A swashbuckling matinee performed by one team only and Jack O’Connor is reflecting on the scenes with a shake of the head. That shake between mild disbelief and deep satisfaction. He knows it well.
Suddenly the All-Ireland champions aren’t just where they want to be – they’ve delivered arguably their finest display since O’Connor’s third coming as Kerry manager. Now the remainder of the season can’t come soon enough.
Beating Tyrone by double scores, 2-18 to 0-12, restricting them to just six points in either half, is one thing: doing in the style Kerry did, eight different scorers, two stunning goals, and a loud and clear warning they’re not just reliant on David Clifford is something else.
Naturally Clifford played a still dazzling part, his brief catch and then swift kick under the Hogan Stand on the hour mark, deftly finding Tony Brosnan in space in front of the Tyrone goal, will like many his moments be recalled for generations to come.
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Brosnan in turn found Seanie O’Shea, he found the net, and it was game over – 2-15 to 0-9.
“He must have eyes in the back of his poll,” O’Connor says of Clifford’s move. “That was some vision, to see where Tony was.
“I didn’t think it was a great pass to him, in the first place, he was near the sideline and they were lining up to nail him, but he just got the ball away. That’s the mark of the man, he has tremendous vision.”
So Kerry aren’t just a one-man team after all.
“We can’t control what people say, but we certainly don’t think we’re a one-man team despite what other people think.”
O’Connor admits too he was gently aware that Kerry were being written off this season, that Tyrone were being talked up for this game in particular, and to that he also shakes the head.
“Was I aware of it? Lookit, there’s no one harder on Kerry than our own people. I mean, the narrative all year was that we don’t have a midfield. I thought the two boys did really well out there today.
But sure, if people write us off, we’re only delighted with that, it suits us.”
[ On a war footing, Kerry signal intent with bullish victory over TyroneOpens in new window ]
Not conceding a goal, and the limit placed on Tyrone particularly by the Kerry defenders, is of special satisfaction too.
“Yeah, we’ve a pile of work done on trying to improve defensively, get a good structure, and not concede goals. I think today the defence really was the bedrock, and we were able to play from there.
“I still think we left some scores out there, we just bit trigger happy in the first half, not working the ball into positions where we have better shot selection. But look, delighted overall, it’s very hard to pick holes in that.
“So delighted with the performance, we felt we were coming into form the last couple of weeks. We were very happy the way we played against Louth in Portlaoise, two weeks ago, it was just a matter of trying to get that form into Croke Park.
“Once the second goal went in, we’d really want to shoot ourselves in the foot to have lost it from there.”
Crucial too, he says, was getting that weekend break: “Sure it’s tough going on anyone, we got a real break when Cork beat Mayo a few weeks ago, and we finished top of the group. Because it is the ideal break, coming into a fast pitch like Croke Park.
“We thought at times that it showed in patches there, we had the legs in certain areas at certain stages of the game. I agree, it is a big ask.”
Tyrone joint manager Brian Dooher isn’t using their game load as any excuse, although it’s clear to in his look and sentiments this wasn’t close to the performance they were expecting.
“Aye, that’s not an inaccurate reflection,” he says. “We just weren’t at the races today, we didn’t bring any of our intensity, or any of the energy that we normally have, particularly that we had last week. Kerry did bring it, they did bring their game, so that combination is never going to end up in a good result. That’s what happened, that’s what materialised.
“Obviously we thought things would turn around at half time, but we never really could get ourselves rebased to get a platform to build on.”
Their lack of legs, lethargic at times, was evident of a team already gone deep into well, only again Dooher isn’t making excuses: Kerry were just superior in every sense.
“It’s not easy, but I’m not using that as an excuse. It’s not an excuse for that. I thought we could have given a better account of ourselves, it just didn’t happen. You have to give Kerry a lot of credit – they came out full of energy and intensity about them that we never matched.
“There was too much happening, there were too many threats coming at our defence, and repeatedly. You saw the scores there yourself, some fine scores they got.
“But, here, tell you what, I’m not making any excuses. We thought we were all right coming in here. We were flat. I don’t know; we’ll look back and we’ll chat and see what happened. We just didn’t bring the energy. I wouldn’t say that as an excuse.
“We were just flat today. It might have been a contributing factor but I definitely wouldn’t be using it as an excuse. We wanted to be here, we thought we were all right.”
