Joe O’Connor: Kerry’s unexpected midfield star

Wayne Quillinan, who managed Joe O'Connor at club level with Austin Stacks, said what the 25-year-old "grasped very early is the true value of hard work".

Kerry's Joe O'Connor celebrates a score during his side's Munster SFC semi-final victory against Cork. Pic: ©INPHO/Bryan Keane

Kerry’s midfield baton has passed once again. A new and somewhat unexpected No.8 prince. Stepping forward is Joe O’Connor to settle concerns around Kerry’s problem department. Or, as Marc Ó Sé likes to term it, Kerry’s “needy area”.

Three years ago, O’Connor was fifth in the same midfield pecking order. And that’s only when he had to be considered as a midfield option.

Where he’d replaced Diarmuid O’Connor in both the 2022 Munster semi-final and All-Ireland quarter-final, in the final two outings of that All-Ireland winning summer, O’Connor was introduced for a half-back and half-forward teammate.

A distance ahead of him in management’s midfield thinking was David Moran, Jack Barry, Diarmuid O’Connor, and Adrian Spillane.

Fast forward to last month's Munster semi-final away to Cork. David Moran has long retired. Jack Barry has long emigrated. Adrian Spillane has more recently retired. Diarmuid O’Connor has joined the injury list more recently again. And not to forget either the options that came and went in the interim period such as Cillian Burke, now of Geelong allegiance, the same AFL club as another absent midfielder in Mark O’Connor, and the luckless Stefan Okunbor.

And so the No.8 shirt on the evening of the Munster semi-final, out of necessity, was handed to O’Connor. It’s not the shirt or position Jack wanted him in this summer.

Kerry’s Round 6 League win at home to Armagh made clear what management had in mind for the Stacks man this season. A No.10 residence. Utilise his engine and pace to break lines and dominate the flank. Offer a third target on Kerry kickouts and a third disruptive figure on opposition restarts, similar to the Moran-Barry-Diarmuid O’Connor axis of three years ago.

Éamonn Fitzmaurice, writing on these pages the Monday after victory over Armagh, described O’Connor’s performance at half-forward as “immense”. But he also correctly predicted that his move to the half-forward line would be put on hold because of the injury incurred by his in-form namesake, Diarmuid, the same night.

What Joe’s man of the match performance at Páirc Uí Chaoimh achieved was two-fold; a temporary soothing of those ceaseless midfield concerns and a future headache for Jack. When, in the weeks ahead, Diarmuid does return from injury, does the manager pair them together, as was the case during last year’s championship, or does the midfield baton pass back to Diarmuid and Joe move back out onto the wing?

Kerry would not be involved in tomorrow’s Munster final but for the 26-year-old. And not just because of his 85th minute winning goal. To distil his performance into that strike - sensational though it was - would do him a great disservice.

There were 19 possessions. He won the kickout break for Kerry’s first goal, provided the assist for the second, and thumped home the third. There was an early white flag and an assist for a later Dylan Geaney point. There were three turnovers won. There were four kickouts successfully broken to a teammate. There were four kickouts cleanly won, three of those in extra-time.

He won the kickout to secure Kerry some badly needed hands-on-ball time after Cork had butchered four scoring chances at the beginning of extra-time. It was the kickout where Seán Brady’s subsequent foul wiped out Cork’s numerical advantage and the consequent free, moved in, converted by David Clifford. The next kickout won ended with him rifling the Cork net.

Marc Ó Sé twice noted during his co-commentary duties how proficient O’Connor is at coming late onto the ball in attack. Wayne Quillinan attributes this trait to Joe’s rugby background.

Wayne is the Kerry minor manager. He’s deep in championship preparation, what with a Munster quarter-final away to Cork this Monday. But the request to briefly exit the minor bubble and don his Stacks cap is happily acceded to.

Wayne, you see, was club minor manager the year Joe re-committed to Gaelic football. He was senior manager for Joe’s breakthrough county championship winning campaign of 2021. And he was still senior manager when Joe crumpled in a heap after tearing his cruciate during their 2022 county championship opener against Na Gaeil, a mere seven weeks after lifting Sam Maguire alongside Seán O’Shea.

Joe was outside centre on the Munster U18 club side that won the 2016 interpros. Also in the backs that afternoon was Munster final opponent Ikem Ugwueru. He’d later tog for Young Munster while attending college in Limerick. Stacks and football, though, eventually won out.

“We never put any pressure on him,” said Quillinan. “He played all through the years with the club, he just wasn’t involved as much, and when I took over the Stacks minors that time, it was just a call to see if he was interested in coming back. He fell in with us and fell in love with football.

“He was huge for us in 2021, massive. It was his breakthrough season. He got man of the match in the county final against Kerins O’Rahilly’s.

“You can talk about the skills of the game, tactical awareness, and the technical side, but what Joe grasped very early is the true value of hard work. That's where the best of all his performances come from. Basically, if you are going to beat Joe, you are going to have to do something really special because the guy just does not know how to quit or give up.” 

That attitude was applied when attempting to return from the cruciate injury that wrote off his 2023 season.

“Our S&C man in Stacks, Damien Ryall, did a massive amount of work with him. I saw in our gym the work he put in. It was relentless. It was everyday trying to improve, trying to get better. Then when he was allowed get back on the pitch, you'd see him down there on his own resharpening his skills. That was him understanding the value of true hard work.

“Injuries curtailed his involvement in the Kerry midfield conversation. This year he has got a clear, injury-free run and people are seeing the potential in Joe now which they wouldn't have seen over the last number of years because of injuries. He knows he's in the position now and he'll do everything he possibly can to hold onto that jersey, which we saw against Cork.” 

He was only one of five players to last the 80-minutes plus against Cork. If summer 2024 was about cementing a starting berth, summer 2025 is about charging confidently with a midfield baton not initially meant for him, but which they’re glad he’s taken control of.