Gaelic football’s natural order restored

Cometh the hour, cometh the men. The Kingdom came and conquered. Adapting to the new rules first outing in Headquarters, Kerry moved smoothly through the gears with ease. As Clifford the Elder was monstering early possession, one forgot about the Younger. The scoreboard turned with the ease of previous Kerry outings circa 2004/06 but with some hope left for Donegal, mainly built on Jim McGuinness’s reputation. Turned out Donegal fell between the beatings we took in those two finals.

Personally, and despite a love and deep respect plus my blood line deep Donegal, for me it had to be a Kerry win. Why? I can stomach a 39th Kerry title. I’d suffer with a Donegal third, putting them level with us. Tyrone already have came from zero to four since 2003 and we in Mayo don’t need another like Armagh or the Donegal’s biting our bum on the winners table. Neptune is the furthest planet from earth, the moon the closest. Kerry are Neptune, we don’t need Donegal like the moon looking down on us nightly. In the world of Kerry titles, Donegal, like ourselves, are mere beads on their rosary of titles.

Enough of that. Despite the new rules, it was a sterile final. Tactics and rigidity have stolen the heart from it. This final in 2025 wasn’t the war of the gods like 2016 (x2) or 2017. It lacked the blood and thunder, jeopardy and stand up, and hands over the mouth of those battles, fights to the death. This one was over after Gavin White scythed through the vaunted Donegal cover. The talk was that Donegal would ‘allow’ David Clifford maybe 1-10 and keep the rest quiet. Really? Holding the likes of the Elder, Sean O’Shea, and Dylan Geaney would stretch metal. And it did.

What did we learn? Coming up to the last two minutes of half-time, Kerry had possession and a decent lead. The game suddenly went pedestrian, Kerry lads walking, ball in hand, eyes glancing around and occasional glance at the clock. Donegal, for all the acumen heaped on them and their manager, were helpless. With the sound of the hooter, Kerry came alive again and Clifford the Younger looped a two-pointer. What was a bridgeable target for Donegal now became a mirage. The rules have been adapted and once you adapt once, you adapt again. That two minutes passage of possession screamed for a shot clock. Will it come? Who knows.

This final though was about one man: Jack O’Connor. Like all heirs of the Gael, such is his greatness that he will become known by either his first name or second name, no need for both. Already we have Micko, Heffo, Cody, Páidí, Johnno, Boylan, Dev, Collins and Bertie. Jack joins that elite group now. No need for royal titles, the populace decides themselves who emerges that hallowed hall of singular name.

Jack came three times, gaining five senior All-Irelands. His arrival came in 2004, leading to a break with Kerry tradition of bringing in a man not noted as a county player. Jack knew that the equivalent of Manchester United’s Class of ’92 would sit in judgement. In Jacks case, it was the men of 1975-1986, and indeed their forefathers, who would pass judgement on Jack. Bluntly Jack wasn’t one of them, but Jack knew that, used it as a tool and prevailed.

Back again in 2009, and like all his All-Ireland wins, he stitched in a League title for good measure that year too. Cork finally fell over the line in 2010, and Dublin arrived in 2011 and saw them snatch victory from what looked like another Kerry win. That loss was cataclysmic. Jack’s veneer was scratched. Things were shiny Sky Blue. Jack was passé, yesterday’s grey man. Eamonn Fitzmaurice capitalised on our side line inertia in 2014 and led Kerry to an against the head All-Ireland victory. On reflection, this was an important All-Ireland victory for Kerry. It would preserve their record of winning Sam at least once in every decade.

The curtain raiser for that 2014 All-Ireland final was the Minor final between also Donegal and Kerry. The Kerry manager was one Jack O’Connor. Surely not the man from the past? It was. What was it in Jack that saw him park his ego, step back (yes, step down) and work with the kids, park his pride as his former player Eamonn Fitz was now the main man on the big day? Was Jack stripping everything back to basics, himself, the young men…did Jack sense that Dublin would be around for a while and maybe do some work done away from the main stage would produce a new album? I don’t know but I also don’t know another manager who would be as humble as that.

Timing is everything. Fitzmaurice couldn’t break the Dublin train; indeed, the Mayo train troubled him. Peter Keane was viewed like Jack was back in early 2004 but he lacked Jack’s bit of bad that didn’t give a f**k. Eventually the last man standing was Jack. They needed him and in 2022 he came back. Having led Kerry to successive Minor titles in 2014/15, beginning a five-in-a-row for them, Jack set about a rebuild and he knew where the nuggets were. A soft enough title, is any All-Ireland title soft? I suggest they are, especially if you are a Kerry man; Galway 2022, Donegal 2014, Cork 2007 and 2009, and Mayo 1997/04/06, to me, were awful finals for the losers.

