Christy O'Connor: Making players commodities not answer to Kerry's AFL drain pain
Mark O'Connor of Dingle. Photo by David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile
Ten years ago, after the epic 2015 Cork-Kerry Munster minor semi-final, which Kerry won by one point after extra-time, the former Kerry player Micheál Ó Sé said that it was the best minor game he had seen “in 40 years”.
Ó Sé was more than qualified to make that judgement; for decades, he’d been the voice of inter-county minor hurling and football, having commentated in Irish on the All-Ireland minor finals for RTÉ before the rights switched to TG4.
Kerry mowed down all before them after that match en route to retaining their All-Ireland minor title, but they had diced with death that evening in Tralee. Cork had a glorious chance to kick the winner late in normal time, but Kerry’s inspirational midfielder Mark O’Connor made a 60-yard run back towards his own goal to block the shot.
It perfectly captured the broad range of O’Connor’s game, the rich amalgam of power, athleticism and class that defined him as one of the best young prospects in Gaelic football at that time.
Captaining Kerry to that minor title crowned a remarkable 18 months for O’Connor, who won four All-Irelands in Croke Park in that period, two with Kerry and two with Pobalscoil Chorca Dhuibhne. He was man-of-the-match in three of those four games, while O’Connor also captained PCD to the 2015 Hogan Cup.
“I normally don’t rave about a fella but this fella is very unique,” said Jack O’Connor, then Kerry minor manager, at the end of that 2015 season. “If Mark stays injury free and he applies himself, he has all the tools to become a truly great midfielder for Kerry.”
He had the pedigree of promise too through his family lineage, with O’Connor’s bloodlines stretching back to the famed ‘Gega’ O’Connor, who won five All-Irelands with Kerry between 1937-’48. O’Connor also has tradition on his mother’s side through Tommy Doyle, who won seven All-Irelands on Mick O’Dwyer’s great sides of the 1970s and 1980s.
O’Connor was drafted into the extended Kerry senior panel by Éamonn Fitzmaurice in 2016, but visions of him following in the footsteps of his forebears had evaporated by the end of that season as he had gone to the AFL.
Just one of just four Irishmen, along with fellow Kerryman Tadhg Kennelly, former Geelong teammate Zach Tuohy and Tyrone’s Conor McKenna, to have won an AFL Premiership, O’Connor became the first Irishman to play in three AFL Grand Finals back in September.
Unlike Kenneally, O’Connor’s only involvement in Kerry in the last decade has been through sporadic appearances with his club, Dingle. Now that he plays in Sunday’s county final, one of O’Connor’s direct Austin Stacks opponents, and one of the outstanding young prospects in Kerry, Ben Murphy, also appears to be headed for the AFL.
If Murphy signs with the Brisbane Lions next month, he will be the eighth Kerry player to join an AFL club in last 16 years, which is twice as many as any other county in that time. Not all of those Kerry players featured in Australia, or even stayed too long, but Kerry have naturally been up in arms over the exodus for years. And they want something in return to sooth the pain of the player-drain.
“Procedures will have to be put in place, where players cannot be taken without contributing to the club and counties who give so much to the development of these players,” said Kerry chairperson Patrick O’Sullivan at last year’s county convention.
Jack O’Connor backed up that stance in an interview with Tony Leen in January. “On the question of compensation, maybe it isn’t the county board getting recompense, but rather the clubs involved as they are the ones who nurture these players and put a lot of time into them,” said O’Connor. “It just seems a bit unfair that players can be cherrypicked and poached like that without any cost to the AFL club.”
When Republic of Ireland goalkeeper Caoimhín Kelleher moved from Liverpool to Brentford over the summer, his former club, Ringmahon Rangers, received a windfall of close to €3m. When Kelleher initially moved to Liverpool for a fee of around €35,000, the Cork club cleverly negotiated a 20% sell-on clause which yielded such a massive dividend. The previous highest transfer received by an Irish club was the €2 million Shamrock Rovers earned from Gavin Bazunu's move from Manchester City to Southampton.
