Reports of his demise as a player have been plentiful but inaccurate. Less than a fortnight ago, someone straying into the Legion club in the Derreen area of Killarney would have spotted O’Donoghue, 19 O’Neills footballs in tow, practicing those darting runs east-west and kicking scores off left and right as he geared himself and his eye in for the 2021 season.

There are many inside Kerry and beyond it who have almost forgotten the ‘ruthless assassin’, as former Kerry selector Diarmuid Murphy called him. Others discuss him in Kerry’s rear view mirror but there’s a cohort of believers who insist – admittedly with the caveat that gets an overdue run without injury – that he can contribute in a meaningful way to the Kingdom’s resurrection this season.

That there is still a kick in James O’Donoghue.
“Unquestionably,” says his club manager Stephen Stack. “I am taking off my Legion hat here and I acknowledge that the inside line is very competitive with Kerry but if he can stay free of injury, forget a role off the bench - he would put it up to anyone in the Kerry squad to compete for a starting position. If he can avoid those cursed injuries I would still have huge belief in him and in terms of what he can bring.”

Kerry supporters love James O’Donoghue the way they love all their stellar cast of inside forwards –O’Donoghue is the middle child of Killarney’s Holy Trinity, with Gooch and Clifford on either side - but they are drawn to him for other reasons: that frisson of excitement when he wins clean possession and stands up his opponent. The knowledge that, left or right, O’Donoghue now has the deck stacked in his favour. Fans know - or at least they once did - the consequences of that moment for the defender.

They love too his divil-may-care attitude, that free-and-easy nature that is invariably upbeat, even in the toughest times.

few have had the jump-seat view of high-flying James O’Donoghue that Keith Higgins of Mayo buckled up for in that epic 2014 All-Ireland semi-final in Limerick. The definition of contradiction as the Kerry man scored 2-6 and vied with his marker Higgins for man of the match. The vote was split between the enthralled audiences of 36,256 supporters.

“As a corner back, I’d be thinking ‘my man has after scoring 2-6 here, I can’t be seen to have done well’. That has always been my view of that day,” Higgins says now. “People say it went well for me, and for sure it was a great battle, but he scored 2-6. If I’d have stopped him scoring a couple of those points, we could have won and been in an All-Ireland final. You’d nearly be embarrassed people saying that you played well.”

Higgins is being hyper-critical of himself here. 2-2 of O’Donoghue’s totaI in that dramatic replay was from penalties and frees.

“I remember before the draw game, the conversation was who’d mark him and we opted for basically a double team job in Croke Park with Tom Cunniffe sitting in front. It didn’t work and it was only when Lee was sent off that we went man for man and it worked better. At the time it was something I relished, I remember the week before the replay I said to James (Horan) ‘have you someone lined up O’Donoghue’? I was looking forward to the job of marking him. Not in a cocky way but I was looking forward to the challenge. Back then it was a bit more free-flowing, it was a personal battle. He was a very direct player, when he won the ball, he would look to go at you straight away. That made him very challenging to mark.

“Now he’s seven years and a lot of injuries older, perhaps he needs to tweak it a small bit, he mightn’t have the same pace where he can get the ball in space, and take you head on, which creates a goal chance straight away.

“Is it time for him to reinvent himself, to change his game, maybe stay a bit closer to goal to dictate where he wins the ball? Because he is still an unbelievable finisher, so when he gets the ball 20 yards out, it’s a big chance. Maybe management are looking at redefining his role, even if he came on with 20 minutes to go, as to how Kerry will play him. If they’re smart how they use him this season, he is always going to be a threat.”

Higgins cites the example of his Mayo colleague Andy Moran, who at 33, scalded Kerry in the 2017 All-Ireland semi-final replay. “Andy changed his game with us, where he would literally stay inside the 20-30 metre area and try to win that ball close to goal. The chances kept popping up so if James would change his game in that kind of way, he gets the ball in that arc, it’s a goal chance. The opposition are going to be paying attention to Clifford and can only track so many runs. There could be huge possibilities there for him.” Diarmuid Murphy is thinking along the same lines.

“As forwards get older, they reinvent themselves because they realise that the body won’t let them do what they once did. James has the footballing ability to do that – it’s just a question of whether the body allows him to do that. “Kerry don’t need him to be the main scoring threat, there are younger lads who can do that job. But they need a different playmaker alongside Seanie O’Shea, they might need some fella to come off the bench and contribute for the last 20 mins of a big game by bringing experience to bear.”

Of course, when a player has a recurring problem with his body breaking down, the chances of making a substantial contribution lessen. While the enforced lay-off will have felt like a restorative balm, as Stack points out, O’Donoghue has rejoined a Kerry panel working to a condensed time-frame.

Training will be quickly followed by League games and straight into Championship against Clare, all within six weeks. It’s hardly conducive to someone with a poor track record of injuries performing consistently. Kerry may need to feed O’Donoghue into the process gradually.

“I would love to see him with his body 100% right, where he is happy and drawing confidence from the fact that he is injury-free and able to give it a

right go,” Diarmuid Murphy surmises. “And there are places up for grabs in the Kerry forward line as well. Apart from the two boys (Clifford and O’Shea), all the other four positions are up for grabs. So maybe he slightly reinvents himself, maybe he’s not the ruthless assassin of old, maybe there’s that slightly more withdrawn role which could suit him.”

In Kerry, eaten bread is soon forgotten, and the fact Kerry hasn’t played a competitive minute since the demoralising loss to Cork last November means that management is probably looking at a clean slate of options. With the confidence that his body won’t break down, O’Donoghue – Kerry’s only footballer of the year since Paul Galvin in 2009 – can show he still has the wherewithal to pull a few strings.

"He was truly outstanding in 2013 and 14. Probably the best footballer in the country over those two years,” says Diarmuid Murphy. “The (Munster Championship) game in Cork, eight points from play out of ten was some show - and bear in mind coming into that Cork had thrashed us in Tralee, they were hot favourites.

He was a huge part of that 2014 success, and gave a very mature display in the final against Donegal, playing a different role, making himself a moving target. If you look at the goal Paul (Geaney) got early in that game, James pulled a few Donegal defenders out of that shape to create the space. Paul was essentially one-on-one inside. The maturity of his display that day was different to what he had done previously but he showcased his understanding and his maturity for us at that time.”

When the cards keep turning sweet, no-one wants to pull back from the table. O’Donoghue took a relatively innocuous tumble in the quarter-final rout of Kildare the following season, and had his dislocated shoulder ‘popped’ back in on the field by team physio Ed Harnett. A planned operation was deferred not only by Kerry going to the final but by Legion’s run to the Kerry county final that year, and their representation in the Munster Club Championship. It was December before James had surgery and by that stage, he had issues with both shoulders.