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TraleeToday.ie’s Gavin O’Connor was at the match in Páirc Uí Chaoimh yesterday to witness a powerful performance by the men in green and gold. Here’s what he learned…
1. Kerry are a lot better than we thought!
I’ll hold my hands up and say I was extremely pessimistic about our chances after the Clare game.
Kerry looked like a cobbled-together outfit. A mish-mash of players there to plug holes, a side too inexperienced to make an impression and too old to give it one more shot. They looked devoid of a grand plan and lacked leadership just a few weeks ago.
How wrong I was.
2. Goochless Wonders
It’s a curious blessing that Colm Cooper picked up his injury earlier in the year because this allowed Eamonn Fitzmaurice plenty of time to plan a season without our talisman.
Gooch’s role last year was central to everything we did so when the unthinkable happened it not only signalled an end to his season, but it seemed to scupper Kerry’s as well.
They’ve had to reinvent themselves and this has improved the players. The team has taken on the workload of an absent genius and that may have brought them on further than if he was still playing.
3. Fitzmaurice – the man for the big occasion?
Since taking over, Fitzmaurice has managed Kerry in three really big games. The Munster final last year, the semi-final against Dublin and yesterday’s game. In five of the six halves of those games he has had the team firing on all cylinders and crucially tactically correct.
The loss against Dublin came because we were outgunned by the Dubs’ deeper bench. Prior to that, Eamonn was the first man to stifle the Dubs launchpad – their kick outs, effectively.
Against Cork yesterday he got a Kerry team to put in one of the most devastating performances in a Munster final, that absolutely no one saw coming.
4. O’Donoghue and Geaney’s Demolition Job
Twelve points from play, thirteen in total between our two corner forwards. James O’Donogue is beginning to blossom, not only as one of our stars, but of the game itself. To watch the symbiotic display both he and Paul Geaney struck up with the men providing them with ball was a joy to behold.
Our rivals now are plotting a way to stop our two man full forward line. Yesterday they were almost unstoppable.
5. O’Sullivan Revelation
One of the platforms for our success was adopting Declan O’Sullivan as a sort of roving sweeper/playmaker. Parallels can be drawn to what Gooch did for us last year, but Declan is playing far deeper than him.
O’Sullivan is similar though in his of use possession, which was always positive.
With a few minutes left on the clock, Cork’s John Hayes’s elbow connected with O’Sullivan’s jaw and saw the line. They had enough of the Dromid man and Kerry!