That kind of money would never be on offer from an AFL club, but is it a realistic option for GAA clubs to seek compensation for their players who go to the AFL? Complications would undoubtedly emerge regarding how an amateur player's value is estimated. Is that not turning them into tradeable commodities?
That is not what the GAA should be about. It’s not a road the GAA would want to go down. Kenneally once admitted how he attempted to have Listowel reimbursed after he left Australia. Despite the willingness of his AFL club to meet Kenneally’s request, the GAA firmly rejected the proposal.
Yet is there another way around this? When discussing the Mark O’Connor situation a few years back, Kieran Donaghy said the highly valued role a club plays in a young player’s upbringing should inform how any money going back to the club should be directed. "It would have to go back into the kids," explained Donaghy. “Whatever could be done to improve the club and entice the kids to play.”
For Dingle, who lost O’Connor for most of his adult career, and for Stacks, who now appear about to lose Murphy, that is a fair argument.
As the clock ticked into additional time in the 2023 Kilkenny county final, Ballyhale Shamrocks looked set to do what the Shamrocks invariably always did in county finals. Win. Again.
One point up and having withdrawn everyone inside their own ’65 to try and hang on against O’Loughlin Gaels, Ballyhale lost their footing. After David Fogarty landed the equaliser, Paddy Deegan fired the winning score from an acute angle with almost the last puck.
It was a win against all the odds, not just because the Shamrocks were going for six-in-a-row, but because of how hard Ballyhale had always been to beat in a county final. In their previous 26 deciders, Ballyhale had won 20. Having beaten 11 different clubs in those finals, the last team to have overcome the Shamrocks in a final prior to 2023 was O’Loughlin Gael’s, back in 2016.
When James Stephens dismantled Ballyhale in the semi-final the following year, it looked like a turning point for the Shamrocks. It was, but in a way that nobody could have imagined. The Shamrocks went on to win every knockout championship match in the county across the next five years. The only game they lost outside the county in the same timespan was the 2021 All-Ireland club final, to a last second Ballygunner goal.
They were expected to secure a sixth Kilkenny title in succession until O’Loughlins did what only they, James Stephen’s, Clara, Glenmore and St Martin’s had done before – beat the Shamrocks in a county final.
If O’Loughlins were to win again now on Sunday, they would become the first club to beat the Shamrocks in three finals. Making sure that doesn’t happen is a serious motivation for Ballyhale but they also have one eye on their own unique record. Level on 20 titles with Tullaroan, a win on Sunday would put the Shamrocks top of the pile in Kilkenny for the first time.
And with the memory of the 2023 final defeat to O’Loughlins still fresh in their minds, that should make the Shamrocks harder than ever to beat in a county final.
When Madden Rapparees and St Patrick’s Cullyhanna met in the opening round of the Armagh championship in mid-August, late points from Ross McQuillan and Kieran McCooey edged Cullyhanna over the line by the minimum margin. Ten weeks on and the same teams meet in a novel and unexpected county final which will see a new name etched on the Gerry Fegan Cup on Sunday evening.
Few would have predicted this final match-up back then, and even more so ahead of the semi-finals when Crossmaglen Rangers and Clann Éireann, who have shared the last four titles, were expected to advance to another final. But Cullyhanna shocked Cross’ when scoring the last 0-10 in nine minutes to win by one while Madden stunned Clann Eireann by taking the lead after only ten seconds and holding onto it for the remainder of the contest.
This is Madden’s first final appearance in 28 years, and just the second in their history, while it’s Cullyhanna’s third time on this stage since reaching a first decider in 2013.
The manner of that late comeback win in their opening match ignited a pattern through Cullyhanna’s campaign where they’ve come from behind in every single game, while Madden have bounced back from that defeat to embark on a five-game winning run, conceding an average of just 11.6 points.
Cullyhanna have more than enough attacking options to trouble this Madden defence with Ross McQuillan, Jason Duffy and Aidan Nugent on board. Nugent has been the championship’s best player and the top scorer in the competition with 3-42 accrued – 3-7 ahead of the next active player, Madden’s Conor Grimley.
Whatever happens now, history is at hand on Sunday in the Athletic Grounds.
