O’Connor’s mission: secure future of Kerry football
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19 Sep - Examiner - Chairman Sean Walsh is planning to use the potential for further All-Ireland glory to entice O’Connor to remain in charge of the Kingdom’s footballers next season and beyond.
Walsh believes there is a wealth of young talent in Kerry, and there is no-one better to help them mature into senior footballers than the South Kerry man. One more year would make no sense, said Mr Walsh.. |
Kerry bond could force Jack to stay at champions' helm
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19 Sep - Independent - "We got a lot of criticism during the year. There were fellas throwing salvos at us as late as yesterday morning. It's a bit sweeter when you can just answer them on the pitch, the only place to answer it. We were being portrayed as a team in crisis, Mayo were portrayed as a happy family. Jesus I don't know.
"We used it to our advantage (during the year). We said we'd shut up shop, circle the wagons and stick together. If there were any outward shows of dissention in the camp it would only add fuel to the fire. In many ways the criticism brought us closer together. There was some ferocious wildly unfounded stuff out there, players fighting, players picking the team. What can I say? If you deny it it's the worst thing in the world to do. So it's a case of telling them they're right, the place is in chaos!" |
Hearts leap free in happy Kingdom as drink goes undrunk in doleful Mayo
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19 Sep - Independent - A Religious icon would scarcely have elicited more veneration than the Sam Maguire last night as it arrived back in Kerry for a record 34th time. With up to 15,000 fans thronging the streets, it took an hour for the open-top bus to move to the stage in front of the Ashe Memorial Hall in the heart of Tralee.
An estimated 10,000 fans had gathered in Killarney where the team were due to arrive around 10pm. |
Last Sunday’s All-Ireland left a county dazed and confused
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19 Sep - Mayo News - Jack O’Connor said a startling thing in the Croke Park dressing room on Sunday night, while all around him joy burst off the walls. He said Kerry’s wait for an All-Ireland title after losing to Tyrone last year was more painful than the 55 years Mayo had waited. And you believed him, because he and his team had proven it just minutes before.
Kerry did not believe anything was going to stop them collecting the Sam Maguire for a 34th time, and they ached for it. Perhaps it’s as cold and mundane as that: their pain was greater than ours, which stoked their desire to a temperature we simply could not withstand. |
No dispute between O’Sullivan and Cooper over captaincy
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19 Sep - Examiner - “Myself and Colm have played football from under-16 upwards and I have always been a close friend of his and the family. We were room-mates as well. It was only fitting. He stepped into the breach when I lost my place and did a great job as captain. It was the right thing for the two of us to go up and accept it.’’
Cooper said O’Sullivan had approached him at the final whistle.
“He said ‘I want you to come up and do this with me.’ I said no, but he insisted. It was a very special moment for myself and Declan — something we will always cherish." |
Donaghy shows way forward
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19 Sep - Examiner - “It’s easier to counteract a running game than it is to counteract a kicking game in my book. I’m just delighted, he was a great outlet for us. There is more to him than people realise. He is agile and is not slow for a big fellow — and he has a great feel for the ball.” |
Sporting gods show Mayo no mercy
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19 Sep - Examiner - Any sports fan must hail Kerry today, must hail Kilkenny, the All-Ireland senior hurling champions also. Doesn’t matter a damn how many titles they’ve won in the past, who can begrudge them their wins this year? They’re the best teams in the land in hurling and football; Seamus Moynihan and Darragh Ó Sé with Kerry, Noel Hickey and Henry Shefflin of Kilkenny, they each deserve their fourth All-Ireland senior medals as much as David Heaney would have merited his first. |
Bradys tell it as it is
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19 Sep - Mayo News -Brady was then met with the question enquiring had the occasion got the better of Mayo. He was unequivocal in response. “No, no, that’s bullshit to put it mildly,” he retorted.
“It didn’t get to us. Every guy in there is used to playing in All-Ireland finals and winning them. We were unlucky and you have to give Kerry credit. All ye guys will be writing stories about Mayo flopping again and all that crap but there is a bunch of guys in there who gave their heart and soul for Mayo this year. Guys broke bones and spilt blood, nobody meant to go there and lose the game. It just happened and fair play to Kerry. |
Judge Jarlath says
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18 Sep - BBC - No team, no individual, could have stood up to this onslaught on this day.
Kerry have picked up four All Ireland titles in this decade and must allow themselves a wry smile at those of us who think we somehow should be let into the Pantheon of the Greats just because we have won one or two.
Other teams might pop up every so often and snap one out of their grasp, but in reality, the Kerry psyche plays around with the other thirty one counties in the same manner that their team messed about with Mayo on Sunday. |
Following Mayo beyond mere masochism
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18 Sep - Irish Times - This summer has been quintessential Kerry. Everyone else talking about them and their sufferings and strife while Kerry quietly keep their eye on the prize. There was indeed trouble between two Kerry players last weekend, club rivals in north Kerry, they had to be torn apart. It was in the course of a full-scale practice match in Páirc Uí Chaoimh, though, and everyone walked away grinning. The hunger was just at the right pitch. Meanwhile, outside, the rumour factory was still issuing grey smoke from its tall chimneys. |
Kerry crush Mayo to cruise to 34th title
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18 Sep - Examiner -“Above everyone, I was delighted today for Seamus, because he left Croke Park last year with his heart broken,” said coach Jack O’Connor. “There is no limit to what that man does for a team. He has the heart of a lion and has to go down as one of the all-time greats of Kerry football.”
