Ó Sé: End is in sight for the Kerry old guard

KERRY defender Marc Ó Sé last night predicted some of the long-serving members of the Kingdom squad will bring the curtain down on their inter-county careers in the wake of yesterday’s shattering All-Ireland final defeat by Dublin.

“There’ll probably be a few people who will retire now from this team,” he said.

“That’s just the way it goes. You’ll have to start building again. Personally, it’s a hard one to take now today and it’s too early for me to make a call. But we’ll see. You could say it was a 65-minute performance from us, not a 70-minute one. But certainly it was very disappointing there near the end.”

Kerry looked to have moved into a winning position when they edged into a four-point lead in the closing exchanges. Ó Sé was unsure if they relaxed their approach at that stage but admitted their prospects of victory were looking good.

“We thought we were nearly there when we were four points up. You start to think if we keep at this and keep fighting hard, then we have it.

“To lose like that is hard. Before you knew it, we’d a goal conceded and then they were a point up. It’s hard to know if we relaxed. Maybe we did, maybe we didn’t.

“It was a very defensive kind of game all through as both teams set out that way. That wasn’t our intention to be honest but it just happened and it was a low-scoring game. We took off in the second-half and got a cushion but the Dubs smelt blood near the end and came back.”

Ó Sé paid tribute to Dublin’s achievement, singling out attacking duo Alan and Bernard Brogan as worthy recipients of All-Ireland medals.

“I think you have to give credit to the Dubs. They came back really strong there near the end. Kevin McManamon went through there for a great goal. You can’t take from the Dubs.

“We played a very good team today. The likes of Alan and Bernard Brogan, these guys are too good not to have All-Ireland medals. They deserve their medals and good luck to them.”

Attacker Kieran Donaghy concurred with Ó Sé at the level of disappointment felt after this defeat.

“Look it’s just hard to take. But that’s life. There are people in hospitals all over the country that are far worse off than us at the moment. It’s just going to be tough. We have to battle on and come back next year like Kerry teams have always done.

“When you lose it’s a sickener, that Sam Maguire is not inside with you in your dressing-room. You never think you have it until the whistle blows. But in certain games, things are going well for you and you have momentum.”