Seventh All-Ireland final beckons for Kerry's self-styled football outsider
Declan Bogue Reports from Croke Park
MENTION TO JACK O’Connor that he is heading for his seventh All-Ireland final, and he throws it on to the players.
“This group have been in a few finals like. They were here in ‘22, ‘23…,” he begins.
“They were here in ‘19, sorry — ‘19, ‘22, ‘23 — so this will be their fourth final, most of those boys.
“Paul Murphy, Paul Geaney were there in ‘14. And ‘15. So there is a good bit of experience in the group, yeah.”
And what it means, of course?
“Sure of course it counts. Where it counts more than anything is in the build-up to it. You know to avoid getting carried away in the euphoria of the thing, and keeping the main thing the main thing, if you know what I mean.
“Keeping your priorities right, and keeping the focus on arriving here in your best physical and mental condition. To play the game rather than the occasion.”
If there is one thing he laments, in what he calls the ‘old days’, it was the month of a lead-in to the final. But that can’t be helped either.
The season starts with the bang of a gun and teams have to put their head down to make the early yards. There’s barely a chance to get the head up and see where everyone else is. All you can do is take nothing for granted, and Tyrone are not a side that O’Connor has learned to take for granted.
“Tyrone had some big results that almost went under the radar. They beat Donegal above in Ballybofey, very few teams do that. I don’t think it was picked up too much in the media,” said O’Connor.
“Beat Dublin here; I don’t care what they say about Dublin, Dublin are still a hard team to beat here in Croke Park. They would have come into this game with a lot of confidence and there was lot a noise about our game, which meant Tyrone were coming in under the radar.
“I thought that showed early on. I thought, in the first 15 minutes, Tyrone were the better team. They settled quicker and had us in a lot of bother on breaking ball around the middle of the field. As soon as we got to terms with that, I thought the game changed and David’s goal settled us.”
The kickout count was heavily in Tyrone’s favour before Kerry arrested that. In the second half, Tyrone simply couldn’t cope. A good part of that was the man sitting beside O’Connor in the press briefing. Gavin White won three break balls from Niall Morgan’s kickout in the third quarter alone.
“No better man than this man here,” said O’Connor of the Dr Crokes man.
“That was the thing that was killing us early on. There was a bit of a disconnect between Shane’s kickouts and fellas getting to the pitch of the breaks. We spoke about that at half-time and that was a big factor in the second half.”
This win was less of the Catherine Wheel spectacular of the win over Armagh, but it could have been even more impressive. It doesn’t feel like a performance is being magicked up out of nowhere.
“It was a more rounded performance because I thought that spell against Armagh was a bit freakish. It was like they just couldn’t get their kickout away and we kept the ball up that end of the field,” said O’Connor.
“I think this was a more rounded performance because Tyrone are very big around the middle of the field, Kennedy and Kilpatrick are big men and they have a lot of targets, and Morgan has a serious weapon of a kickout. The two boys (O’Shea and O’Brien) plugged away great for most of the game, and then Joe finished up midfield and what a game Joe had. Powerful game, he is getting better all the time.”
Kerry supporters have had all sorts of things thrown at them. Occasionally, outsiders paint a pretty vulgar picture of their assessments of players.
But this team seem to be reaching for a deeper connection. You can see it in David Clifford most of all. He has been appealing for greater turnouts of fans, and when he plundered his first-half goal here, made a huge show of trying to raise the decibel level among the Kerry support.
It’s working.
“I mean it was no secret that Armagh seriously outnumbered us here at this stage last year,” said O’Connor.
“And I know I got stick for it but I said at the time that they were a factor in the game. And I don’t think anyone could dispute that.
“(The) Kerry crowd were a factor today big time. So delighted with that. The support travel in huge numbers.
“And long may it continue. I mean these boys are giving everything for the cause. And they’re playing good football. So they deserve to be supported. And we’re delighted that, you know, I don’t have the language to describe it.
“But it’s working both ways, you know. They’re getting energy from the crowd. And the crowd are getting energy from the players.”
Meanwhile, O’Connor noted at the end of his press conference that Paul and Conor Geaney, along with Tom O’Sullivan, will be in a position to make a contribution in the final.
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