Playing the game: Kerry boss O'Connor blocks down Dubs' 'pressure' claim

If Kerry are the 'standout favourites', Jack O’Connor will be counting on a repeat of their quarter-final mentality.

Kerry’s manager Jack O'Connor during the Tyrone win. Pic: James Crombie/Inpho

Kerry manager Jack O’Connor has said that his Dublin counterpart, Ger Brennan, “is playing the game” with his comment that all the pressure is on Kerry, the champions, going in to Sunday’s All-Ireland semi-final.

With Kerry’s All-Ireland semi-final media briefing a couple of hours after Dublin’s on Monday, Brennan’s remarks from Parnell Park were put to O’Connor.

The nub of the Dublin manager’s point was that “all the pressure” is on the Kingdom, because of Jack’s experience, with Jack likened to Mick O’Dwyer.

Brennan said: “The experience that they have and the medals and silverware they have brought about as a management team, it just takes a lot of pressure off us. We’re only finding our feet and, similarly, Kerry are defending champions.”

Jack shot a wry smile when told the comments: “Good man, Ger! Sure, there’s pressure on Kerry every day. There’s always pressure on Kerry. Ger is playing the game, I presume,” replied the Kerry boss.

Given that Kerry have bested the Blues on just one occasion across their last eight championship meetings — the 2022 All-Ireland semi-final — O’Connor was asked if Dublin still spook the green and gold?

“Well, I don’t know about the spook part of it. All those games were tight. Going back as far as 2011. I was involved in 2011, along with Donaghy, obviously. Sure, that was as tight as could be. It took a great kick by Cluxton to win it. That was the start of it.

“2013 was a great game, Kerry were right in that. Dublin came through. Obviously, 2015 was a tight-enough final, 2016 a semi-final. 2019, Kerry could have, and possibly should have, won that one, but Dublin showed their mettle with a man down and won the five-in-a-row in the replay.

“2023, we were bitterly disappointed after that. We thought we had a great chance, but they reeled us in down the stretch. They have plenty of evidence that they have a great chance in the game.”

Manager Jack O’Connor: ‘Always pressure on Kerry’. Pic: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

If Kerry are the “standout favourites” that Brennan claims them to be, O’Connor will be counting on a repeat of their quarter-final mentality, where they successfully blocked out the chatter of a nailed-on Kingdom victory.

“I was just delighted to get out of it, because despite the talk that was going on around the place, we felt that Tyrone were going to be very dangerous and were going to be a huge challenge for us, because people underestimated the toll that three games in a row take out of you, particularly against a team like Armagh.

“So, despite the talk going on, I don’t think we allowed that to infiltrate into our camp, and it was just as well we didn’t. If we were off it mentally, we could have well lost that game.”