We don’t care about begrudgers
Hailing the victory over Donegal as “the most special of them all,” the 34-year-old is satisfied that the team achieved an All-Ireland title against all the odds.
He doesn’t mind one bit if the significance of it is not fully appreciated by others. It is by him.
“I couldn’t give a toss (about opinions). Listen, in 2000 we didn’t win the All-Ireland properly supposedly because Maurice Fitzgerald wasn’t brought on at the proper time or he didn’t start it.
“You win the All-Ireland and you go about your business and do your best and that’s all you can do. We don’t care. I actually couldn’t give a toss. We’ve done our job, we are delighted and we don’t care.
“This one I think was the most special of them all – genuinely it was the most special of them all. Because all of you (media) gave us no chance but, you see, behind closed doors no one realised how well we were going and we knew we were going great. Genuinely, we knew it. And to have a man behind us like Eamonn he is just incredible.”
Fitzmaurice dropped Ó Sé for the All-Ireland semi-final replay against Mayo although the veteran defender excelled when he came on for Shane Enright.
“He certainly got inside my head anyway — there is no doubt about that. I was very disappointed. I felt he was wrong and I said it to him and he said ‘look’ and he reasoned with me, and we had a chat and after the game we looked at each other... we had a big smile for each other.
“He said ‘look, this is the way I want it to go’ and I had no problem with that. I have the utmost respect for him and I think all the boys do because his attention to detail is just incredible.”
Ó Sé readily concedes he was “very pessimistic” when Colm Cooper damaged his cruciate in February. “But I wouldn’t have gone back with Kerry this year if I didn’t think there was an All-Ireland in us.”
When Kerry lost to Cork by 10 points in their last league game in Austin Stack Park in April, a day in which Ó Sé struggled against Colm O’Driscoll, Kerry’s Championship fate was cast in the eyes of many.
“I had a tough day at the office that day,” recalls Ó Sé. “But believe it or not I didn’t doubt us. I knew we were playing shocking football. I knew in training I was one of the fittest fellas there so I knew it couldn’t have been something down to fitness or anything like that but I was very disappointed that day, obviously.
“But we put it behind us and it was part of Eamonn’s big plan that we’d all rally behind and every player inside in the group felt that Eamonn had this master-plan and we were all so confident with Eamonn.”
Ó Sé now joins his older brother Tomás on five Celtic Crosses, one shy of Darragh’s haul of six. He’s glad of the bragging rights.
“Do you know what, no harm for that fella!” he says of Tomás. “He was the type of fella he’d only have it over you and he’d be pulling the piss out of you and I’m delighted I caught up with him anyway. Darragh is the type of fella he wouldn’t say anything to you – he’d be happy out.”
Ó Sé tells a hilarious story of how even the decorated All-Ireland winners in Kerry are put in their place. “The boys were over in New York during the year and they were on a fundraising trip. The Bomber (Liston) was with Darragh, Mikey Sheehy and Ogie Moran and of course the boys with eight All-Ireland medals. Bomber grabbed a hold of Darragh at the breakfast one morning and said ‘Minus 2, Minus 2, come over here’. Darragh didn’t know what was going on. ‘What?’ said Darragh. ‘Yeah,’ says Bomber, ‘You are Minus 2, you only have six medals but don’t worry they are calling me Minus 1 it’s okay!’ That’s the Bomber for you.”
Ó Sé’s uncle and Liston’s old team-mate, the late Páidí, was too far from minds on Sunday, it being Kerry’s first final since he passed away in late 2012.
“You’d be thinking about him the whole time. He’d be the first man ringing you after the game and delighted for you.
“I could even vision it after the game that he’d be ringing you and he’d be so happy and wanting to meet for a pint. I thought about him a lot on Sunday.”
Having beaten both Cork and Mayo twice in finals, Ó Sé was happy to better another county in this year’s decider. “You’d love to broaden your horizons a small bit and that was part of it. It was great to beat Donegal not just because they are a northern team but because they are another team.
“It doesn’t just matter because they are Donegal. You play who’s put in front of you, they just happened to be the champions of ’12 and a northern team but it is sweet.”
Ó Sé is enthused about the prospect of this team taking on a rejuvenated Dublin next season. “I think this is a great team. Obviously, you hear analysts saying this is a very limited team, I don’t agree with that.
“Look at the way Paul Geaney put away his goal, the assassin-like way he got the ball into his hands and just cleverly put it onto his right foot and put it away.
“I think there is talent all around this team and we’re in a very good position.
“The Dublin team are going to be back next year. They are going to be looking at this and thinking ‘that should have been us’. We will meet that challenge with the help of God.”
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