Kerry needed this win, an All-Ireland win that’s so very important in so many ways. We’d won the All-Ireland in 2014 but each year after that brought its own stories of failures.
Dublin in particular were the main stumbling block in those years. Kerry finally got that monkey off their backs in the semi-final through the magic of Seánie O’Shea and, as big as that win was, then the real pressure was on to beat Galway in the final, which Kerry people realised was going to be a monumental task.
It took its own time since 2014, but the destination for this Kerry team was reached on Sunday.
I spoke with Maurice Fitzgerald before the game and he made a very simple comment, so simple it made sense. He said: “This team needs to win an All-Ireland.”
This was a team that had been bursting to beat Dublin for so long and then were being asked to beat a battle-hardened Galway team.
After all the close calls and near misses and other disappointments of the past eight years, this was about the bigger picture: Kerry had to win this one to keep the show on the road. It was like a gambler, we needed to back one winning horse.
This wasn’t a year we could offer up or say, ‘we’ll be back next year’. This wasn’t a year for that. The Kerry players needed this, they needed the win to develop and there’s a number of players will come away better players and it puts Kerry into such a stronger position for next year.
Had Kerry lost this game, it would have been a monumental disaster. As a result, this would have been the best Galway team of all time.
To those players who may have even the slightest thought of retirement, I’d say, ‘hold off’. I wouldn’t be rushing into making any decision. For the other players, the younger ones, they’ll be better players because winning an All-Ireland medal makes you a better player. It gives you more confidence knowing you’ve done it. That’s what made Dublin so good, because they were tried and tested with a proven pedigree.
In the days running up to the match, the nearer we got to the big show, I felt an air of trepidation creeping in and it was definitely there in Croke Park, a warm day and a claustrophobic atmosphere to the whole thing.
Which brings us to Galway.
The funny thing that comes back to me is how every point Galway got was like gold and the team fed off it. The one thing we knew coming into the game was that Galway were never going to be afraid of this final. The fans fed off it and raised the roof every time they got a score, while Kerry were chipping away.
If you were a blind man at the game, going by the roars and the shouting, you’d have thought Galway were five or six points ahead at half-time, which wasn’t the case.
But if you stood back at half-time, Kerry were not in a bad place, playing poorly by our standards but still here, one point behind. That was one of the positives I took out of it at the time.
On a given day in an All-Ireland final, normally what it takes to win are as follows, you need 10 or more players to play well which is what, over the 70 minutes, Galway had. Unfortunately for Galway, those 10 players included the goalkeeper and the six backs and half of midfield, so make up the numbers from that. Can you see where I am going? The forwards, apart from Shane Walsh, didn’t play well.
Galway came into the game primed and ready and came to the table and gave it their best shot. We’d figured beforehand Walsh was going to catch fire at some stage of the championship and he kicked massive scores. Question is, could Tom O’Sullivan have been changed on Walsh? I don’t think so. He was still the best man for the job.
Mar fhocal scoir: Can’t ignore Walsh’s display, it was a performance of the ages and a joy to behold.
I wouldn’t have taken off David Moran. I didn’t think we could afford to take him off. Jack Barry was taking on water; with Moran, I feel a lot safer when he is there than when he is not there.
Diarmuid O’Connor stepped up in a big way. This was a game O’Connor was promising for a while and he stepped up and his physicality and athleticism and everything came through. Kerry needed him.
There was a load of things happened for Kerry that didn’t happen in the semi-final. The two Spillanes, Killian and Adrian, played well, when they didn’t in the semi. Do you say is Jack O’Connor a lucky manager or is he a brave manager to bring them on again in those circumstances?
Seánie Shea had a big role to play too. Even though he didn’t play as well as he did in previous games, he was involved in the last two or three scores for Kerry and contributed like that.
And a special mention for David Clifford. I was lucky enough to play with some marvellous players, too many to mention, and he is one of them.
He’s a fantastic player, fantastic at all levels. He was fist-pumping early on and at the time that struck me how much pressure was on this game, how much was riding on it. I’ve watched it twice since and there was stuff I didn’t see the first time or the second time and it was only when Kerry got two or three points ahead we were out the gap.
But then you look at the scores from Clifford. If you did a case study on each point, frees included, each one of them had a story of their own. The marks he made, he caught them so well the kicks were so easy afterwards. The points from play, the left and the right on opposite ends of the pitch.
Where they became so important to Kerry was the timing of them, and that’s what sets him apart. The two marks he made, he had to make a run to get them and he’s making those big decisions knowing full well everything he does he does for Kerry and the team. Seismic. In everything he does.
He’s also aware if he misses one of those kicks, that it is going to deflate. He’s playing with that pressure and playing comfortably and he’s smiling doing it. The great players do it when it has to be done.
He looked to be enjoying his football. I couldn’t do it myself to be honest with you. I never enjoyed those big games because I under too much pressure. There were other players that could, like Clifford now. I enjoyed it afterwards.
My favourite feeling was that 10 minutes after the game and when you have the Sam Maguire sitting with you on the bus and the job is done.
If there has been one downside to this year’s championship it is that it is all done and dusted too soon. I just hope the GAA stand back and reflect on this. Our championship was excellent in patches but for me it was very rushed and very forced.
Every day you went up to Croke Park you were in a hurry home. It was as though the football and the hurling was a nuisance. You half felt obliged to someone that you should be up there.
It didn’t feel football or hurling was welcome because they were in such a rush to get them out the door again. I just think yes we had some great games, and maybe because there was knockout towards the end and there was a bit of sudden death that raised the stakes. But at the same time here we are now and let’s call a spade a spade: traditionally, August and half of September were GAA-owned and those six weeks were the best six weeks of the year.
To put some context on it, the All-Irelands finished and you were heading into the Listowel Races and now we’re finished so early we’re heading into the Galway Races.
I don’t think there was a necessary need for the change. Will the club championships benefit? Most of those players are away in the States anyway. I don’t think it has worked.
The GAA had August and September every year, prime months, and now we’re throwing them up for somebody else to take them unless we grab them back. The GAA has tried it and, no, I don’t think it has worked.
I’d a funny feeling about it on Sunday, sitting up in the Hogan Stand, and thinking ‘what are we doing up here in July for a final?’ While we had some great games, there’s a need to sit down and have a look the championship scheduling.
There was an old saying in Kerry, ‘Cork beat and the hay saved’. We barely have the hay saved yet and Cork beat as well, and there’s nothing else to do. All over too soon, too rushed.
