O'Connor using Tyrone upset to maintain Kerry focus

Finding focus: Kerry manager Jack O'Connor is preparing his troops for this weekend's trip to Pairc Ui Rinn. Pic: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

The timing of Derry’s Tyrone trouncing could not have better served Jack O’Connor’s interests.

The Kerry manager brings his players to Páirc Uí Rinn this Saturday for a Munster semi-final against Cork that they are odds-on to win. Even interim Cork manager John Cleary, in conversation with this writer on Tuesday, saw fit to mention Cork’s 16/1 standing going into the game in an attempt to highlight the perceived gulf between the teams.

Last Sunday’s Ulster championship meeting of Derry and Tyrone wasn’t seen as half as clear-cut as many are viewing Saturday’s Cork-Kerry fixture, but, by the same token, there was nobody predicting a team who failed to get promoted out of Division 2 would travel into the backyard of the All-Ireland champions and turn them over by 11 points. Nobody.

The result - and its timing - was gold dust to O’Connor.

He and the rest of his management have been feeding the scoreline to Kerry players all week, a reminder of just what can happen when a championship contender is not tuned in when taking on a side from lower down the ladder.

Indeed, when asked how he keeps his players from listening to “outside noise” in the run up to Saturday's game, and the confident predictions of a Kerry win, O’Connor leaned immediately for the shock result from Healy Park.

“You point out examples like Sunday, where Tyrone possibly weren’t properly tuned into the challenge facing them against Derry and they got turned over badly in their own backyard,” Jack replied.

“How many of you experts could see that coming? It’s always handy to have recent examples to say to players ‘look, that’s what happens when you’re not properly tuned in’.

“That outside stuff, people are only expressing opinions and they don’t really know what’s going on or they don’t really know what it’s like in that Championship bubble, so you have to ignore all that stuff because it softens you and it weakens you.” 

Sunday’s Omagh upset, and indeed, the previous weekend’s Galway-Mayo result from Castlebar, has also proven mighty useful to O’Connor in drilling home to his troops how League status can often count for little come championship.

“If you’re wondering about the standard in Division 2, in the last two weekends two Division 2 teams have beaten Division 1 teams, so the players won’t need much reminding of the challenge we’re facing, regardless of what form Cork showed in the League.” 

And what of that never-to-be-forgotten 2020 Munster semi-final at a rain-soaked Páirc Uí Chaoimh, has that also been thrown out this week to keep players’ guard up?

“It’s recent enough to remind players that you can never take anything for granted. I think Cork will be substantially better than they were in the League due to the very simple reason that they have players back who weren’t available to them. Cathail O’Mahony and Maurice Shanley, possibly Seán Powter and Paul Walsh and one or two others, so they will have a substantially stronger team than they had in some of those League games.” 

From his previous two spells in charge, O’Connor’s championship record against Cork reads seven wins, three defeats (2006, 09, and 2012), and three draws. Cork obviously aren’t the animal they were during the noughties and the beginning of the last decade, but past experiences have taught O’Connor to never underestimate the neighbours.

“I’ve been involved in too many battles with Cork to ever take them for granted. I know from my past battles that they rise to the challenge of playing Kerry, always.

“They obviously want to make a battle out of the game, that’s why they are taking us to Páirc Uí Rinn, and we have to make sure we are up for the battle, and that we’re tuned in properly."