O’Donoghue savours titanic tussle with Higgins

He’s had a long innings in the Kerry jersey, but Aidan O’Mahony still felt Saturday evening in Limerick was special.

“I don’t know if they’ll be saying that going down the road in the traffic now, but yeah, it was, it was. The atmosphere out there was unbelievable.

“Every score, when Mayo came back, when we went ahead and they came back, it was epic because the crowd are genuinely on top of you. Fair play to the people for coming up, from Mayo and from Kerry. The crowd that was there today was just fantastic. It was a fantastic occasion and we’re just happy to come out the right side of it.”

Forward James O’Donoghue didn’t finish the game: “I cramped. We haven’t eaten in probably five hours, and going through that intensity ... I’m probably not used to that much running.

“The body kind of caved in at the end, but luckily Paul Geaney came on for me, kicked a crucial point. It’s a squad game, I was happy to go off and leave someone else to do it.”

O’Donoghue paid tribute to his marker, Keith Higgins: “He’s an excellent player. At half-time I was probably losing that battle and everyone was trying to give me advice ‘Do this, do that’.

“At the end of the day you’ve just to go out and have a cut off it again. I think we had a good tussle, probably ended up even enough, and I’m happy that I got to mark someone of his class.

“All the Mayo boys are very good tacklers. I said it a couple of weeks ago — they’re very good at blocking and harassing and tackling, and Keith Higgins is probably the best of them. I was on him and he blocked me down a few times, but luckily I managed to stick at it.”

The Killarney man played down his 2-6: “Well, two penalties. But I’m pretty proud of them. They’re pressure penalties at a difficult time in the game, and I managed to stick them. Rob Hennelly is an excellent goalie as well.”

Looking ahead, he pointed out that the experience would stand to the younger players.

“It’ll probably be invaluable, it’s probably worth a year’s preparation to a team, a game like that. You talk about the games that make a team. We had it put up to us and we came through. I can’t believe it, I’m absolutely delighted.

“I never thought it was gone – the way we were going up front with [Kieran] Donaghy up front, you never know what can happen with him up there, a goal in the last minute or something, he’s such a leader.

“Even when you’re down if you can keep the score ticking over you’ve a chance. That’s championship football, it’s impossible to call.”

Aidan O’Mahony echoed the praise for the big man.

“Kieran is Kieran. He had a tough year with injuries but he put his head down. Certain people wrote him off but you never write him off.

“He’s a fantastic guy to have in the dressing room, he drives the players on and I’m delighted for him personally, he had a fantastic game. He didn’t come on in the Galway game and could have thrown his hands in the air but he didn’t, he buckled down and kept working and he and the other lads who came on against Mayo the last day saved us.

“Again today, there were other fellas, but the game was so frantic you couldn’t see what was happening.”

The veteran sounded a word of warning also, though.

“It’ll stand to the younger players but at the same time we’ve to look at the video of that game,” added O’Mahony. “We were ahead, we let them come back into it. You’ve to look at those things. You can take the positives but at the same time, when you keep leaving a team back into it you have to look at that side of it too and ask yourself questions, why didn’t you finish out the game, on both days? We have a lot to work on as well.”

O’Donoghue was still in the moment, though, at the final whistle.

“It’s probably easier to play than watch. I came off there at half-time in extra-time and I thought I was going to pass out.

“But Jonathan Lyne, my good buddy, came on and kicked two invaluable points and I’m just delighted for him. Delighted for myself, delighted for us! It’s a huge moment in our careers, in our lives, playing in an All-Ireland final, so I’m really happy.”

O’Mahony was also savouring the prospect of another big day in September.

“I know from last year like, when we lost to Dublin, it was very tough. Any time you lose a semi-final it’s very hard and you go away and you think about it. It’s fine to be saying, ‘Look, I’ll go back in the winter time’.

“It’s hard to face it in the winter time but, as I said, we ground out a win there today. We got the draw last week. We’re very happy but we’ve nothing won yet, we’re not taking it for granted.”