O’Shea: We had just enough to hang on

THE media scrum had to be accommodated, so Pat O’Shea improvised. The door to the warm-up area next to the Kerry dressing room was unlocked, and the Kerry boss fielded questions on the astroturf.

“It was a fantastic win for us — we knew coming up here we’d have to improve on the Monaghan match, we knew that Dublin would be a huge challenge.

“We had good patches, Dublin finished stronger, we lost Darragh O Se after 15 minutes — that would be a bolt to any team. It was hard, and the questions were asked of us at half-time: did we have the necessary hunger again, did we have that will to go out in the second half and take the game to Dublin? Overall we’re very pleased with the performance and the result.”

Rewind a little. Losing Darragh Ó Sé would be more than a bolt to any team, and when the big man from An Gaeltacht had to go off Kerry supporters feared the worst. Until he reappeared, of course.

“Darragh got a hip flexor,” said O’Shea, “which meant he couldn’t turn, he couldn’t use his leg. The doctor said if we took him off we might be able to give him an injection to freeze the pain, to see if that’d help him.

“Then he came in at half-time and said he was ready to go again — we delayed slightly to give the lads who were doing well a chance, and when we needed to freshen it up again we did.”

Half-time was clearly significant, as Kerry put a scoring run together after their cup of tea which left Dublin with too much to do. O’Shea acknowledged that being one half away from a possible championship exit concentrated minds.

“I think for this team, when it came to the knockout stages against Monaghan, every 35 minutes is your last 35 minutes in the championship. There were certain goals for the team at the start of the year, and one of them would have been getting back to the All-Ireland final, and that’s been achieved.

“It’ll be a different story in three weeks, but I couldn’t give enough respect to the players, particularly in the first 15/20 minutes of the second half, where we built up the lead that kept us in front until the end. Dublin came back at us on numerous occasions, but we had just enough in reserve to hang on.”

That was due in large part to Declan O’Sullivan’s accurate finish for the game’s only green flag. His manager was quick to praise the Dromid Pearses man.

“What is it, goals win games? There was only one goal in the game today, and important scores give your team momentum. When we got the goal we got a few points as well and suddenly we were six clear, we had some breathing space.

“Declan O’Sullivan has had an excellent year, a brilliant year, and I’m delighted for him. He popped up in the right places at the right times for us, getting crucial scores – not just the goal today, also against Monaghan, and he also kicked some very good points today.

“Steven Cluxton is rightly known as one of the best keepers in the country, you’d have to keep the ball away from him and get a good strike to beat him, and that’s what it was.”

It wasn’t all about the scorers, either. O’Shea paid tribute to some of the newcomers when asked if the likes of Padraig Reidy and Killian Young had come of age.

“Experience is gained in the white heat of battle, you can’t get it sitting on the bench. We toyed with possibilities after the Monaghan match, who the axe might fall on, and genuinely everyone was right in saying after the Monaghan match that a lot of changes might be due.

“But in fairness, we were confident with the guys we had. Padraig Reidy and a lot of other fellas performed heroically today.”