O’Mahony says Kerry far from a spent force

AIDAN O’MAHONY reminds you his declaration was hardly boisterous. His buddy Tom O’Sullivan’s was worse, declaring to a rapturous Rathmore the evening after the 2007 All-Ireland final win that Cork wouldn’t see Sam as long as that team were around.

By comparison, his homecoming speech in the border town after the 2009 triumph was tame: “I told you last year you would not have to cross the border [with Cork] to see Sam Maguire,” he piped into the mic. “I’ll tell you again.”

He laughs at the mention of it now. The Monday following an All-Ireland final glory is a strange day, pregnant with self-satisfaction, burdened with relief, laden with pride. Anything is liable to be uttered.

“Things are said after All-Ireland finals,” he shrugs. “I’m sure the Cork lads had plenty to say after they won last September.”

Defenders by name, gardaí by trade, Kerry supporters have indulged in conjuring images of O’Mahony and O’Sullivan as the border sentinels.

With nine All-Ireland medals between them, it’s an understandable luxury but the younger of the pair has been taken off watch these last couple of years.

Those words in 2009 O’Mahony spoke as a substitute. A used substitute, mind, but an auxiliary nonetheless. Eight months later, and he dropped himself off the panel.

The two-time All Star’s form had dipped to an alarming level. He was told he was carrying too much weight, pumping too much iron. He agreed.

“A lot of people would have said to me ‘you bulked up too much’, which would have been because of the weights. I’d been over-doing them for years. But when your form is down it’s difficult to bring it back up again. Then you go into games, you find yourself playing poor and you’re off the team and it’s a situation you haven’t been in before.

“A lot of it comes from when you’re in the first 15 everything isgoing rosy but then you start thinking about sitting on the bench and how hard it is. It was a reality check.”

O’Mahony took 12 weeks out of football, both county and club. He continued to train away but far from prying eyes where he was able to bring his weight down from 13-and-three-quarter stone to just under 13 stone.

It was around this time last year that he returned to the panel feelingsomething of his old self.

“That time I took off was probably the best thing I have ever done. It was all about clearing the mind and refreshing the batteries. I needed to step back a bit of it.

“You’re trying to dig deep and find what the underlying fault was. I couldn’t do that in the Kerry panel. I had to find out myself. I trained away and came back with renewed hunger.”

O’Mahony started in Kerry’s forgettable defeat to Down but it turned out to be the beginning for him. Getting back to the club, he found there was “a pep in my step again”.

“I came back this year saying to myself, ‘Look, whether I’m starting or on the bench, I’m going to enjoy this year’.”

The weights are gone, replaced by hours of stretching and core work in Ballincollig’s Oriel Hotel, close to where he’s stationed. The 31-year-old’s attitude’s a lot brighter as he aims to make the most of what he has left.

“I say to myself now, ‘Right, I’m out here to do a job, I’ve a man to mark and everything after that is a bonus’. I enjoyed the league and played the first two championship games and have been happy.

“I can say that I’m coming to the end of the road but I’m enjoying myself. When you start off, it’s a great thing and there’s the whole hype of playing for Kerry but when you’re coming towards the end, you just want to savour what you have.”

Around the time of his self-imposed sabbatical last year, there was talk of him transferring from Rathmore to a Cork club. It’s not something he would rule out but not now.

“People said that he’s living and working in Cork, he’s travelling up and down the road to training, he might finish with Kerry and play with a club in Cork. I’ve obviously thought about it. It would be a lot handier.

“Clubs like Bishopstown, Nemo, Douglas and Ballincollig have been mentioned but the standard of football here is the same as it is in Kerry.

“It’s a great standard but at the minute I’m young enough and I don’t mind travelling up and down.”

O’Mahony’s mere presence will get a response or two around Cork this week but then the sight of a red jersey will stir him.

“There’s no point sauntering through the championship, then meeting a team like Cork later in the summer and being blown away.

“It’s now you want to play them and in a Munster final. It’ll come down to inches and whoever has the hunger on the day.”

As much as every fibre in his being wants to beat Cork, O’Mahony frowns upon the idea their All-Ireland last year lacks gloss without a Kerry scalp to polish it.

“If you win an All-Ireland, you win an All-Ireland.

“You look at 2010 and it says Cork are All-Ireland champions and that’s all we need to know.”

Likewise, he refuses to be swayed by the theory Kerry are a spent force, being one of five first-team defenders over the age of 30.

“A lot of the media said that after losing to Down, that was the finish of the Kerry team because we were saying for two or three years we were on the road too long. But you look at it every year and say this could be my last throw of the dice. Every player will tell you they want to go out on a high. Nobody is talking about retirement or All-Irelands.

“It’s all Cork right now.”