Weary winters spark Kerry veterans

KERRY defender Tom O’Sullivan believes a long winter spent twiddling thumbs could be enough to persuade some of the county’s older players to give another year to the senior footballers.

O’Sullivan and Diarmuid Murphy are both in their 30s but neither is expected to call time on their inter-county careers which means the spotlight is focused on two players in particular right now.

Speculating on Darragh Ó Sé’s intentions has become a national pastime in recent years while Michael McCarthy is another whose next move is being awaited with great interest.

“Well, no-one has announced their retirement yet,” said O’Sullivan. “You’ll get a few lads who won’t come back until April or May. I certainly won’t be training in January. I’ll be going to the gym at least.

“You could see that Mike Mac came back in July and still had a fine championship. A lot of it is hunger, freshness. That’s what it’s down to. If you’re out of football for six months you’re going to be hungry to come back. It’s good to get the break.”

It was O’Sullivan with whom McCarthy shook hands towards the end of the 2006 All-Ireland final against Mayo and made a pact to retire but the Rathmore defender never upheld his part of the bargain.

“I’d keep going for a year. Then another year. That was the case though. You’ve heard it before, but I was going to go that time as well. I think you just say that at the time. I could have said it last week as well.’’

The return of McCarthy was a crucial link in the chain that allowed Kerry regain the All-Ireland title, one which seems all the sweeter after the difficulties they stumbled through for much of the summer.

“I think there were a lot of things made it special. It was such a hard-fought All-Ireland number one. Mike Mac coming back. Tadhg Kennelly. Tommy Griffin going in full-back. There were certainly a lot of issues there.”

“I think a lot of the media were saying we weren’t a team, more individuals. So, as a team, we went out to prove that the media was wrong. Look, we wanted to win the All-Ireland as well. It wasn’t just because of the media.’’

Ask any Kerry player what would have transpired had they beaten Cork in Killarney that first day and every one of them, to a man, will say that they would not have gone on to win the All-Ireland.

O’Sullivan is no different.

“There was a lack of fitness there anyway,” he laughed. “There were a couple of players carrying an extra few pounds as well. Excluding myself. But tactically we got it wrong as well. Players weren’t tuned in. Everything seemed to be all over the shop and we certainly didn’t see that coming into the game. Travelling up to Longford as well, and the Sligo game, those games got us fit, and tuned in as well. That was certainly a big help going into the Dublin game.

“And Dublin not bringing their football boots was a big help as well. That game was going to come from somewhere though. There was a lot of criticism in the media. Some team was going to get that backlash. It was Dublin that got it.”