Nobody springs more out of a league final than Jack O’Connor’s Kerry
LORD OF THE LEAGUE: Going back to 2004 when Kerry beat Galway in the first of two finals in the space of three years, Jack O'Connor's record has been flawless in league finals. Pic: ©INPHO/James Crombie
At this stage, Jack O’Connor has earned it, so we won’t merely describe one of his powers as a new manager bounce. No, capturing a league and All-Ireland in the first year of his three stints as Kerry manager is obviously a case of Jumpin’ Jack Flash.
Mickey Harte boasts a similar ability, also doing the double in his first season with Tyrone. Later, all within months of being appointed, he earned promotion with Louth and Offaly as well as a Division 1 title with Derry.
On Sunday, O’Connor has a chance to demonstrate another of his strengths and leap ahead of Jim Gavin as the most successful National Football League manager with six wins in the modern era and in the all-time stakes moving just behind Dr Eamonn O’Sullivan.
Gavin’s record of 6-0 in All-Ireland finals is as clinical a record as you can find in the annals of the game and against Donegal it’s what O’Connor chases in league deciders. Going back to 2004 when they beat Galway in the first of two finals in the space of three years, his record has been flawless in spring showdowns.
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They have been a strong, if not wholly accurate barometer for O’Connor. After beating Galway in 2006, they had to go the long way to All-Ireland glory having lost to Cork. After they dismissed Derry, the same happened again in ’09 and there was that jolting slip against Meath in Tullamore last season.
The contracting of the inter-county calendar would suggest the league has never given a better indicator of what is to come but for O’Connor and Kerry time has stood still. Between the league final and Munster opener 20 years ago, there were four weeks – the same break between Sunday and facing Clare in Ennis on April 25.
Reviewing last season’s success, O’Connor wasn’t as inclined to believe winning the league was a good portent as it had been for him on the four previous occasions.
“We could just as easily have got relegated,” he said. “It isn't as if we set our own stall at the start of the year to win the league. By implication then that we'd win the championship.
“I felt Donegal could have won the league if they wanted to win it with all guns blazing. We almost won the league by default. But it's never any harm. The big thing for us is that it got us a game in Croke Park under the new rules.
“We were very anxious to get a run out there because it plays different to provincial grounds. It's harder to defend in Croke Park under the new rules. The pitch plays very big. It can be difficult to cover the spaces.”
Perhaps not to the same extent but O’Connor may argue it was only Ross McQuillan’s rushed shot that was the difference between Kerry making the final and Mayo not. Then again, they won the same amount of games – four – as they did in last year’s campaign.
As O’Connor said following the draw in Armagh, you never turn down a game in Croke Park and it’s where Kerry have exploited the rules the most. Between the Division 1 final win over Mayo and their three championship matches, Kerry’s average winning margin there last year was 7.5 points. Pre-rule changes, 2024 champions Armagh’s winning difference was 1.5 points on their four visits to GAA HQ.
Nowhere is momentum as real or as dangerous in Croke Park. It’s football on turbo and an ideal pre-championship experience for Kerry and Donegal, who have already sampled the place this year, before they both head to Portugal for warm weather camps.
Sunday is also the first league final featuring the previous year’s All-Ireland participants since 2016 when Dublin once more had the advantage over Kerry. If Donegal aren’t thinking about putting an end to O’Connor’s command of league finals thus ruining his chance of a sixth double and sowing a seed of doubt, they are missing a trick.
“Overall, we’ve had a great league and it’s fitting we won it. Psychologically, it was good. I think it’s three or four big games we have lost over the last few years in Croke Park. It sets us up again.”
“It was just great to get two extra games, this one in particular being a very good game for us. We found out an awful lot about ourselves, we’ve been tested and it’s great for the confidence to win another title.”
“If we lost another final this year (Kerry had lost three in 2008), maybe we’d think there was a jinx but the best medicine for a team is winning matches. It is good to win matches where you don’t play very well.”
“We are happy with where we are at, but it’s a long road there. Kerry had huge wins in the league last year and when push came to shove down the line in the championship it didn’t do them a pile of good, so we are certainly keep our feet on the ground.”
“This one was one where halfway through the league we were fighting relegation. Even last Sunday morning, I think we were 11/1 to reach the league final. It's been a strange league. I mean, other years we got out of the traps early and were favourites to win the league from early on. I think this one has been a bit different, we've just eked it out by finishing strong.”
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