Fitz embraces feeling

An unlikely All-Ireland title.

Kerry’s manager spoke yesterday evening about the lesson Cork had handed them in that last league game at Páirc Uí Rinn. How Brian Hurley & Co. had scampered down the wide open avenues in their defence and the lessons they learned. September looked beyond them then.

Yet the rest of their year was all about better vibes. The subsequent training camp in Portugal where they worked on their games, their heads and their tactics and that slap-in-the-face defeat of Cork in the subsequent Munster final.

No manager in his right mind would come out and say such a thing after such a win against such rivals but Fitzmaurice admitted last night that he had a feeling that evening in Páirc Uí Chaoimh that something special was being brewed.

It was a feeling echoed in Limerick’s Gaelic Grounds last month when Mayo were finally put behind them and, though he would never have felt it possible, it all added up to a year that was every bit as special as the best he enjoyed inside the whitewash.

“I won [All-Irelands] as players and I won one in 2009 as a selector with Jack [O’Connor]. I would have said after that nothing compares with being a player, but it does very favourably. It does. I felt like a player this summer.

“I don’t know, I promised myself I wouldn’t, but I became so obsessed and I was so excited going into training every night. That’s down to the lads, the players, down to the management team around me.

“It’s down to the backroom team, the backing of the county board. It’s a great environment to be working in so this one is every bit as special as any of the medals I won as a player.”

Fitzmaurice gives the impression of a man imperturbable. Even Colm McFadden’s late fisted effort against Brian Kelly’s post failed to move him. Literally. He just stood there, ramrod straight and still, as the rest of HQ shook around him.

Inside, he may have been churning.

Some of Kerry’s decision-making ‘tested his mettle’, but he neglected the offer of the word ‘relief’ afterwards, claiming instead that there should be some manner of enjoyment to distil from all this pressure.

For the Kingdom, it brings to an end a run of three All-Ireland final defeats to Ulster opposition and, though Fitzmaurice didn’t feel like this was an itch scratched in that regard, he admitted to other factors heightening the pleasure.

That spring loss to Cork had “thrown a gallon of water” on any expectation, but it allowed Kerry to retreat to the privacy of Portugal where they ironed out issues.

“Brian Hurley gave us a lesson in Austin Stack Park. We were too open, simple as. Dublin scored whatever they scored last year in the semi-final, 3-17 or 18. You’re not going to win an All-Ireland if you’re conceding scores like that.

“There’s a saying in American sports that good forwards or offence wins you games, but good defence wins you championships. We knew we were going to have to start at the back and be much more solid, but at the same time stay loyal to Kerry football.

“We did and worked hard, but you have an environment to work over there (in Portugal). Great privacy, access to the lads 24/7 to talk about and try things and tweak. We started doing things like that over there.”

Other balls bounced in their favour, as they always have in the history of successful teams. Facing Mayo twice last month was manna from heaven for a side that possessed such youth and was in the marketplace for experience.

Of equal import was the nature of events the day after that replay win when Donegal had no option but to empty their locker, tactically as much as anything else, against a Dublin side that asked a locker-full of questions of them in victory.

“It was [key] because if you’re going to beat Dublin you’re going to have to leave everything hang out there,” said Fitzmaurice. “Donegal were outstanding that day.

“But, you know, when they are so focused on their game plan they probably don’t have the flexibility to change it then massively in a short time. We knew that there would be the odd curve ball, but fundamentally we knew that it would be as expected.”

Another of those feelings, maybe. And how right it was.