Jack O'Connor: 'Johnny Culloty was our Peter Taylor'
2006: Kerry manager Jack O'Connor and then-selector Johnny Culloty. Pic: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile
Jack O’Connor has hailed his late selector and Kerry football great Johnny Culloty as his great mentor.
Five-time All-Ireland SFC winner Culloty, who passed away on Monday, was counsel to the current Kerry manager for the county's two U21 All-Ireland successes in 1996 and ’98 followed by a brace of senior honours in 2004 and ’06.
“He was like a father figur6e to me in management,” said O’Connor. “We’d a great time, we won four All-Irelands together. He was a great source of advice for me. He schooled me in what it meant to be a Kerry footballer and manager.
“Johnny was mentored by the great Dr Eamonn O’Sullivan so it was a great connection for me to have that knowledge all the way back to him. Johnny’s mantra was not alone did you have to win but you had to win with a bit of style.
“He was a fantastic judge of a footballer. You hear about lads being able to judge racehorses but Johnny’s specialty was judging a footballer. You might tell him about a strong fella in North or South Kerry and Johnny’s reply was: ‘That’s fine, Jack, but can he play football?’
“He reminded me of what Brian Clough said about Peter Taylor. Taylor would find the players and Clough would put a bit of polish on them. Johnny was our Peter Taylor.”
O’Connor recalls how Culloty, who managed Kerry to back-to-back Division 1 titles before Mick O’Dwyer took over, reminded him of the importance of keeping cool during games recalling a game against his predecessor Páidí Ó Sé.
“He was a very intelligent man but very understated, no ego. They throw around the word ‘legend’ very often nowadays but Johnny was a legend. I have everything to be thankful to him for because he gave me a great schooling on how to act on the sideline too.
“I remember a league game up in Mullingar in my first year in charge of the seniors in 2004 and I was wired to the moon because we were playing Páidí’s crowd. I was after coming in after Páidí so I didn’t want to be beaten. I threw a tantrum at one stage and Johnny basically told me to come over, sit down and behave myself and I duly obliged. He commanded that type of respect.”
For Culloty had been there and done that, one of only two players ever to win senior All-Ireland medals as a goalkeeper and outfielder. A contemporary of Mick O’Connell, Mick O’Dwyer and Tom Long, who played senior football for Kerry in three different decades, and yet wore his success lightly.
“He was a great player himself. He was a very promising corner-forward, won an All-Ireland as an 19-year-old in 1955, picked up a knee injury then won four more All-Irelands in goal. He played hurling for Kerry, international basketball, a lot of rowing. He was an all-round sportsman.
“Win or lose an All-Ireland final, he would head out on the lake for a week afterwards, row away and not come back until night. He’d do that for a few days until all the hullaballoo died down and life returned to normal. He was a big family man. Family, sport and work were his three.”
Culloty’s in-game knowledge was also a source of inspiration for O’Connor.
“I remember the 1998 U21 final. We were playing a right good Laois team, Beano McDonald and all those fellas.
“With about 20 minutes to go, we were under savage pressure and I remember Johnny saying to me: ‘Jack, if we don’t bring on a midfielder there, we’re goosed.' We brought on Mike Burke, Cillian Burke’s father, and he swung the game for us winning a few vital balls. Johnny’s interventions were always timely. He didn’t get emotional and he could really read a game.”
O’Connor continued to seek advice from Culloty later in his management career with Kerry.
“I’d call into the house from time to time and whenever I was a bit stressed, by the time I had left it having the cup of tea with himself and Joan I was calm again. He had a great influence on me when it was needed.”
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
