Morley relishing redemption year in Kerry's meaner machine

Tadhg Morley at Kerry's All-Ireland Final media event in the Gleneagle Hotel, Killarney

Tadhg Morley is happy to tell the story for it is one of redemption. His.

Twelve games, 12 starts, his 2022 could hardly have gone better or contrast more to last season when he started two league games and was on the bench for the entire championship.

Emancipated from full-back by Jack O’Connor, his understanding of the sweeper/centre-back role has been so integral to Kerry’s stingy defence. 

"I met Jack shortly after he was appointed as Kerry manager,” recalls Morley. “In fairness to Jack, he’s a very good man-manager. He went around and met all the players around Kerry, which is a really good touch, I thought. It showed a good progression and good management skills.

“I’d a good chat with him. He kind of saw me more as a half-back player, that’s probably my most natural position to be out there. There wasn’t anything specifically said about sweeping or anything like that, really. He was more saying that he was thinking of me more out maybe around six. We had a good discussion then about the role of a No6 and what he was looking for in that. I tried to do that then for the sessions we had post that meeting into the league.” 

Brought on against Roscommon in last year’s league, Morley was sent off within minutes and suspended. Second game into the championship he was black carded shortly after making his introduction. Lacking game-time, the Templenoe man was lacking a break too.

“I’d been playing all the time, so it was a difficult one for me to be on the subs bench watching on. When I came on against Roscommon that day, I got into a strange sort of a tackle and got a red card out of it. Couldn’t get my place back after that, got suspended for a game. Then the lads were going so well I just couldn't get back in then.

“I thought I was training really well but it’s hard to get into a winning team sometimes. Then I kind of was coming on in games. I don’t know was I trying too hard or what, I actually got a black card again against Tipperary. I was on for maybe five or 10 minutes and I was thinking ‘Jesus, what is going on here’?.

“I was hoping they’d be thinking ‘we can’t bring this fella on we have to start him’ but it didn't work out like that. But it was tough, to be honest with you. I could understand where they were coming from. The lads were going well, I couldn’t get back in.

“Probably for me the most disappointing thing was that in the full 70 minutes against Tyrone I didn’t get on that time, which was very disappointing. I did come on in extra-time to try and get us over the line, but it just wasn’t enough."

Three goals in that All-Ireland semi-final crushed Kerry. It’s the same number as they have coughed up across their 12 league and championship matches this season. Morley credits the entire coaching ticket for making the team meaner but acknowledges Paddy Tally in particular.

“We reviewed that (Tyrone game) and said ‘look, we need to do something with our defence'. We needed to do work on it more than we were. Paddy has obviously been involved in that, but it’s Jack and the other management team (as well), everyone is in on it together. Paddy’s a really good coach.

“We’re really priding ourselves in our defending, for sure. We were really disappointed to concede a goal against the Dubs. We had a really good record in championship this year. It was a really good finish though, to be fair.” 

Morley speaks of Kerry now possessing “an unbreakable spirit”. How they held off Dublin was the greatest hint of that yet. “It wasn’t so much fear in the mind, but there was definitely a bit of ‘we can’t leave this happen again’. We knew it was going to be tight. We knew it was going to be a one-point game either way.” 

Beating Armagh in the Athletic Grounds in March, he says, was a significant day when they were down players. “Then getting over a big (quarter-final) game like Mayo and obviously the last day getting over the Dubs, it’s kind of a monkey off the back people are talking about. People don’t probably realise the significance of winning a really, really tight game coming down the stretch to get over the line.” 

Incidentally, Morley admits he might have seen an alternative finish rather than Seán O’Shea’s exquisite winning free, holding his hands up as “the craythur who thought of maybe calling Shane Ryan up for a look”.

He and his colleagues spoke immediately after that semi-final about how beating Dublin meant nothing for Mayo when they weren’t able to back it up in last year’s final. 

“Jack has so much experience. Straight after the match he knew what to say to bring us back down to earth. Us kind of talking to Seánie more about his penalty than his free probably helped as well!” 

The Dublin game was one O’Connor felt Kerry may have left behind them previously and, like the manager, Morley acknowledges the transformation performance coach Tony Griffin has brought. 

“Jack is probably right, we probably wouldn’t have won that game other years, but the mind is an amazing thing, having it tuned in properly for a big game like that and the negative things that might happen and how to overcome them, or visualising things that are going to happen. Different things like that, that Tony does and the bond he's created in the group has been great so he’s been very, very important to us.”