White noise the soundtrack for Jack's 'last hurrah'

Jack O’Connor singled him Gavin White when unspooling his thoughts post-match.

Kerry’s Gavin White with Jamie Brennan of Donegal PicL Morgan Treacy, Inpho

David Clifford and his three orange flags. Older brother Paudie and his endless film reel of possession ferried. Joe O’Connor in the air and Joe O’Connor everywhere.

Kerry’s final megastars were three and obvious. They’ll be celebrated and correctly so.

But let nobody fail to put Gavin White in the same line up. Let nobody do him that disservice. Equally majestic, even if his primary function didn’t carry half the glamour of Clifford swinging possession over from 45 metres out or O’Connor shaking the net with 45 seconds remaining on the clock.

White’s scavenging was so sensational that he’s earned the right to never again hear mention of his 2023 misstep. Let this be the last time. The intercepted handpass that led to Paddy Small’s goal in the second half of the All-Ireland final defeat had to have been carried around for the past two years.

That single, troubling memory was exorcised several times over here.

Jack O’Connor and Mark O’Shea both singled him out, unprompted, when unspooling their thoughts post-match.

When Michael Langan broke the throw in, it was White who reacted quickest to gather. When O’Shea broke the throw-in at the beginning of the second half, it was White again reacting quickest. Both ended in Kerry points after only 11 and 19 seconds respectively. The final assist for the first of those was his.

He was responsible for raising their third and fourth white flags of the contest. It was he who blocked a Finnbarr Roarty shot just past the quarter hour. It was he who won the break from a spoiled Donegal restart at the beginning of the second half. His latest break won ended in a David Clifford point. White ended the match with three points of his own.

“His leadership, he was under kickouts, burst up the field, kicked three points, you name it. He is a Rolls Royce player,” said Mark O’Shea.

“When you see your captain doing that, it is very easy to fall in, put the shoulder to the wheel and drive in behind that.” 

Jack O’Connor, no more than ourselves, went for “sensational” in summing up White’s ceaseless endeavours. Even in the dying seconds and Sam halfway down the road to the Kingdom, the half-back was present at the coalface with clubmate Evan Looney to smother a Conor O’Donnell green flag attempt.

“Real captain's example,” added Jack.

Kerry made a number of private vows over the course of final Sunday. The first scattering of those were as they trooped onto the team bus at their Dunboyne base. Jack told his troops they weren’t going to sit back and inspect what Donegal had to offer, they were going to go after Donegal and they were going after Shaun Patton’s kickouts.

They went much further than that. They ruthlessly decommissioned Patton’s restarts. They spoiled seven of his first-half 17. They mined 0-5 from the spoiled seven.

The mining was collective. Joe O’Connor, twice, Seán O’Brien, Dylan Casey, White, Brian Ó Beaglaoich, and Mike Breen all got themselves under the restart or first to the breaking ball.

“There is so much footage and analysis on teams that unless you can pull a rabbit out of the hat, there is very little we hadn't prepared for there, and we had prepared for that,” Jack remarked of Patton’s missiles.

“He has a massive kickout, but we got a massive contribution from fellas jumping, breaking balls, and picking up breaks. We were really good on the breaks today. So that was a big weapon for them, and we managed to nullify it by and large.” 

The vow at half-time was not to collapse as the Cork hurlers had done seven days previous. They didn’t. They travelled the complete opposite road. They continued to make good on an earlier promise of preoccupying the opposition’s counter terrors.

“I thought we worked the Donegal defenders and that in turn took away a bit of their legs for going the other way. That was a big factor.

“I don't think McHugh, Roarty, and Mogan had a big influence on that game attacking-wise. I think that had a lot to do with the patience we showed in attack and keeping them occupied.” 

All-Ireland No.5. Outright third for Jack in the managerial roll of honour. Only Micko and Jim Gavin ahead of him. This the sweetest?

“They are all hard-earned. This one, in particular, was hard-earned because we had the world of setbacks all year,” he explained.

“Delighted for the people that were with me and obviously delighted for myself because I found it a tough old year. I was in here a month ago and there was a lot of steam coming out my ears. It wasn't faked or put on. It was authentic because I felt we were getting a lot of unfair stick when we were trying our butts off and have been from the start of the year. For us to finally get the reward is great.” 

Going on his parting words before leaving the media room, Sunday had the jib of a perfect sign-off to the end of his third stint on the sideline.

“I think I was on record earlier in the year that it would probably be my last hurrah, do you know. I don’t want to be telling ye lads before I tell anyone else. There’s a lot more people down the corridor. Look, we’ll do that in due course. There’s no hurry.” 

If his first 21 years ago gave him “credibility”, this latest and potentially last one cemented his greatness.