O’Sullivan: I genuinely thought we’d win All-Ireland
Former Kerry attacker Darran O’Sullivan was convinced they’d win last year’s All-Ireland before falling foul of a wet day at Croke Park.
Éamonn Fitzmaurice’s side blitzed Clare and Cork in the Munster championship to qualify for the Super 8s but things went horribly wrong in their opening game against Galway.
Despite one of the warmest and driest summers on record, the rain fell that day and speedy O’Sullivan said Kerry simply didn’t cope, losing by three points. Not even a draw in Monaghan and a big win over Kildare afterwards could haul them back.
“I genuinely thought we’d win the All-Ireland,” said O’Sullivan, a Paddy Power GAA ambassador. “I genuinely thought we would and then we went through a bad month and that went belly up.
“Coming through Munster I was saying: ‘This team has what it takes to win an All-Ireland’. I thought we were never as well prepared in terms of what we needed.
“We couldn’t have asked for more with the backroom team, medical team, nutritionists, everything, and literally we hit a stumbling block.
We prepared unbelievably well for Galway but we got to Croke Park and it started to rain. Now it’s a funny thing to blame rain in Ireland but when your game-plan is based around playing a certain way, and you get to Croke Park and you can’t do that because of the skid of the ball, we just didn’t adapt.
“You go to Clones then, a place you haven’t played Championship football in before and you are chasing a result against a very strong Monaghan team.
“It added up and I think the doubt just crept into fellas.”
O’Sullivan’s last act as a Kerry player was to come on against Kildare before retiring months later, joining Kieran Donaghy, Anthony Maher, and Donnchadh Walsh in hanging up his boots.
He was concerned initially about the amount of All-Ireland winning experience departing at the same time though things are going well for new manager Peter Keane.
Kerry are top of Division 1 with four wins from four and the younger players are displaying the commitment that O’Sullivan says is necessary.
“That’s a big thing — are fellas going to put Kerry first and sacrifice everything else for a couple of years to get Kerry back on top?” he said, claiming that Dublin are still the team to beat.
“(Dublin) are a bit like clockwork, they just have a total understanding of their own game and each other’s game and it all just seems to be in sync.
“Individually, I don’t think they are that far ahead. But they seem to know their roles and are willing to sacrifice certain aspects to fit into that role.”
Kerry have used 24 players so far in the league, the joint lowest in Division 1 along with Roscommon and eight less than Dublin. Many of those players are All-Ireland minor medallists though O’Sullivan warned that underage success doesn’t guarantee anything at senior level.
“I think Donaghy said recently that when Kerry weren’t winning (minor) All-Irelands, it didn’t bother him because fellas were coming in with a bit of a chip on their shoulder, it was a great point,” said O’Sullivan.
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