Rallying the Kingdom for Rebel assault

Indulge us here for a moment and picture the image — Jack O’Connor sitting at his desk in St Finan’s Bay feverishly plotting his match-ups for Sunday.

It’s not only something he enjoys but is pretty good at, although Bryan Sheehan’s knee has added a variable to his calculations.

If it’s concerning O’Connor, he certainly didn’t show it on Saturday in the plush surrounds of Killarney’s Malton Hotel.

Not in the slightest bit bothered by the spluttering performance against Tipperary last Sunday week, he is in relaxed mood.

As he utters a couple of sentences, you get to understand why.

“We just feel we’re preparing really well this year. We’ve trained very hard — I think we’ve trained harder this year than we have in a while.”

He thinks there was an over-reaction to the display againstTipperary — “a few dramatic statements here and there”. There are no histrionics about Kieran Donaghy either. “Kieran didn’t start the game,” O’Connor says simply about theplayer dropped for a breach of discipline.

Kerry’s third time facing Tipperary in as many years, the manager suggests, meant there was a little jadedness among his players about the fixture.

“When you sit back and think about it, we beat Tipp by 12 points two years ago and by 11 points last year. Psychologically, it can be difficult for a team to lift themselves to the levels needed for a Championship game — with no disrespect to Tipperary. We would have loved to have won more comprehensively but it mightn’t be any bad thing because at least we know we have to improve 100% from that game.”

Cork will demand it. Going back to last year’s Munster final in Killarney, he reckons the visitors’ defeat was “a blip”.

Down Daniel Goulding, Ciarán Sheehan and Colm O’Neill, their race was run in the quarter-final against Mayo but again O’Connor reasons: “If we were short three of our top forwards, we wouldn’t be any great shakes either.”

Although their last Championship outing passed with little incident, meetings between the rivals are pockmarked with heated exchanges, red cards and retrospective bans. Is there a need for common sense on Sunday?

“I never like talking about referees after games and I certainly don’t like talking about them before games,”insists O’Connor. “My only comment is that I’ve a lot of respect for David Coldrick — he’s a top class ref and a common sense ref — so I’ll expect David will do a great job on Sunday.”

Back in February, following their surprise Division 1 defeat to Armagh in Tralee, O’Connor took exception to his own players’ attitude towards officials during games. He got theresponse he wanted as much as he’s reluctant to make a point of it now.

“It’s not a big deal. Players know themselves when they are out of order. It’s just a part of our game that we don’t need to take it there. If you’re talking to referees during games you’re losing focus and losing energy. There was no big discussion on it.”

With both teams having genuine designs on All-Ireland honours, it’s not just the sight of red or green and gold that stirs them; it’s the passage avictory provides too.

“From my point of view, you see every one of these Cork and Kerry games as a big game because if you win it, it gives you great confidence. But if you lose it, psychologically it can be damaging. You started questioning yourself. It happened in the past. We lost to them in 2006 and 2009 and we recovered afterwards to win both All-Irelands, but it took a lot of hard work to recover, and it’s a long road back, and players can start doubting themselves. I’d much prefer to win games like this and go through the front door.”

Even with the injection of youth into the team shake-up, O’Connor still sees his side as a mature one.

With that in mind, a tour of Ireland is not something that generally appeals to him.

“I just think for a team like us with players on the road awhile, mentally it can be tough, going through the qualifiers.

“We found that out in 2009 when we were put to the pin of our collars in some of those games.

“It was only when we got back to Croke Park that the energy came back into the team and the spark came back into the team.

“If you were a betting man you’d say Kerry have a better chance going through the front door than the back door.”