O'Connor hopes heavy defeat for drained Kerry proves a reality check 

Jack O'Connor was resigned to his team's fate when he realised the lack of energy at training.

Kerry manager Jack O'Connor speaks to his team at half-time of the Allianz Football League Division 1 final match between Kerry and Donegal at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile

Silver linings and all that. Jack O’Connor hopes this 13-point defeat to Donegal, Kerry’s biggest reverse in a final in 25 years, will put paid to claims they are certain to defend their All-Ireland title.

“A game too many” was his assessment of a match where they were overrun and conceded three goals in as many minutes in the second half.

He was resigned to his team's fate when he realised the lack of energy at training on Thursday. But if there is an upside to the loss it’s the fact it will temper perceptions of the team.

“Ah look, it's still the league, it's an important competition, but it's not the end of the world. If anything, it’ll bring lads back to reality, and I'm not talking about our lads now because we're always in touch with reality, but people outside the camp.

“There was a lot of stuff going on there, that we were a shoo-in for the All-Ireland and whatever. I’m telling you now, there's a lot of football to be played, and it brings everybody back down to earth, which is no bad thing this time of year.” 

O’Connor acknowledged the draw with Armagh drained players. “My instinct is that we were tired and lethargic, and I think the game last week took a bit more out of us than we realised.

“The writing was on the wall during the week, the lads didn't appear to have regained their energy by Thursday night, and Croke Park is a bad place if you don’t have energy.

“They (Donegal) obviously dominated the kick-outs today. We did well on them in the All-Ireland final. That’s the game. Once you dominate the kick-outs and against a team like Donegal who don’t give the ball away too cheaply you’re in for a hard afternoon. If you can win your share of the kick-outs... and we struggled in that area.

“A few things went against us during the week. We lost two or three players from the Armagh game, and then you put new lads in who were a little bit undercooked, and the partnership in the middle of the field was broken up with Sean O'Brien. He had an issue with his calf, as did Brian Ó Beaglaoich coming out of the Armagh game.

“So you take fellas out of that type of situation, where they're used to playing together, and then it takes a while for the other lads to find their feet. But, look, I'm clutching at straws here. Donegal are a good bit ahead of us at the minute. A good bit ahead of us legs-wise, and we've got a bit of catching up to do.”

O’Connor again raised the subject of Kerry players lining out in three club championships and some of his group only coming back in January.

“By looking at Donegal out there, they were training a bit earlier than January now. So then you're playing catch up, and you're patching fellas up, and you're putting fellas in who are undercooked.

“I've been on about this for a while. People think I'm just making excuses, I'm not, I'm just stating facts. I'm not making this stuff up. So, we've a lot of ground to make up as the season goes on. It is a very tricky assignment to try to get a bit of work into fellas, try not to injure them, try to patch them up, and the level of injuries we've got the last two years, I think is as a result of the compressed nature of the season, and the lack of off-season for some of our players, and something will have to be done about that.”