Jack O'Connor was gone had Kerry lost the All-Ireland 

Kerry football manager Jack O'Connor with his GWA Gaelic Football Personality of the Year award in front of the Skelligs rocks at St Finan's Bay in Ballinskelligs. Pic: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

Jack O’Connor has revealed he would have stepped down had he not led Kerry to All-Ireland glory this past season.

The five-time All-Ireland SFC winning manager, who turned 65 on Thursday, was handed a two-year extension in August having initially expressed reservations about extending his third term in charge of the county.

However, speaking as he was announced the Dalata Hotels Gaelic Writers Association Football Personality of the Year for 2025, O’Connor would not have remained at the helm had Kerry not beaten Donegal.

“There won't be a fourth term,” he said. “I remember making a comment that it was my last cut at it, people took that as it being my last year but I was saying it was my last term. And it would have been (this past season) if we had lost the All-Ireland.” 

As O’Connor told this newspaper in August, O’Connor felt a sense of duty towards the management team who signed up with him for 2025. “Plus I would have spoken to a few of the players and they would have encouraged me to stick at it.” 

But he had been adamant that the Donegal game was going to be his 75th and final championship game as Kerry manager after what he had endured following the previous year’s semi-final defeat to Armagh. “I had convinced myself going into the All-Ireland this year that this would be my last cut. I wasn't playing games the night of the All-Ireland.” 

The possibility of leading Kerry to a 40th All-Ireland SFC title is an obvious carrot for O’Connor next season, as is the idea of becoming the county’s first back-to-back winning manager since Mick O’Dwyer.

Kerry, of course, repeated their 2006 success the following season but under Pat O’Shea after O’Connor stepped aside. That group of players, similar to this current crop, were at their peak yet O’Connor was spent after claiming a second All-Ireland title in three years.

"I had no alternative to leave in 2006, I'll be honest. I was burned out. That was a time when I was doing the coaching myself and that was a particularly tough year. I was burned out, physically, mentally, emotionally, every way. Even if I wanted to stay on, I couldn't have stayed on. And I made the right decision, 100%. Because I just needed to go away and decompress or whatever.

“By 2008 I was starting to get my energy back and I actually got involved with Kerins O'Rahillys. We reached a county final and were beaten by a last-minute penalty.

"It's such an intense job, especially in Kerry where you're answerable to an awful lot of people. To a whole county who are football-mad and a big panel of players. It is a pretty onerous enough job. You can get burned out.

“This time, by and large, I wouldn't be as hands-on and I think that is more sustainable, The way I was doing it in the past wasn't as sustainable. Particularly when I was working. I'm retired, I'm still pretty healthy, fit as well, I exercise a lot. I watch my diet and I don't drink too many pints. I have a better balance and it's more sustainable.” 

As O’Connor mentioned in August, this was David Clifford’s best year yet in a Kerry jersey and he put a lot of that down to the overdue break from football he had over last winter. Unless he lines out for Fossa in the O’Donoghue Cup, the would-be footballer of the year will be resting up again over the coming weeks.

That hiatus along with the new rules breathed new life into him, according to O’Connor. "It suits David Clifford, it suits the teams that are more attack-minded. I'm not casting aspersions on anybody but it's a fact that we down here, as in the public, want to see that type of game. Maybe that's why they got so enthused about this year. That we were playing on the front foot, particularly when we went to Croke Park and were putting up big scores.

“We kicked 32 points against Armagh in the quarter-final. It suits a lot of teams, if they are that way inclined. We're not the only ones. It gave a fella like David Clifford a new lease of life. Inside forwards don't want to be running 100 metres back the field chasing fellas. That's not what they play the game for.

“Inside forwards are playing the game to win ball and kick scores and great scores. That's how they see the game, not chasing fellas back to their own full-back line.” 

*The Dalata Hotels Gaelic Writers Association Awards take place in the Clayton Hotel in Ballsbridge on Friday.