KERRY legend Tomás Ó Sé has spoken about being out-foxed by goal hero Oisín McConville in the 2002 All-Ireland final and how they managed to quell the influence of Kieran McGeeney four years later at Croke Park that propelled them to more glory.
Speaking ahead of his book signing afternoon at St Patrick’s, Loup GAC on Saturday afternoon (12-2pm), the five-time All-Ireland winner says he has better recollection of his career lows - including two All-Ireland final defeats to Tyrone in 2005 and ’08 - than the times he climbed the steps of Hogan.
Armagh pipped Páidí Ó Sé’s Kerry side to the Sam Maguire in 2002, with McConville grabbing the all-important goal that swung the game in the Orchard county’s favour. That day, Ó Sé had the dubious privilege of marking McConville.
“Páidí would always say: ‘Go man-to-man'. I remember saying to Páidí at half-time that day: ‘Look, he’s going to drag me in’. I could feel it. Páidí said: ‘Stick with him’. I was actually doing well enough in the first-half, but McConville was a clever footballer. And I think he got man-of-the-match and the goal was the changing of the match.”
He added: “I suppose that’s where Jack O’Connor’s tactical nous would have come in; he would have put somebody on McConville.
Interview: Tomás Ó Sé opens up on the White Heat of Championship
“Jack would have seen stuff like that and changed it. As the years went on, I would have called it myself. I do it at club level. If I’m being dragged inside, I would just swap with a fella.”
Four years later, Armagh succumbed to a different, more ruthless Kerry outfit at the quarter-final stages, where Kieran McGeeney was the most fouled player in the game. Six Kerry players picked up yellow cards for fouls on the Armagh captain.
“I wouldn’t say we decided five or six fellas to hit him,” Ó Sé said.
“If I got a second chance to hit him, I probably would have taken that as well and probably got another yellow card. We recognised that he was their spiritual leader. We needed to stop him if we wanted to stop Armagh. And that was probably our thinking.
"We got hurt badly by Armagh in 2002. The thing with Kerry is, when you lose, you don’t start complaining about it. You hurt and you hurt a lot inside - but you bring that hurt to the next meeting. I think there was a lot of hurt from ’02. There was a feeling: ‘We’re not going to lie down this time’. Now, sometimes that doesn’t work. Against Tyrone, in 2005 and 2008, it didn’t work.”
Despite losing two All-Ireland finals and an All-Ireland semi-final to Mickey Harte’s Tyrone side during the Noughties, Ó Sé has nothing but admiration for their conquerors and believed the Red Hands raised standards in the Kingdom.
Ó Sé also believes Tyrone were a more naturally gifted team than the Donegal side who took over the mantle of being the best in Ulster: “You look at Dooher, Canavan, O’Neill, Cavanagh, McGuigan,” he said.
“You had Gormley, Jordan in defence - great footballers. They had a good mix of players. I mean, Kevin Hughes was vital to that Tyrone team around the middle of the park. They had defenders who could attack, they had the workers - men like Dooher and skilful men like Canavan - and hard men like Canavan.
“Tyrone had that mix. Dublin have that mix. I don’t think Tyrone were ever as defensive as Donegal. Like, there was no team that could play like Donegal in their pomp. You have to admire that too. People give out about them… but the five All-Irelands I lost, I would have swapped it for winning them playing defensively. I would have went defensive for the whole lot of them.”
After 15 years playing for Kerry, Ó Sé retired at the end of 2013, winning five Allstars, before becoming a popular GAA pundit on The Sunday Game. The 37-year-old has written his autobiography, The White Heat, and will also pay a visit to Sarsfield's, Drumragh GAC in county Tyrone on Saturday (5pm) on his whistle-stop tour of the north.
