Kerry boss Jack O'Connor intervened to get tasteless roadside Mayo gag taken down

LAKESIDE VIEW: Kerry boss Jack O'Connor pictured Saturday at the Kingdom's pre-All-Ireland SFC final media day at the Hotel Europe in Killarney. Pic: David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile

KERRY manager Jack O’Connor has confirmed he personally intervened to get a ‘disrespectful’ marketing sign about Mayo and their manager Andy Moran removed from the road side between Killarney and Killorglin.

A Killorglin based brand agency put up the off-colour promo featuring Jack O’Connor in a wedding dress and Mayo counterpart Moran in a bridesmaid’s outfit, but the Kerry boss said Saturday he and many others in the Kingdom didn’t see the funny side of it.

He revealed at a media briefing: “I didn’t know anything until the image was sent to me Friday morning, obviously the man was trying to be funny but I didn’t see too much fun in it - least of all myself in a wedding dress.

“I rang a friend of mine to ask did he know who put it up and could he do something about getting it taken down. He told the folk responsible for it that I wasn’t happy and lo and behold it was taken down. That’s all I know, I try to stay away from social media but it kind of took off then. People were commenting.” O’Connor would be regarded as a green and gold traditionalist and reckoned the attempt at humour by the Brand Geeks agency was poorly constructed.

“The only opinion I have about it is it wasn’t in good taste,” O’Connor said. “I was brought up in the Johnny Culloty school of Kerry football, that you have to carry yourself with a certain style in Kerry. There’s a massive tradition of Kerry being a good brand, backed by a great company in the Kerry Group and we treat all our opponents with respect.

“We fight like hell on the field, but we treat opponents and those involved with them with respect and I thought that was disrespectful to a great footballing county and a great man in Andy Moran.

“He was a great player himself and has transferred that enthusiasm and toughness into his players. So I just thought it was in bad taste, but thankfully the guy took it down. Maybe he didn’t mean too much by it but it was just in bad taste, just doesn’t represent us well as a county.” By mid afternoon Friday, the sign was removed from the side of the road, though not before social media lit up with comment and criticism.

“Not in our name. Not Kerry,” posted former All-Ireland winning Kerry skipper Dara Ó Cinnéide.