Any win is a defining moment

Seán Moran talks to Dara Ó Cinnéide about Kerry's change of style, their defeat by Tyrone in 2003 and what drives Kerry players on

It was hardly the shock of the championship but Dara Ó Cinnéide's recall to the Kerry side for Sunday's All-Ireland football final was nonetheless a relief for last year's captain.

"Obviously you like to be starting but maybe that's the easy part," he said. "When you start you have to prove yourself every minute of the game you play."

There's enough evidence, however, to suggest that starting in Jack O'Connor's teams is far from the easy part. Michael Francis Russell misses out on the first 15 for a second successive year and twice-All-Ireland medallist Eamonn Fitzmaurice joins him on the bench.

Competition for places is intense. "Don't I know!" says Ó Cinnéide. "It's crazy, although from Jack's point of view it's ideal.

"There's so many players - even two young fellas brought in, in the past two or three months, Pádraig Reidy and Darren O'Sullivan, coming straight out of minors, both brilliant players. They're already putting pressure on us, which is really, really good."

He is within 70 minutes of a fourth All-Ireland medal this weekend. Since the first, eight years ago, Kerry have been through a wide range of experiences.

Although the team were emphatic winners in last year's final there has been plenty of speculation about the motivation involved in facing a Tyrone team that handed them such a demoralising defeat in the semi-final two years ago.

Ó Cinnéide rejects the view that the match was especially humiliating compared to the 2002 defeat by Armagh, pointing out that the county had endured a hard run in those years.

"The loss to Meath in 2001 was humiliating. I think Jack put his finger on it there: they (Tyrone) out-fought us on the day. It didn't please a lot of people but we didn't give out about it. We didn't particularly enjoy the day out in Croke Park - well beaten, outfought, outmuscled, outthought.

"They went on to win the All-Ireland and we realised, 'football's taken on a new direction here. We better go with it' and we have gone with it in fairness.

"People were expecting last year that we'd be playing Tyrone or Armagh and it's taken 12 months longer for what people might see as a defining moment in GAA.

"I don't see it that way. People said to us in 2002 that the quarter-final with Galway was a defining moment - the two dominant teams of the modern era. So we beat Galway. Sure who remembers that? It's another All-Ireland to be won. The fact that it's Tyrone wouldn't make it any better than beating Galway in 2000 or Mayo in 2004. That's being honest about it."

But he accepts that the team's style has changed since O'Connor took over as manager from Páidí Ó Sé. There is a more abrasive edge to their game and the mobile interchangeability of the backs means that the team at times resembles Tyrone in their defensive work.

"Teams are surprised by our approach," says Ó Cinnéide. "Cork were surprised in the semi-final but the key word is work-rate and maybe for a few years we'd forgotten that. We got back to our blue-collar roots and started tackling and hassling and harrying - whether it will be enough against a team that has mastered that over the past 24 months."

The blitzing of Cork came as a bit of a surprise given that the result when the sides met in the Munster final had been close. But like last year when Kerry stepped up their performance levels considerably for the All-Ireland semi-final against Derry, the team moved on to a new level. Ó Cinnéide says that he half expected the emphatic win.

"I wasn't surprised by the margin because I felt that there'd been too much emphasis placed on the Munster final coming into that game. I thought that was a funny game for us, a real no-win situation. I think we got closer to the big prize with the Mayo game and were coming to the boil nicely for the semi-final. I hope that wasn't the boiling point and that there's another kick in us."

He is one of five players in the team to have reached 30 and one of only two - Liam Hassett is the other - to have started in the three most recent All-Ireland wins. Thoughts of retirement must be occurring to those five as well as the realisation that they mightn't be around for another All-Ireland.

"We'll address that on the 26th of September," says Ó Cinnéide, "but for the time being there's four or five fellas who are 30 or over and obviously you're saying to yourself that you don't have much longer left. The body is good at the moment, the mind is good and the spirit is good. We'll go to the wall with it.

"You want to squeeze every last ounce out of yourself as a footballer, as an athlete, for as long as you can and then when you start sliding to head off into the sunset. Thanks be to God that hasn't happened yet."

Kerry are on the verge of the first back-to-back title triumph for 15 years. It is also the county's third All-Ireland final in four years. Add in Ó Cinneide's long year when his club An Ghaeltacht reached the club final last March 12 months and it is extraordinary that his appetite is still sharp.

"The new league format gives you an opportunity to mull over it in the winter," he says. "Talking to Pat Flanagan last week at training he was asking me how come Kerry are coming back year after year - he's a Waterford man. I said, 'Pat, we win or lose this All-Ireland on the 25th and there's county championship two weeks later'. That'll be forgotten if any of us has a stinker in a club match.

"That's the Kerry way and sometimes it's a bad thing but mostly it's a good thing because it drives you on and hunger is never a problem during the winter. We always have some focus. Obviously it's nice to recharge the batteries and that's what team holidays are for so you've no excuse when you come back in January."

The big question next January however will be whether Kerry will be on course for a first three-in-a-row in 20 years.