Jack O’Connor sees plenty of boxes ticked as Kerry complete league campaign in style

Kerry manager Jack O'Connor had the contented demeanour of a man who had got what he wanted from the league: a trophy, a solid campaign, much improved defensive performances and a couple of players still to come back.

If there was a slight speed bump along the way, it was the previous week's defeat by All-Ireland champions Tyrone but he had an answer for that as well.

"There's a couple of factors there. It wasn't a do or die game for us; it was for Tyrone. We'd six changes from that game, which isn't insignificant but I felt the game last Sunday would stand to us. I watched the Mayo-Kildare game and felt it was a loose enough game: what was the score, 2-20 to 18 points?"

After a helter-skelter first half – “a bit too helter-skelter for our benefit,” according to O’Connor, despite Kerry being six up at the end of it – the half-time focus was to tighten up in possession.

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"Mayo were counterattacking us and we tried to calm things down at half-time and make sure we didn't lose ball up in the forward line because Mayo were getting oxygen from our looseness up front but very happy – any day you kick 3-19 in Croke Park is a great day."

The third came from full back Jason Foley, galloping the length of the pitch in injury time.

“Jason Foley – I never saw him that high up in my life, so look the game was kind of over at that stage but Jason has been playing great football and it was only fitting he finished off the league getting a score.”

The big project for Kerry this campaign has been to improve defensive solidity and that has been a success with just two goals conceded in eight matches and O’Connor noted, “we kept Mayo to 13 points which was the most pleasing aspect really.”

That emphasis became clear last October when he announced that Ulster defensive guru Paddy Tally would be on board this season

"Paddy is a very clever coach," he reiterated after the final. "I know that because we'd been friendly for a few years and we came across each other when I was in Kildare and he was in Down.

“He’s just a good fella, very bright and very sharp. He probably gives us a different angle that we didn’t have and I think the management work very well together. Diarmuid [Murphy] and Mike [Quirke] really contribute as well and all’s well at the moment, so we’ll see down the line, and we hope it keeps going.”

Regarding the venue controversy, which escalated on Sunday when Cork chair Marc Sheehan backed the county's footballers and management that the Munster semi-final be played in Páirc Uí Rinn and not Killarney as the provincial council announced last week, O'Connor was predictably wholly uninterested in commenting.

“None of my business. It’s not me or whoever will decide that. We’ll play wherever we’re ordained to play and that’s it. I won’t get involved in that. It’s not my area. We’ll just concentrate on getting the team ready and everything else is out of our hands. There’s no point us going public with what we think because we know it won’t matter in the end anyway.”

That disagreeable piece of contentiousness out of the way, Kerry can concentrate on the next big target, restoring the All-Ireland to the county for the first time in eight years. So far, so good. The sound of Kerry supporters in a decent attendance of 31,506 roaring on the spectacle of goals and silverware may well echo down the summer.