Thickness and conviction? Can Kerry lean on parallels with 2006?

Before the 2006 All-Ireland quarter-final with Armagh, Jack O'Connor's Kerry were also being written off.  Seán O’Sullivan traces the similarities.

Kieran Donaghy, Kerry, gestures to Francie Bellew, Armagh, during the 2006 All-Ireland quarter-final. Picture: David Maher, Sportsfile

“I find myself in an unfamiliar position today as I’ve never tipped anything other than a Kerry victory,” wrote Kerry great John O’Keeffe in his Irish Times column the morning of their 2006 All-Ireland quarter-final against Armagh.

“I can’t remember a time when they arrived at this stage of the championship as outsiders. Yet, on merit alone, I must be true to the evidence in front of us all.” 

Save for his great mentor Mick O’Dwyer in this newspaper and one or two other hardy annuals who predicted Kerry would come good, O’Keeffe wasn’t alone. Jack O’Connor’s side were being written off as they were ahead of the same stage three years later against Dublin. Didn’t anybody learn?

Up to a point, the parallels between this All-Ireland quarter-final and their previous one against Armagh 19 years ago are tantalising for Kerry: unfancied, Division 1 champions, O’Connor at the helm, and coming off a goal-drenched win in Killarney the previous weekend.

The disparities are the current yawning injury list, which is hardly comparable to Declan O’Sullivan’s middling form which was of chief concern to Kerry in 2006, and the fact that Kieran Donaghy, the pearl they shucked in that victorious championship, is now a charm for the opposition.

In Fitzgerald Stadium last weekend, there was no lightning in a bottle moment as there was there in 2006 when Donaghy was stationed at the edge of the square against Longford and laid off two of Eoin Brosnan’s three goals. “Jack’s eyes lit up,” recalled Seán O’Sullivan, who started against Armagh the next day with the intention of maintaining the supply to Donaghy.

“I came on late in the Longford game and in training the following Tuesday, Jack called me and Galvin over. ‘Seánín, I want you on that side there, Galvin, or Galavin as he used to call him, you go over to that side. I want you to start sending every second ball as a floater into Donaghy.’ 

“I didn't read anything into it but after training he called me over and said they were going to give me a shot on Saturday. They wanted that type of ball going into Donaghy, not all the time but that type. We didn’t have much time to practice it; it was just like ‘this is it, we’re going with it.’ But we did have a good feeling about it.

“It came at a time when we were being a little dismissed, not only by the rest of the country but our own gang as well because we were just not going well. Even though we'd won the league, very similar to this year, and in the championship we just couldn't get going.” 

Close to the end of the first half against Armagh, Donaghy touched down O’Sullivan’s delivery to Colm Cooper whose shot was saved by Paul Hearty. However, a goal came from his 39th-minute kick into Donaghy when the Austin Stacks man rounded Francie Bellew, blasted to the net and then asked Hearty what did he think of that.

O’Sullivan recognises the similarities between then and now. There was a thickness and a conviction among his crew even when the chips were down. He wonders if the same exists in the camp now.

“The only worry I have at the moment for this current group is that as iffy as we were going, you could look around the dressing room and Jesus, you just felt, ‘Fuck, there's a big one in us today.’ Seamo [Moynihan] and Darragh [Ó Sé], Galvin, Donaghy, Mike Frank, Gooch… there had to be a big performance in us somewhere and it came out. There were huge leaders in there.

“Are the leaders in this group? I really believe they are. Is there a big performance in the group? I think there is. You just hope it comes out Sunday. The worry I have is off the pitch. I think 15 against 15, we go toe-to-toe with anyone left. That's including Armagh. But I just feel from 15 to 20, 21, they have the edge. And you've got to give great credit to [Kieran] McGeeney for that. He's really built a panel.” 

As for Donaghy, O’Sullivan reckons he will be forgiven whatever happens. “Kieran is a Kerry legend and always will be. The guy was given an opportunity and it's just so happened he's gone in with a county who beat us last year, and will fancy themselves to do it again and that’s not Kieran Donaghy's fault.

“I certainly think that if they were to beat Kerry, it's another little feather in his cap and he would definitely be on the radar for a role in Kerry football and I think he’d jump at it.

“Last year, I think I left it to the Monday or Tuesday, and I sent him a text congratulating him. If he beats us again Sunday, I'll be doing the same because look he went to further his coaching career. He knew at some stage he was probably going to meet Kerry and I think Kerry people will recognise that he's doing a good job up there.”