He that is taught only by himself has a fool for a master. That may sound like some ancient Zen experience but it's actually pure Gonzo. It may also help explain why Kerry are back in the All-Ireland football final.
Because for all their vast scattering of success – 36 All-Irelands, 58 finals, 76 Munster titles, etc – they’ve only ever been taught by themselves. As the aristocrats of the game Kerry never had the need or indeed the room for any “outsiders”, as John B. Keane liked to say.
Until Eamonn Fitzmaurice took charge, two years ago, and began to look beyond Slea Head and MacGillycuddy's Reeks. It could be a long time yet before Kerry appoint an outsider as manager, yet Fitzmaurice had the audacity to seek some outside assistance, if only to help teach Kerry some of the things they still needed to master.
That person turned out to be Cian O’Neill, who was born, raised and played all his football in Kildare. O’Neill has Kerry connections whatsoever – although he is a master in the art of strength and conditioning, starting out with the Limerick footballers, before spending four years with the Tipperary hurlers, and then 2012 with Mayo football (and more on that connection later).
Fitzmaurice was aware of these credentials when building his backroom team, having taken over from Jack O’Connor at the end of 2012. So, despite retaining former Kerry goalkeeper Diarmuid Murphy (who also worked with O’Connor) as one of his selectors, and bringing in Kerry legend Mikey Sheehy, Fitzmaurice still found the need and the room to look outside. With that the door opened for O’Neill, Kerry’s first outsider coach and selector.
Trepidation O’Neill recalls the trepidation of that first meeting with Fitzmaurice and the rest of the Kerry panel, wondering if the outsider would fit in. He sat at the top table alongside Fitzmaurice, Murphy and Sheehy (who between them have 15 All-Ireland medals and 10 All Stars) and looked down at the roomful of players who between them had more medals than most counties will ever win.
“I certainly felt like the only stranger in that room,” he says. “And a lot of people had said to me, ‘there are lot of players there with a lot of jingles in their pockets with their medals, and you’re going to find it tough to bring them on board’. But I was very surprised, because what I actually found was the opposite, that they all wanted more. What I found from that first meeting that night was a huge desire, a huge drive, for more. And from the first training session thereafter they’ve been a phenomenal group to work with. And it really helps that we actually all get on very well, personally.
“So any concerns or fears that people might have had that it’ll be different now, went out the window that very first night in Kerry – probably because of the disappointment of what had gone on the year before. Maybe they realised you can’t do what you’ve always done, or else you’ll get what you’ve always got.
“I think they felt it needed to be changed and it needed to be developed. So there’s never been anyone giving out about it. A lot of these guys wouldn’t have been exposed to scientific methods of training and physical development. And they’re lapping this up.
“But I just facilitate that, because it’s the players who are responsible. A lot of the physical work is done away from the Tuesday and Thursday training nights. Everything we do at training is football-driven, football- oriented. So ultimately the players should take all the gratitude for the physical work that has been done.”
Last year, Kerry’s increased physicality wasn’t glaringly obvious, although they still surprised a lot of people by how close they came to taking out Dublin. This year, O’Neill’s second year, the increased physicality has been quite evident, particularly in the way they took out Mayo, after a replay.
Fitzmaurice credits much of that to O’Neill’s influence. “The players have worked very hard on that, and fairness to Cian, he deserves a lot of credit. Everything he does is based on science and there’s nothing left to chance. I think the proof of the pudding was against Mayo. And it’s one less thing for me to think about, because I know that that side of things are done to a very high level.”
It helps, too, when Kerry boast the perfectly natural technical skills to go with O’Neill’s physical demands: “There’s such an emphasis on the kick pass. A lot of people compensate, in my opinion, for not having that technical ability by playing a controlled handpassing game or defensive game. But being such a technically strong team enables you to move the ball at speed, create a greater space emphasis game, and switch plays. That suits the kind of game plan we have.”
Showdown So to Sunday’s showdown against Donegal, O’Neill’s fifth All-Ireland final in six years (three with the Tipp hurlers, 2009-11 and then with Mayo in 2012). He doesn’t deny his experience with Mayo helped Kerry in last month’s semi-finals.
“I would have known say, 95 per cent of that [Mayo] panel, and that was a big help for us in terms of just getting an understanding of their players. In terms of any emotional consideration, no, it didn’t affect my approach to the game. But after the fact, if I wasn’t with Kerry, I would have been bitterly disappointed, because I feel that group of Mayo players deserve more than two final appearances. Their time will come. Just not at the expense of Kerry.”
Spoken like a true Kerryman.