"We seriously wanted Darragh Ó Sé and Seamus Moynihan to win a fourth All-Ireland title. People don't realise that 'Gooch' has only one medal so we had loads of reasons to be motivated."
“Dreams have come true,” Moynihan said. “My son in one arm, the Sam Maguire, nothing else will cap that.” It begged the obvious question. “Yeah, possibly going out on top would be the wise thing to do.” |
O’Sullivan proves doubters wrong as Kerry ‘gamble’ pays off
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18 Sep - Examiner - "Mayo might have been waiting 55 years but we were waiting 12 months after the defeat to Tyrone last year and that felt every bit as long to us. That’s long enough for Kerry.” said Griffin.
Seamus Moynihan agreed. The man must have medals spilling out of drawers at home — three senior Celtic Crosses among them — but this one was very special.
“I never came off a field as bitterly disappointed as I did last year (after losing to Tyrone). It took us a long time to get over last year. In fairness, there’s only one way you can bounce back. You can win the National League and the All-Ireland and that’s what the guys did this year.
"It was a great team performance and you saw that even with the lads coming on like Eoin Brosnan and Bryan Sheehan. You could never afford to have a bad game, even in training, or you’d be dropped. We had a bunch of fighters on this team.” |
Rising Star makes his mark
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18 Sep - Examiner - In the seventh minute, a quick-fire Kerry move, team captain Declan O’Sullivan comes storming through, lays off to the big man. He could have taken a chance on goaling himself, but no; using his basketball instincts, he gave an instant return to O’Sullivan for a slam dunk. Two minutes later, an even more emphatic finish. The high ball grabbed, full back David Heaney shrugged off and WHAM!, the net almost torn from the rigging. Nine minutes old, the game already over and Donaghy’s mark all over this final. |
Cold war as serial killers take no prisoners
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18 Sep - Independent - Winning teams keep their privacy, though, so we will never know now if the threads binding them together were in any way frayed yesterday morning. What matters is they didn't snap. Truth to tell, they were never remotely tested.
O'Sullivan scored Kerry's first goal; 'Gooch' knifed their third and Brosnancame on to filch an ornamental fourth. Move along folks, nothing to see here.
Perhaps the kill-shot was Kerry's second. It arrived in the eighth minute, Donaghy out-fielding Heaney and wheeling away to fire emphatically past David Clarke. Eight minutes. History chuckles. |
Dublin should be glad they didn't make the final
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18 Sep - Independent - Moynihan and Ó Sé are legends of the game and, although I wouldn't be surprised to see them back next year, no-one would begrudge them walking away with four All-Ireland medals in their back pockets.
They're giants amongst men and, if they do decide to retire, this was a fitting swangsong. |
Pat Spillane - It wasn't a match, as such, it was more a mismatch on the day
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18 Sep - RTE.ie - It's hard to know if it was an absolutely brilliant Kerry performance or if it was a woeful Mayo performance. My belief is that it was somewhere in between, it was a very good Kerry display against a team who simply didn't turn up.
The game was basically over as a contest after eight minutes when Kerry went 2-02 up without reply. I wrote down 'game over' at that point and from then on there was realistically no way back for Mickey Moran's shell-shocked side. |
Report: Aristocrats show underdogs how
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18 Sep - Examiner - Jack O’Connor’s superbly prepared team set themselves up for victory by stunning the Connacht champions with a two-goal barrage which put them 10 points clear after only 12 minutes and then controlling the game almost at will. While Mayo goaled three times before the break, a second half revival never materialised. |
Report: Merciless display leaves Mayo washed up in the theatre of dreams
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18 Sep - Belfast Telegraph - Ulster may have dominated the All Ireland series to some extent since the dawn of the new millennium but it has been clearly demonstrated that, for matters of grace and efficacy, it is Kerry who are the real masters.
While Mayo's unpretentious architecture of snap tackles, laboured passes and unconvincing motion was far from a precise science, Kerry simply played a game from another galaxy.
Fluid, cunning, sassy and garnished, sporadically, by breathtaking arrogance, it might well have been offensive had not the traffic for the greater part been so resolutely one way. |
Report: Kingdom power to glory as Mayo implode
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18 Sep - Independent - If O'Mahony's high work rate was crucial in restricting McDonald's influence, Seamus Moynihan's all-round solidity was even more important. He had a fine game, marking, covering and anticipating in a manner than was reminiscent of his very best days.
Paul Galvin's industry, Declan O'Sullivan's strong running, Kieran Donaghy's giant presence and Colm Cooper's constant nuisance value were all hugely significant too on a day when Kerry joined Galway (2001) and Tyrone (2005) as teams who entered the All-Ireland castle via the back door.
Nobody could deny Kerry's right to be there. They scored a total of 11-57 in their last four championship games and waited until the most important day of all to land their highest return. |
Report: All-Ireland final match-tracker - Minute by Minute
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17 Sep - RTE.ie - 74 mins: The final whistle blows on a game that was finished a long time ago. Kerry pick up their 34th All-Ireland, and they will hardly have won an easier one.
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