Ó Sé: experience the trump card

WHILE both Páidí Ó Sé and former footballer of the year Seamus Moynihan were more than happy with their lot following yesterday’s Munster football final victory over Limerick, there was an air of relief in the winning dressing room with the Kerry manager admitting there had been some worrying moments for them early on in the game.

"They started extremely well," he said. "And I suppose an awful lot of that was due to the fact we had to change midfield with no disrespect to Eoin (Brosnan) and Seamus (Scanlon) and to Declan (O'Keeffe) who had to kick the ball out to a different midfielder.

"But when they missed the first penalty it was a huge lift for Kerry. They missed the penalty and Kerry played their best football after that.

"They tightened up and then Eoin caught a great ball behind John Galvin and that, too, gave us a great lift. And he went on afterwards to play a comprehensive role in Kerry's victory."

He said Limerick lacked experience and this counted against them when they got into difficulties. "When things were going against us we were able to tighten up, steady up, stand back from it and weather the storm." he said.

"But when things went against Limerick, I felt they did not have the same resilience and that's down to experience."

He said the sending off of Seamus Scanlon did not have a big bearing on the Kerry performance at that point in the game.

"We were playing reasonably okay," he said. "We kicked a point immediately afterwards. Dara

Ó Cinnéide kicked what was crucial score for us and he kicked two very difficult frees after that."

He admitted that switching Declan O'Sullivan to centre-forward had a major bearing on turning the game around for Kerry.

"Declan O'Sullivan ran himself into the ground. He was Kerry's hardest working player out there today."

He said, overall he was very happy with the performance they won a Munster final.

"As a manager, it is a source of great satisfaction to win a Munster final on home ground and this is my first on Kerry ground. For me that is something special to win it in Killarney."

He said he would like to think that Kerry had more in the tank and they would be looking forward to seeing what is coming up next.

"There was a lot of unfair stuff written about Limerick in advance of this game, that we were much better and things like that, but any team that would go down and take Cork apart is not a bad team.

"They are a young side. They have come up through the ranks and I think they are a very good team. I hope they stay together now and we will see them in the shake-up for the remaining rounds. I think they will recover from this.

"We were just hoping that we would get out of today and it would give Dara Ó Sé an extra couple of weeks under his belt before he gets back. I would say he will be fairly okay."

Seamus Moynihan said losing Dara Ó Sé was like losing Michael Jordan in basketball terms.

"He has been one of the best midfielders in Gaelic football for the past 10 years and to lose a player of that calibre has to be a huge blow to a team."

He paid tribute to Eoin Brosnan for the manner in which he came into the side and gave such a good account of himself.

"Dara is a very consistent midfielder but he can have an off day and that's when the other players have to row in. I think they showed today that they can do that.

"Eoin and Seamie worked very hard, and even though we did not win the breaks in the first 15 minutes, when we went a man down the amount of breaks we picked up was unbelievable and that is what will win championships for you."

As regards the quality of the game and whether or not it was an ugly match, he insisted he would rather win an ugly game any day than lose a good one.

"The important thing is that the 27 players involved today were very focused. The lads put their shoulders to the wheel and worked very hard."

He said the defence, particularly in the opening 15 minutes, could not afford to give away any silly frees with a free-taker of the calibre of Muiris Gavin there.

He said they wanted to win back the Munster title and get into the quarter-finals. They did not want any back doors.

"We had some golden chances that we did not take and I am sure we will be looking at that later on. Playing teams like Galway or Armagh, they will punish you.

"If they (Limerick) had got one goal at any stage they would have put a lot of pressure on us. If we go and play in the quarter-finals in Dublin we will have to up it another level."