A composed Jack O’Connor is facing into his sixth All-Ireland senior football final as Kerry manager, but the Kingdom boss admits it was difficult to deal with such a short turnaround from his side’s epic one-point semi-final defeat of Dublin to this Sunday’s final against Galway, and the resulting emotional rollercoaster.
O’Connor said it proved hard to get feet back on the ground and prepare his players for Sunday’s final after the emotional high of the Dublin game.
“If I was 100 per cent honest, I’d say it’s not an easy thing to do because, first of all, there’s a huge emotional toll that a game takes on you,” the Kerry boss said.
“It certainly took it out of me anyway and I’m sure it took it out of the players because there’s a huge build-up to a game like that. And obviously the game itself was very intense and then it’s just mayhem afterwards and then you don’t sleep well the night of a game. Well, I don’t anyway!”
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O’Connor said his focus quickly turned to Sunday’s final as the Dromid Pearses clubman looks to secure his fourth All-Ireland SFC title in what is his third spell as Kerry manager.
“Normally we sleep all right, I sleep all right the night before a game but the night of a game, and the players would be the same, you’d be wired.
“So, you go into the following day and you’re tired and you’re still trying to catch up for three or four days so, more than anything, it’s just getting the tiredness out of your system and obviously along with recovering physically, you then have to start switching your mental focus.
“I wish there was a switch you could flick but it doesn’t work like that so we’ll have to work hard at that over the next few days, no question.”
And O’Connor quickly dismissed any claims his players could fall victim to a sense of belief from Kerry supporters that the Kingdom’s name is already on the Sam Maguire Cup.
“Of course, there is that danger,” he said. “I mean, look, that’s why you have to insulate the players as much as possible from the public. Of course, they all want a piece of the lads or whatever, but I’ve been in this situation a good few times.
“I think this is my eighth or ninth final and I know the pitfalls that are there where players are in a completely different bubble to supporters.
“Supporters see All-Ireland finals as occasions with razzmatazz and atmosphere whereas players have to divorce themselves most of the time from that.
“They have to enjoy the build-up, of course, they can’t go into a cave for two weeks, but they have to understand that this is about performing on the big day and not getting carried away with any sideshows or tickets and looking after their partners the night before and all this.
“There are a lot of sideshows, getting measured for suits, tickets and accommodation for their partners and all that, you have to absolutely park all of that stuff and concentrate on the performance, because like I said the Dublin performance will be well forgotten about if we can’t get over the line now.”
The Kerry boss says he is in the exact position he’d hoped he would be in after he was given the reins of the team again last autumn as he tries to end his county’s eight-year wait for the Sam Maguire on Sunday afternoon.
“That’s where every Kerry manager tries to picture himself, it doesn’t always work out obviously but that’s the aim every year in Kerry when you start out, to try and get to this day,” said O’Connor.
“We were only talking about it the other day that the aim is to get to the last day of every competition that you play in and we’ve managed that so far, McGrath Cup, the league final, the Munster championship and it’s no different with this one.
“While it isn’t easy, we’re just trying to treat it as another game and part of the process, but it is a bigger game than all of the rest, the whole county has come alive and it’s no different than Galway.”
And while O’Connor believes Kerry got a statement win against the Dubs, one that will help them on Sunday, he also considers Galway to be still riding on crest of the high of their big emotional win against Armagh in the quarter-finals.
“Well, that’s what you are hoping but you never know, that’s what you’d be hoping – that that was a monkey off the back,” he said. “That was a big emotional win the last day, but so was Galway’s win against Armagh in an even more dramatic game, if that was possible.
“I mean there was so much drama in that game it was just incredible. Whatever bounce we would have got from winning a pretty dramatic game the last day, they would have got that bounce and even more. So, Galway have had a similar enough experience.”
