Seán Moran: Jack O’Connor aware of the challenge posed by Ulster football

Jack O'Connor's been this way before and not just in the obvious sense that he's about to embark on a third term in charge of Kerry. It's the environment in which the challenge is to be addressed.

Symbolically, O’Connor’s second term ended just as the Dublin era was about to rumble –its first advance came against his Kerry team in 2011 and since he stepped down in 2012, the Dubs won seven of the following eight All-Irelands.

It may even have crossed his mind that a neat symmetry could have been completed had he been the one to take down the champions. After all he’s the last Kerry manager to have done so.

Instead this year shot off in an entirely different direction and, in accordance with the political dictum that he who wields the dagger rarely lifts the crown, it fell to Mayo to administer the fatal thrust and Tyrone to capture the ultimate prize.

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This presents O’Connor with a familiar landscape. Three times he has been appointed Kerry manager and on each occasion Tyrone had just won the All-Ireland and in the process beaten Kerry. Neither is this simply coincidence. It’s been central to his appointment.

The late Páidí Ó Sé – even with two All-Irelands – couldn’t withstand the fallout from the 2003 semi-final and those images of stricken Kerry footballers, like stags at bay, surrounded by snapping Tyrone players looking like they’d skin them for the ball.

For all his self-depiction as an outsider, O'Connor is a realist who well understands the establishment currency of Kerry football

In the memoir of his first tour of duty, Keys to the Kingdom, O’Connor is intrigued and amused by the Dublin of the 2000s but he’s preoccupied with Tyrone to the point that the All-Ireland in his inaugural season – beating Mayo in the 2004 final – feels a little probationary, as Kerry didn’t face either of the big Ulster teams, who had defeated them in the previous two All-Irelands.

A year later he reflects on the 2003 championship.

“Watching Tyrone win the All-Ireland one thing stood out. They were working a lot harder. Kerry were going to have to work harder when they didn’t have the ball. Unless you’re prepared to match Tyrone’s work rate you can’t take the game any further.

“The other thing was that I wanted them to come out and express themselves. A lot of the backs have a lot of football and I wanted them to join in when the ball was coming out.”

Hard matches

For all his self-depiction as an outsider, O’Connor is a realist who well understands the establishment currency of Kerry football. In the last decade he won as many All-Irelands as Tyrone and when invited to elevate the 2005 showdown against Mickey Harte’s team at the All-Ireland press night, he dismissively rationalised: “It’s not like they’re giving two All-Irelands for this final”.

Yet his reaction to that defeat makes it appear that way. He had pumped up the work rate and overseen the evolution of the team into a more versatile, fluid collective. Kerry had trained against 18-man opponents to accustom players to claustrophobia and instant decision-making. All to no avail.

They simply weren’t used to implementing that high-tempo game on a sustained basis and ran out of steam. Tyrone had had a summer of hard matches, including three replays, against Cavan, Dublin and Armagh – who they ended up playing on three occasions between Ulster final, replay and All-Ireland semi-final.

O'Connor's response was detailed. He accurately identifies tackling as the area with greatest room for improvement – how did Brian Dooher win a physical collision with Darragh Ó Sé and end up dispossessing him? No stone is left unturned. He finds tackle drills on the Ulster Council website and disarmingly admits that tackling was never considered something that should unduly occupy a Kerry trainer.

Ultimately in the 2006 championship, he had to make do with settling scores with Armagh, as Tyrone had disappeared after a qualifier in Portlaoise. Regaining the All-Ireland after a final against Mayo is a more satisfying experience than two years previously and he steps down, vindicated.

Two years later and he was back. In the interim Pat O’Shea had won an All-Ireland and lost the 2008 final to Tyrone, ensuring that Kerry relive the Down trauma of the 1960s – three championship meetings, two finals and a semi-final, all ending in defeat. It also meant that Mickey Harte’s team deprived them of three-in-a-row.

The following February’s league fixture in Omagh, was a rough affair but gave Kerry a first win in Healy Park since the rivalry had taken off that decade.

Both Kerry and Tyrone have managed just one All-Ireland since 2009 and although O'Connor did eventually wreak vengeance on Tyrone it was in his last year in 2012. By then the rivalry was strictly off-Broadway and Fitzgerald Stadium in Killarney echoed to the pieties of local supporters applauding Tyrone off the premises.

Jack O'Connor will recognise that implacable nature as well as the tactically adaptable and technically assured footballers that it fuels

The Ulster question didn’t go away. O’Connor’s last match in charge was a defeat by Donegal in the quarter-finals. It’s sobering to reflect that the only times Kerry have come unstuck in All-Ireland quarter-finals this century have been because of defeats by Down and Donegal and in 2018, a point dropped against Monaghan (having already lost to Galway).

It’s the only province whose representatives have historically had the better of Kerry in All-Ireland finals.

Surprise champions

At the start of the season, few envisaged surprise champions but as is frequently the way, with success a team is transformed. Hopes are high in Tyrone that the current team will prove consistent achievers. Their new management and more ambitious style have proved popular in the county, more of a rallying point than Harte’s stifling caution, the Covid experiences and blunt defiance of Croke Park only enhancing that.

Jack O’Connor will recognise that implacable nature as well as the tactically adaptable and technically assured footballers that it fuels.

Once more he’s taking over after Tyrone have upset Kerry’s apple cart, making life untenable for manager Peter Keane, and just down the sideline, there will be wiry wrecking ball of days gone by, Brian Dooher, in all his focused intensity.

The qualifiers will be back next year to keep teams around if they slip up in the province. Ulster football is back in business and the once and future Kerry manager understands that challenge.