We can only do it the Kerry way, declares O’Connor

HE’S a manager therefore he has to deal with the hypothesis — so Jack O’Connor isn’t all that bothered talking of a what-might-have-been final against Donegal.

Would he have altered Kerry’s style to counter Jim McGuinness’ uber-defensive tactics? Would he hell! “It’s almost a bit like Alex Ferguson with Manchester United,” he outlines, “the tradition is there with playing attacking football and that’s what he does. And sure if Kerry went ultra defensive the fans just wouldn’t like that type of football and we wouldn’t have the goodwill of the people and sure if you don’t have that what are you playing the game for? I’m not castigating; it’s up to any other manager to do what he wants. I’m just saying from our point of view that’s the way we have to set out our stall.”

As would have been expected given they were facing the winners, O’Connor was at the game. Were Kerry to replicate Donegal’s game, his guts would be for garters in Kerry.

“All I’ll say about the game is, both teams were playing within the rules. It’s up to every manager to try and set out the best way for his team to perform. All I know is that if we try to play as defensive as that it’s not the opposition that would be booing us, it’s our own fans that would be booing us so it wouldn’t be a runner in Kerry, let’s put it like that.”

That’s not to say O’Connor is anticipating a free-flowing final. Nothing of the sort, nothing like the 2009 shoot-out when Kerry belied their underdogs status by 17 points.

The other day he counted the number of players he’s down from that game. He came to seven. Two — Seamus Scanlon and Tommy Griffin — are in the panel but won’t start on Sunday.

“The teams are radically different, I think the Dubs are a good bit different,” said O’Connor.

The stage is new too. This may be his sixth All-Ireland final but facing Dublin whets the appetite. “It doesn’t get any bigger than this,” he smiled.

He fancies the current Dublin team will win an All-Ireland, hoping it won’t be this year, and describes them as “the fittest team in the country.”

Factoring that observation against there being five 30-pluses in his defence, there are some obvious deductions that can be made but he knows the pearls of possessing seasoned campaigners.

“You just hope that the experience is a factor and it’s not just experience on the day, it’s preparing in the build-up. An All-Ireland final is a different animal to any other game. A lot of players can have a lot of their energy expended before the game ever starts. That’s where a bit of experience comes in about you know, not building yourself up too much, too far back from the game, because you find you can be flat for the game.”

Besides, Kilkenny’s hurlers showed that it doesn’t matter how many times you’ve been to the well — you can always go again.

“We feel a lot of this has to do with trying to get the training right,” said O’Connor. “Age is one thing but if you handle your training right, no matter what the age profile, you can get a team pretty fresh and right.”

On the subject of the “rivalry” with Dublin which Kerry have conquered since 1977, O’Connor is cute enough not to contradict Pat Gilroy’s declaration that’s it been “one-way traffic” for 30 years. However, he argued: “It’s a great clash, the townies against the culchies, the old one going well back into the 50s and while the rivalry hasn’t been that hot recently there has been a great history through the years.

“For the most part Kerry have done well against Dublin, but when the ball is thrown in it’s whose right on the day and who’s fresher on the day.”

O’Connor’s Kerry are traditionally quick off the mark. Their first-half against Cork in Killarney was the most complete 35 minutes of football this year until Dublin’s opening foray in their quarter-final win over Tyrone.

“Every team that are playing in the championship want a fresh start. Some days it works for you, if Darran (O’Sullivan) had managed to get one of the goals the last day (v Mayo) it would have put us on the road. As it happened we missed a lot of chances early on and I was looking up at the scoreboard at some point and we were 0-4 to 0-1, or 0-5 to 0-2 down and the scoreboard isn’t a reflection of the way the game is going.

“You have to be patient and hang in there even if you are missing chances. The fact that you are creating them is encouraging, so we will be trying to start fast, but so will Dublin.”