to play a part in one or other Division One campaign before this. The clutch of rookies who have hit the ground running this year have done so under the watchful eye of Keane, whose familiarity with them as minors has undoubtedly aided their progression up the game’s pyramid, but that’s no slight on Éamonn Fitzmaurice.

Far from it. It was the previous Kerry manager who placed his trust in White, and half-a-dozen other rookies, for the Munster Championship opener against Clare at Fitzgerald Stadium last summer when there was little in the way of form to base it on.

It was my first real football game since Nemo (Rangers) before the Christmas. I had played bits of football up until then but, from a competitive point of view, that was my first. There was pressure on me. There will be pressure any time you play, but when it is your debut there will be more.

“There was pressure on Éamonn as well,” he added. “There were questions marks at the time as to why I was thrown in with so little senior football in me. Thankfully I did alright and they were happy enough with my performances.”

Alright doesn’t quite capture it. White rounded the year off with an All-Star nomination, his abilities and raw pace proving to be a boon for a side that ended the year on a low in the Super 8s having looked so set through a romp of a provincial campaign. Ultimately, they paid a painfully high price for a very bad day in HQ against Galway.

“I suppose we did. When you look at the Super 8s, the Galway game and the Monaghan game were so close to each other, it gave us very little time to settle ourselves and regroup. We did pay a very high price for that — that’s for us to take.

“If there would have been an extra two weeks between the games, would it have made the difference? I’m not sure. Maybe it all adds up. A lot of teams who had a bad start might have regrouped from that. We did it to the best of our capabilities.”

The mood has turned again since, not least because of a pulsating night in Tralee last month which White took in from the stands as Keane’s new-look Kerry stood up to, and ultimately took down, Dublin on their own patch. The Crokes defender doesn’t doubt the value of that but he doesn’t see the point in overpricing it either. It was, still, a league game in February between two sides light on personnel. Another meeting, in Croke Park in the final, would amount to a hell of a lot more.

“We’d be looking forward to whoever comes down the line if we are in the league final. From a spectacle point of view, people would like Kerry-Dublin but we won’t mind if it’s anyone else, as long as we’re in a league final. Hopefully we can get over the next game or two to cement that.”

He may even get a game himself.