From Jack’s 2014/15 Minor squads came Ryan, Ó Beaglioch, Tom Sullivan, O’Connor, Burns, Spillane, Sean O’Sullivan, Foley, White, Sean O’Shea, Conor Geaney, Mike Breen and Greham O’Sullivan. That’s some haul. Clifford came a few years later with the 2016/17 squads. After 2015, Jack took over the under-21 teams. He then was lured to Kildare for a few years but that was a kind of exile that suited him. Near enough not to be judged by Dublin’s national dominance, but far away from Kerry’s perceived failure to challenge them. The further Jack was away from Kerry, the closer and louder the call came for his return.

He didn’t disappoint on his return. Google his record across the grades from secondary schools, underage club onwards. It’s astonishing. The man they sniffly looked down upon now stands just behind Micko.

Other thoughts on the final? Why no Minor final as an opener? Why have it in July? Reek Sunday in Mayo, Agricultural Fairs around the nation, European ladies’ final same day, holidays, history, or is everything predicated around music concerts, money and the GPA nowadays? Who designed the markings on the pitch? It gave me a headache and looked like an Aztec design. Jarlath Burns did his usual bonhomie host piece. After the league final, he lauded the Mayo County Board leaving many puzzled as to the why, but Kerry won the cup.

A Donegal team just wanting it over listened to him drone on about Michael Murphy and his legendary status. I’d say Murphy wished he’d shut up. They came here as a team, not singularly. Was Burns playing to his own ears or what he thought Donegal people wanted to hear? If he really cared, the lads that needed a few words they should have been towards the likes of Roarty or Langan or Ciaran Moore, who saw season great performances grind to dust in front of them. Murphy didn’t need Burns to lionise him. That’s already done. Less of the ‘I’m your mate and feel your pain’ s***e please from the top table.

The aura of Jim McGuiness took a battering. Jim started senior managerial life as a destroyer and re-inventor of the national game circa 2011. It was awful. Refined somewhat in its second year and lucky to meet a team, us, who bought into the strategy, instead of doing what we did a season later in the quarter-final: rip them to shreds. We paid them too much respect in 2012 as 2013 proved. By 2014, an average enough Kerry held them at arms length and picked up their sole All-Ireland of the decade.

This season the media saw Jim as The Man. Joe Brolly’s Sunday Independent article led with “Even David Clifford can’t stem the Donegal tide as Jim McGuinness makes plot to limit Kerry’s talisman’. On Monday Joe distilled that prediction into cold reality, he picked the wrong Clifford to stifle. ‘For a team that depends on turnovers, Donegal couldn’t even get a tackle in. A system like Jimmy’s is awesome when it works, but when it doesn’t, there is no plan B’. Joe being Joe is never wrong. It’s called an each-way bet after the race is run.

Funnily enough, Mayo may have inadvertently played a part in Donegal plot/plan this year. The missed penalty in the league match in Castlebar ‘saved’ Donegal from meeting Kerry in the League final. Perhaps they’d have been better off testing the Kerry waters in Croke Park early? They then went and scored a winning point to eliminate us from the championship in The Hyde where a draw would have sufficed them, thus allowing Kerry to meet and recalibrate against a soft Cavan after that Meath debacle. In hindsight, Mayo would have given Kerry grief, not a relaunch platform to drive for Sam.

Anyway, it’s over for now. Meanwhile we are looking for a manager. The haste, correct but brutal in execution of changing manager, has now gone into slow motion. The Western People reported that the MAC hasn’t been fully filled but quoted a county board source: ‘Even though the MAC has not met, that’s not to say individual members have not been sounding out potential candidates’. Classic Mayo. How? A phone call here, a text there, a knock on a door, a wink or handshake over a coffee and tea?

Lee Keegan, a Mayo certified legend, has thrown his backing behind Andy Moran. The Sun noted Lee stating: ‘I think Andy Moran would be a nice fit. I think the lads know him; they respect him. And even listening to the Monaghan group this year, in particular, he has an energy. That kind of affection and emotion towards players, that’s hard to replicate sometimes’. I’m not that certain that as a Mayo follower we need more ‘affection and emotion’ shown to the team. We need cold, hard and calculated decisions, boys who will be left behind and boys who will travel onwards. But that’s me.

Around 1962 and indeed before that, our post mistress, Maureen Sweeney, legend and Kerry woman, would point her Volkswagen Beetle in the direction of Croke Park to see her native Kerry do battle. Our innocence assumed that Kerry had a divine right to appear in All-Ireland finals, and ladies such as Maureen were blessed to be given the opportunity to dine at the top table. Us Mayo’s never were in that zone.

Thankfully since 1989, at least we can dream. Down at Blacksod Lighthouse on the Monday after Kerry’s demolition of Donegal, my mind went back to those days of Maureen’s travels eastwards. Lots has changed and nothing has changed. Kerry stand top of the pile…again. The Kingdom Came.