O’Connor: It was a tough one to take
The 2005 defeat by Tyrone was an aberration in that sequence until yesterday where he experienced the anguish of defeat in the decider again. And to lose in the manner his team did, coughing up a four-point advantage in the finale, exacerbated the pain for the Kerry boss.
“Of course to lose the way we did was devastating. It’s tough to lose an All-Ireland any day but we looked like we were in control. I’m not too sure what was left, eight or ten minutes and we were four points up. It’s a tough one to take. We thought we had it won. That’s life though, you know? Who said life is fair?”
O’Connor mused on how the spoils had been snatched from his side. After an indifferent first-half, Kerry had gained control in all the major sectors during the second-half. A three-point deficit morphed into a four-point advantage. Their experience at closing out games in that situation looked likely to be pivotal.
Yet Dublin never folded and instead rallied.
“I’d have to say, we can look ourselves in the mirror and hold our heads high. We gave everything and prepared thoroughly. We trained very well and hard, really hard. It showed today, we had plenty in the tank. Maybe it looked like Dublin’s name was written on it. They got one or two breaks. They got a sniff. It was snatched away from us and we have to live with it.”
“We had come back from three down. To go four up took a huge effort out of our fellas. Maybe that effort took its toll in the last five minutes. The two or three scores that Dublin got to win were turnovers, so maybe the intensity and the pace of the game took its toll in the last five or six minutes. But in the general scheme of things, I have to be very proud of the way our lads played. I don’t think many people would give us a chance of lasting with the Dubs the way we did.
“They played well and we rode with the punches for a long time, I thought we played really well in the second-half. For us to put that much effort in and to see it snatched away from us in the end is obviously tough to take.”
In a tight and closely contested game, key refereeing decisions can have a major influence on the game. O’Connor was in no mood to start castigating Cavan whistler Joe McQuillan. But he did take issue with the awarding of a 53rd minute free to Dublin that Bernard Brogan pointed, when Kerry defender Aidan O’Mahony was adjudged to have committed an infringement with the ball.
“There was one I saw on the replay, a free in for a hand on the ground against Aidan O’Mahony. It just showed on the big screen that it wasn’t (a free) actually, he just pulled on the ball. But look, I’m not going go to go down that road. Dublin deserve an All-Ireland as well so we won’t be nit-picking. We had that game in our hands with seven or eight minutes to go and a couple of errors were made. That may be down to the pressure Dublin put on us. They put us under severe pressure at different periods and maybe that told on us at the end, I’m not sure.”
O’Connor agreed the match spun in Dublin’s direction when Kevin McManamon netted in the 64th minute.
“I’m not going to be hanging any guy out to dry but of course the goal was a huge momentum changer because we couldn’t see Dublin getting it back on points. We were solid at the back, we had kept it tight at the back all day. We reduced them to the odd point or a few frees. But the goal was worth more than a goal because it gave them life and energy in the critical last five minutes to let them go on and win.”
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