Not reaching goal a real destroyer

Kerry's Tomás Ó Sé believes yesterday's defeat was about missed opportunities, writes Ian O'Riordan

ONE CAN easily imagine the scene inside the Kerry dressingroom as they tried to stomach this defeat and all its crushing implications: players slumped over each other on the benches unable to speak or even cry, the manager dazed and confused in the middle of it all, every one of them lost in the melancholy and sadness.

One has to imagine it, because such scenes are now censored by the authorities at Croke Park. Just as well. Kerry don't do losing All-Irelands at the best of times. This was the worst of times. It wasn't just losing to Tyrone. It was losing to their truest nemesis; it was losing their case when it came to judgment day. They deserved to mourn in solitude.

It still felt like a funeral parlour inside the press conference room when Tomás Ó Sé eventually stepped in to deliver his verdict. The Kerry dressingroom was just down the corridor and when he was asked to describe the scene in there one could easily predict his answer. He may as well have been reading the results of an autopsy.

"Ah, they're gutted," he started. "Any time you lose a final it's terrible. The fact that it's Tyrone or anybody else. It could be Cork or whoever. It doesn't feel good. Any time you lose it hurts.

"I thought we were well in it. The goal at the start of the second half, I suppose, will be the big talking point. We had a chance to get a goal ourselves and didn't take it. I think that was the difference at the end of the day. They took the chances, where we didn't.

"People will take about the first half, but there were opportunities there at the end as well. I think it all boils down to a goal. If we had got a goal today I think it would have lifted the whole team. That opportunity Declan (O'Sullivan) had. Those kinds of goals were going in for us all year long. They didn't go in today. But fair play to Tyrone. They played very well. Defended very well. And they probably deserved it in the end."

It's put to Ó Sé that perhaps Kerry just tired in the end, the long, hard summer and the weight of the three-in-a-row just too much of a burden.

"I don't think so. I think any team that goes one or two points up, a freshness comes into their game. It happened to us against Galway, the second game against Cork. They get a new lease of life. And that happened to them."

Kerry's tactic of dealing with Tyrone's intensity was obvious, they had to match it. For long periods they did, and the Kerry captain wasn't about to make any excuses. Truth is there couldn't be any complaints.

"If you move the ball very fast against them, it's the only way to play against them. In the first half there we had plenty of opportunities we didn't take. I think the quality of balls we put into our boys in the first half wasn't great, either. We bombed ball in on top of them. There was no bit of direction in the ball. Maybe we were kicking too deep. The couple of good balls that went in the Gooch got on, and got a couple of good scores at the start of the game. And I felt we did have enough possession to win. We just didn't take our chances . . . if we got our goal it might have been different. But you can't talk about ifs, you know?"

Instead, Ó Sé was already looking towards the future: "Kerry will always come back. We've dusted ourselves down before and we'll do it again. That's what we'll do. Next year will be a fresh year and we'll be hungry again. We'll hurt for a few days and get back into it. There's a bit more to life than football."

It's just that certain Kerry footballers may now be dedicating more to life than to football. While Pat O'Shea couldn't stomach the press conference room he was just about stomaching the defeat.

"Well I think it's a bit unfair to ask those questions right now," said the Kerry manager. "No one on this team owes nothing to anybody. They've been fantastic ambassadors for the county.

"Sure, we're disappointed right now but I'm sure we'll be able to put this into context by saying this is a wonderful group of players that have carried themselves fantastically well on and off the field.

"Tyrone are worthy champions. They're quite a side, and we knew no matter what happened they were always going to come back at you. In saying that, it was very tight for long periods. I thought their goal just after half-time had a big bearing on the game. We had one or two chances ourselves but just weren't able to take them. It's just been a rollercoaster of a year, and it's over now."