Championship

Declan O'Sullivan leads Kerry to another historic All Ireland Victory

September 18th, 2007
by Weeshie Fogarty
You asked what's the secret of Kerry
And often I wished that I knew,
Twill doubtless seem odd though born on the sod
That question has puzzled me too,
You se the lad work in the meadow
As he tosses the hay without rest
And he yearns for the lengthening shadow
As the sun slowly sinks in the West.
Then he harks for the thud of a football
And things more important must yield
For nothing must stay in a Kerry man's way
When the ball bounces high in the field.
It may sound irreverent or even old fashioned to many people in the world we live in to day to talk and ponder on Sigerson Clifford's beautiful poem in relation to the secret of Kerry and what makes a Kerry footballer drive himself hermit like to the extreme limits of human endurance to wear the green and gold and win the All Ireland for their county.  Nevertheless as the scribes and knowledge GAA men and women praise the achievements of our magnificent team in Croke Park last Sunday it is worth pondering for a few short moments on one very simple nine letter word. TRADITION. The Oxford Pocket English dictionary defines the word as follow. "The handing down of information, beliefs, and customs by word of mouth or by example from one generation to another".

When our exemplary captain Declan o Sullivan walked up the steps of the Hogan Stand last Sunday to receive the Sam Maguire from Liam Mulvihill he was in essence accepting the information, beliefs and customs from the generations of Kerry footballers gone before him. In fact in Declan's case it is even more remarkable because this outstanding young man from the Dromid Pearse's club in South Kerry was following in the footsteps of a legendary Kerry captain of 1913-14. Dick Fitzgerald had captained Kerry to both of those wins all those decades ago; now Declan was the first Kerry man to follow in his foot steps and captain consecutive winning teams. Of course there is one small difference; there was no Sam Maguire cup in Dickeen time.

These thoughts with which I begin my column were not really prompted by the events of Croke Park and that amazing final. A visit to Tralee general Hospital last Thursday, four days before the final brought home to me in no uncertain fashion that the word tradition and all it implies is really the secret, the bed rock and the very heart of what Kerry football is all about. Dan Keating from Ballygamboon not far from the village of Castlemaine is 105 years old. He is a patient in the Muckross ward of Tralee general. He has lived a rich, full and a very active life. Now sadly Dan is in declining health. Confined to bed for the greater part of the day his mind thankfully is razor sharp and his recall of events both on then off the field of play is simply amazing.

Our conversation naturally centered mainly on the forth coming final with Cork. Dan is the only Kerryman alive who can recall Dick Fitzgerald leading Kerry to those two consecutive wins in 1913-14. In fact he is in the unbelievable position of having seen in action every Kerry footballer from Dick Fitzgerald to Maurice Fitzgerald. And between football and hurling he has seen something like ninety finals.  Naturally I asked him how he thought the game would go. His answer has since proved so prophetic, and for me explains exactly why Billy Morgan's side collapsed in such dramatic fashion when they were faced with the awesome power play of Kerry.

"Kerry will beat Cork easily" Dan stated with utter conviction. "Look at what happened on previous occasions when they met in Croke Park. Cork collapsed. If the match was being played in Cork or Killarney I would give them a great chance, but not now. Kerry are more at home in Croke Park that any other football side in this county and I have seen all of them in action there". And then he mentioned the word tradition and when a man of his age and standing speaks about tradition you listen very carefully. It really brings home to you the true meaning of the word. "Kerry have that great tradition of playing on the big stage more than any one else. Put them in to Croke Park and most of the time they will raise their game and prove unbeatable. Of course you can't win every year but one thing is certain. Cork will not match us because of out tradition next Sunday". Mainly on the basis of my conversation with Dan Keating and what I had seen of Colm Cooper in training in the weeks preceding the final I predicted a four point win for Kerry in this column last week. I was six points out of course but did anyone predict such a one sided contest, I don't think so. We extend our best wishes to Dan and hope that this latest Kerry victory will brighten his day.

It was another powerful Kerry display in a final. Most scribes and analyses have zeroed in on the three "soft goals" Kerry scored. However I don't believe fully in this theory about soft goals. Were they lucky? Yes Alan Quirk did leave his goal for the first one when Colm Cooper with a flick of the wrist had the umpire reaching for the green flag at the canal end. But lets not forget that Gooch was dwarfed at the time by Kieran o Connor and Alan Quirk, two huge men, yet his precision timing of the flick as he was sandwiched between the two Cork men was sublime. In his own word he explains. "I could hear Alan coming all right and I knew Kieran o Connor was pretty close so I felt that if I could get any nick on it at all there was a chance it would hit the net". How many players in the cauldron of Croke Park would have the awareness and sharpness of senses to hear a man coming from behind him, size up all the options that were unfolding in that split second is truly amazing. This is what makes a world class athlete. Colm Coopers display was very close to perfection. He had been showing in training that he was back to his very best.

Ger Spillane the Cork centre back will have nightmares for the rest of his life having lost the ball to Kieran Donnaghy for the second Kerry goal. But again in my opinion there was more to this than meets the eye. Star is, as we are well aware a top international class basketball player. Now any one that has played that sport will know that one of the great skills is disposing you opponent by blocking or tapping the ball away from him. Kieran persisted, hounded down the Cork man, and flicked the ball out of his grasp. Quirk had left his goal to run on to the return pass and as the fellow said the rest is history. The third goal, which resulted from the long high diagonal cross field centre by Eoin Brosnan, was another mix up in the Cork defense. But how many times have we seen this happen since Star was moved in to the full forward position. The secret here was the cross field ball not the long straight centre into the goal mouth which proved a disaster against Monaghan. It was in many ways similar to the goal Kieran scored against Armagh. Remember the "whose crying now baby" goal.

This was Kerry at their very best, probing, testing, harassing, supporting, winning breaks and showing all their great experience as they captured their third title in four years. Let the word go out loud and clear. This is one of the great Kerry sides. They have met and defeated the challenge of so many different counties in the last decade as the game in relation to training, diet, preparation and tactics changed and evolved continually. They have contested eleven of the last twelve All Ireland semi-finals and could easily be celebrating four in row All Irelands. Darragh o Se and Mike Frank capture their fifth Celtic cross. A magnificent achievement in to day's world when a player literally has to put his life on hold for the sake of the green and gold. And Darragh one of the great Kerry mid fielders has written himself into the history books eclipsing Danno Keeffe's record of 66 championship appearances. Both he and Curnow's Seamus Scanlon completed blotted out the much vaunted Cork pairing who were expected by many to swing the scales in the Rebels favor. I was delighted for Scartaglin as their hero Padraig Reidy prepares to bring Sam to the village for the first time.

A word of praise to Pat o Shea and his back room team. They have done a magnificent job. While Pat has directed operations with supreme confidence and great ability his trainer John Sugrue has proved an inspired choice. I have often written of my huge admiration for his predecessor Pat Flanagan. It was never going to be easy following in Pat's footsteps to train these super athletes to the peak of fitness necessary to run Cork off the field last Sunday. It is indeed a very fine line between tiredness and freshness. John achieved this and with the two Geaney's, the old and the young, Pat o Shea got the mixture spot on. Wearing "my old Killarney hat" let me add, you have done Beauties Home proud Pat. We will return to Kerry's historic win again next week.

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