Kildare hope to send O'Dwyer out on a high note
In the words of County Board chairman Andrias O'Sullivan a fellow Kerryman his impact has been 'immeasurable'.
"Before he came here everybody knows the level football in the county was at. He raised the profile of the game out of all proportion.
"Even though we don't have a college or a 'nursery' like some of the more successful counties, we still managed to have a fairly respectable minor team this year. I think all of that interest down the line is due to Micko's influence. Our U21s were also pretty good this year. The interest he has generated around the county is unbelievable,'' O'Sullivan said.
"I don't know if we'll leave Micko go, but we hope if he is going he will leave with a nice prize this time,'' he added.
"We have won two out of the last four Leinster titles, but we have to take one game at a time obviously. Sunday's Leinster final is a huge one for us. Dublin are flying, as we all know. But we're happy enough with the way preparations have gone. And, the media attention has been off us. We have a lot of young lads in the panel this year and it's been a godsend that Dublin have been so successful.''
Opting out as Kerry manager following the 1989 Munster final defeat by Cork, O'Dwyer agreed to help out in Kildare following an approach from the supporters club in early 1990. In the event, he stayed for four years.
He brought Kildare to the League final the following season, but saw his team crash out of the 1991 championship in the first round, at the hands of Louth in Drogheda. Ironically, the very same day Kerry ended Cork's reign in Munster under the management of Mickey O'Sullivan.
In 1992, Kildare contested the Leinster final for the first time in 14 years, but lost to Dublin. Twelve months later Dublin repeated the dose, again in the final). Morale in the county was low, prompting one local journalist to suggest O'Dwyer 'had taken the team as far as he could'. Another remarked that, with an extra man, Kildare had performed like 'schoolboys on the village green'. He suggested elements within the County Board 'would be glad to see the back of him'.
As Kerry manager, O'Dwyer was on the losing side to Dublin in the championship only twice, in the 1976 All-Ireland final and the 1977 semi-final. But his Kildare team was to succumb to Dublin a third time in 1994, in a replayed semi-final. Nobody was too surprised when O'Dwyer walked away from the team soon afterwards.
In his biography Manager of the Millennium by Owen McCrohan, O'Dwyer made an interesting comment in the course of outlining the reasons for his departure. He wondered if the players he had worked with were in the 'typical' Kildare mould potentially brilliant but temperamentally flawed.
"In a way I was relieved it was all over and that there would be no more long, tiring journeys to Newbridge,'' he said. "But of course I was also bitterly disappointed because so many people, especially in the County Board, turned against me for no apparent reason. If we failed to win a Leinster championship I don't believe the blame should have been laid exclusively at my door.''
Over the course of the following two seasons when they were managed by Dermot Earley Snr, Kildare failed to win a championship game, losing to Louth and Laois in turn. But, O'Dwyer was lured back and in the 1997 campaign, Kildare football reached new heights in three marvellous games with Meath. They lost eventually, but the foundations had been put in place for a successful team.
The breakthrough was made the following year, with a first Leinster title since 1956, followed by an appearance in the All-Ireland final which they lost to Galway. Twelve months later the team crashed out in the first round at the hands of Offaly and O'Dwyer was non-committal about his future with the team.
He agreed to stay, but only after he decided to replace the outgoing management with two new selectors. As he explained in his book, he did so because he felt he was losing control and that as a group 'they were becoming tired and predictable'.
"Telling them that they were no longer wanted was the hardest decision I have ever made in football except for taking off John Egan in the 1984 All-Ireland final against Dublin,'' he added.
O'Dwyer's decision to continue was vindicated when the team won the 2000 Leinster final in dramatic circumstances, beating Dublin in a replayed final. At last, he had got his revenge on his old foes, but a defeat by Meath last year denied his team the opportunity of another meeting with them in the final.
O'Dwyer has insisted since the beginning of this year that he intends to go, 'win, lose or draw'.
"It's fairly well-known what I am doing. I have been around for a long time. And the pension is coming up soon,'' he joked at the official launch of the Bank of Ireland championship.
True to form, he didn't say he was finished with football for good, which is probably good news for a lot of club and county teams who realise they could benefit from his special talents.
