O’Connor: we knew there was a big game in us

DESPITE all the bad vibes emanating from Kerry’s championship campaign this summer, Jack O’Connor has consistently espoused the belief his charges were not far off tapping into their vintage form of recent seasons.

Yesterday in Croke Park, O’Connor’s theory was vindicated in stunning fashion. Memories of the laboured qualifier displays were dispelled, as Kerry lorded matters against Dublin from the start and O’Connor was left immensely pleased at the final whistle.

“We felt somewhere along the line there was a big game in us, so thankfully it was today. We’d worked very hard since the Cork game and somewhere along the line we’d click. It shows how much ye know about it! A lot of people dismissed the qualifiers and dismissed the teams we were playing, but those teams approached those games like All-Ireland finals, and put us to the pin of our collar.”

Kerry have been featuring in backstreet theatres in recent weeks but O’Connor believed that once they returned to Broadway that they would prosper. This Kerry squad have grown accustomed to the environs of Croke Park in recent seasons and yesterday’s performance illustrated that the wide expanses suit their football.

“It’s a footballer’s pitch. You kick a ball there that would normally go out over sidelines but fellas run on to it. It’s a pitch we like playing in and we moved the ball very well today, we moved it quick. There was no soloing out the field; it was quick ball into space and we thrived on that.”

O’Connor revealed they had targeted Dublin’s strengths – by preventing them getting a high-tempo start, upsetting their defensive marking systems and disrupting their short kick-out strategy.

“We tried to upset Dublin’s marking a bit. We started Tommy Walsh on the 40, and we started Declan (O’Sullivan) inside. We thought starting Declan inside would upset their marking arrangements. Because Croke Park is a big pitch, you don’t actually need a big man in there. If you have lively, small fellas it’s often just as effective. Then we put Tommy back in and after a while we brought Tadhg (Kennelly) on and he gave us great legs.

“We had worked very, very hard on nullifying (Stephen) Cluxton, because Cluxton’s a fair operator. He’d put it into the eye of a needle, but we felt that was a huge part of their game. But the big thing we were adamant about was we were going to set the tempo.

“We thought it was crucial we take that away from them. The warm-up inside in the dressing room was geared towards that, to be primed to get a fast start and then keep the heat on. We felt somewhere along the line Dublin would lose heart because of that.

“We hit them hard early on. We had 1-2 up after five minutes, and Croke Park is a bad place to be trying to clear your head after that kind of a start. Then at the start of the second half our motto was not to lie back, not to sit back, keep at it, and that was very pleasing, the way we kept the pressure on.”

O’Connor must now move to temper their rising All-Ireland expectations.

“My motto now is one swallow doesn’t measure summer, lads. The one thing I’d say is there is ferocious competition in this squad. I was talking to a few of the subs there, and I said ‘There’s a month to go for you to make your case, and put your hand up’.

“That’s the only way we can keep the team honest and on their toes, because we’re not going to sit back on this, we have too much put into it. We want to get back into a final again, have another crack at whoever is there, and it’s either Meath or Mayo, and they will be a big obstacle in four weeks’ time, but we’ve worked too hard at this to throw it away now.”