O’Sullivan evolving with young brigade

All Ireland SFC final

“NO,” replies Declan O’Sullivan, his stare fixed, his tone surly, his mood somewhat tempered.

The question which irked Kerry’s four-time All-Ireland medal winner?

“Has it ever crossed your mind that this might be your last All-Ireland final?”

“No.”

Silence. Interview over.

Sunday’s decider represents the 30-year old’s eighth All-Ireland final, his 70th championship appearance — he failed to garner selection in all but five games.

In the 12-years spent operating in the green and gold, O’Sullivan has amassed a championship tally of 8-83, collecting along the way eight Munster and four All-Ireland medals.

Put simply, there are a lot of miles on the clock. Indeed, such is O’Sullivan’s mileage reading that the Dromid Pearses forward opted to sit out this year’s league campaign. No longer can the body commit to a full inter-county season.

And so when Paul Galvin announced his retirement in February, was O’Sullivan tempted to follow suit?

The 110km round drive to Killarney for training isn’t getting any easier, added to work commitments and rearing a young family — Declan’s wife Michelle is expecting their second child next week.

“Every player is greedy and wants to get the most out of his career,” reasons O’Sullivan.

“You wouldn’t survive if you weren’t that type of player and didn’t want to win every game. Certainly when fellas retired I felt the lads coming through were good enough and I wanted to be part of that new group.

“I would have felt an onus that when Tomás (Ó Sé), Eoin Brosnan and Paul (Galvin) retired, no matter how good the players were coming through that they still needed that experience, that know-how in the dressing room.

“Marc Ó Sé, Aidan O’Mahony and myself, there was an onus on us to pass on whatever experience and know-how we had. It is more a duty to the jersey above anything else.

“There is a certain level of requirement to play with Kerry and a certain level of expectation to play for Kerry.

“When I came in first in 2002, there was a lot of good fellas to take me under their wing and show me the things to do and the pitfalls to avoid. That time you might fall into some of those pitfalls and they would still put their arm around you and say ‘listen, let’s go do something different’. They would guide you along. Paul, Eoin and Tomás reached an age where they could give no more, whereas I felt myself there was another couple of years in us.”

The three-time All Star accepts, however, there is a substantial difference between simply soldering forward and contributing to the level he would have done during the height of his powers.

The heavy strapping on either knee points to 12 summers of “heavy wear and tear”.

“The knees just need a bit of management,” he grins. “To be honest, from my game, the miles on the clock make you have to readjust and evolve. I think Paul Galvin would have spoken about that before that when he reached 30 he couldn’t be the same player as he was when he was 25 or 26. I would feel something similar at this stage. The body can only do so much so you have to tailor your game, to try and get the best out of yourself.

“That is something I would be trying to do and am conscious of as well. I am lucky that Eamonn is a bit flexible, he used the common sense approach. If he had expected me to be back in January, doing all the hard training on top of family, work and all the travelling up and down, it would have been very difficult. If he was going to force me down that road, it would have been very difficult for me to commit.

“The plan in 2013 was to sit out the league as much as possible, but then I felt I wasn’t getting as much work as I needed so I came back to train but not play the games. Kerry were losing so I went and threw my shoulder to the wheel. I came back earlier than I should and it caught up with me in the crunch time of the championship. I knew from a meeting with Eamonn during the winter there was no problem coming back after the league (this season) and giving it all. Mentally, it was good just to get the break.”

And so we edge once more towards talk of retirement and Sunday providing the perfect swansong.

“I don’t think like that,” deadpans O’Sullivan.

“The one thing experience teaches you...this will be my 8th final, I have won some and lost some. That is the one trap you can’t fall into, allowing your mind to wonder what if we win or lose or whatever. The real focus is on performance, is on training, on how we deal with the razzmatazz of the final. You can’t let your mind wander. I think I have enjoyed this journey as much as any other journey with any other team. This is a great group of fellas, great honesty. There had been a lot of talk at the start of the year after the retirements and lads getting injured that maybe Kerry were not in the picture for a while. It has been fascinating to watch the young fellas step up to the plate. It has been one of the most enjoyable years I have been involved with Kerry.”