Jack O'Connor: 'Peaking is as much psychological as it is physical'

TIMING IT RIGHT: Kerry manager Jack O'Connor aiming for his side to peak physically and mentally for the All-Ireland series. Pic: ©INPHO/Tom Maher

It’s a slow burn for Kerry. At least that seems to be the intention. Any slower here and their flame could have flickered.

Twelve months ago, it burnt brightly. On an emotional day for the Clifford brothers two days after the death of their mother Ellen, they went gangbusters against an experienced Clare side.

On this, the anniversary of her passing, they weren’t so much subdued as playing within themselves in helping to negotiate a perhaps stiffer than expected challenge by a team with only eight starting survivors from that landslide result in Limerick.

That was a game dripping with emotion but in comparison this was a relatively sterile show by the Fossa boys. With two points and two assists for his younger sibling, Paudie Clifford threatened to make the game his own in the first half but his output dropped in the second and he finished the game outscored by his sticky marker Ikem Ugwueru.

David was marginally better than his display in Killarney 15 days earlier when he more than anybody else appeared to struggled with the sandy surface. Three wides and a conversion rate of 57% was middling.

At the final whistle, captain Paudie seemed to forget he had a trophy to collect as he swapped jerseys. A quick change in the dressing room, he arrived on the rostrum wearing a fresh top bearing the number five.

Afterwards, he gave the impression that this was nothing more than a means to an end. “We probably targeted this group stage to have everyone back and playing well so we’ll take it game by game. We’ll aim for Monaghan and see what we have to do there.” 

How they secured that reward, the margin, the comprehensiveness of it, didn’t matter a jot. “Any time we have ever played Clare in Ennis it’s been a massive battle and they really responded well in the second half. We’ve things to work but happy to number one seeds going into the group.” 

His analysis of the missed goal openings was the closest you will hear a Kerryman come to being blasé. “The second half, we did create the chances but missed a lot. On another day, they’d go over. I suppose when you’re seven points up, that’s the best time to be missing those chances.” 

Clifford’s manager, winning his seventh Munster SFC title, didn’t seem perturbed either that this was only an incremental improvement on beating Cork. Kerry appear to be looking to time their run better than last year when Mayo caught them undercooked and they had to exert themselves more in the latter part of the group before grabbing top spot.

This time around, nobody will be claiming they have seen the best of them in Munster. “Peaking is as much psychological as it is physical,” stressed Jack O’Connor. “The real championship starts now, like. You’d be thinking from here on in that fellas would be coming into their peak mentally as well as physically. You just need to get your house in order now going into the group stages and try and hit the ground running then in the quarter-finals.” 

With a wry smile, O’Connor spoke of his team’s late “butchered” goal chances. Three games without a goal, just two in their last seven games, it will be a hot topic before they face Monaghan, a side they admittedly raised three green flags against back in February.

O’Connor won’t really mind the softly-softly progress, though. Part of his issue with Kerry the season before his third coming was how they were blowing away teams with majors only to come undone chasing them against Tyrone in the All-Ireland semi-final.

“It didn’t do Kerry any favours that they scored all these goals all year,” he said of that 2021 season. “I think they had something like 21. That gets into players’ heads, right.

“There were points for the taking the last day and even good decision-makers… I had Killian Spillane as a minor in 2014, he was the best minor forward that I put through my hands, Killian was a fantastic decision-maker yet he made a poor decision going for a goal when Peter Harte went full length and blocked him.” 

Unused against Cork, Spillane was offered a few minutes in Ennis. Tony Brosnan, another man known as an inside man, sparkled in the deeper role he had been operating at times last season. The touch of creativity and scoring quality that was so badly missed against Dublin last August.

Giving Shane Murphy a start in a championship just to give him a run also smacked of Kerry planning ahead. His stops from Dermot Coughlan and Darragh Bohannon were top drawer. Losing one kick-out was a fine return too for a man making his first SFC appearance under O’Connor but you’d imagine Shane Ryan will resume the role against Monaghan.

In total, 19 players have started and another five have been given minutes over these last 15 days. Those are statistics akin to Dublin's squad rotation in Leinster at this time of season as they refine and distill for the business end.

There will be hiccups, of course. Paudie Clifford spoke of Kerry being “one pass away” from scoring goals. He was one player who seemed apologetic for taking a handy point instead of laying off a pass in the first half. And as powerful as runner as he is, Ugwueru’s goal came too easily. Only a minute before the Clare wing-back’s driving solo had paved the way for a Daniel Walsh point.

But Kerry won’t mind making waves. Not now. Now, being perfunctory is just perfect.