Typical downbeat end to league

IN THE press room beneath the Hogan Stand there is no heat and no light. From most of the quotes we elicit after league finals the same could be said. Nothing heated and not much illumination.

Kerry manager Jack O’Connor came in clutching a football for some reason. It looked like his aunt had given the ball to him for winning the league. He sat down and the inverse to the pathologically cautious stereotype of the Kerry manager, any Kerry manager, threw his arms open and said to the media: “Well flake away lads.”

The flaking was benign to the point of indulgence. What thought he of this victory in the light of last year’s defeat. Truth is that both games will occupy the same small amount of space in the Kerry imagination.

“I’m not thinking of last year’s at all,” he said. “I thought we had good form in the league – we had some great wins.”

Was it important to stop the trend of losing finals?

“If we lost another final this year maybe we’d think there was a jinx but the best medicine for a team is winning matches. It is good to win matches where you don’t play very well. We didn’t play especially well in Parnell Park in the league and I was happy with that result. It showed we were resourceful and resilient and could grind out a result.”

And did yesterday bring him any closer to knowing his own championship 15?

“We’d have to calm down! Go way and think about that. I was pleased with the lads that came on. Players train all year. They don’t train to sit on the bench.

“Most fellas played well today. Michael Quirke was supposed to come off for a blood sub for a few minutes but for some reason the signals got mixed up and he was taken off permanently. We would probably have brought him back on. We are happy with the way the panel has gone.

“I thought the lads in the full-back line did well enough. They are good players, the Bradleys. It was Killian Young’s first time in there in the full-back line in Croke Park. In the first half we were being well beaten on breaks though, beaten nine to five on breaks in the first half. So we’ll look at that.”

Elsewhere he had introduced a few players with familiar faces and familiar surnames. All did well.

“Darragh? You could see it in him before the game, he was well tuned in and anxious to get in. Tadhg showed great legs, great mobility and great enthusiasm. On a big pitch like Croke Park that is a great ingredient to have.

“I thought we played good football during the league. We came up here, we go home with a win.”

For his part, Derry manager Damian Cassidy surveyed the table full of red-lighted tape recorders and other gadgetry in front of him and wondered if he shuffled them up would anybody be able to find their own.

“The game itself when you come to Croke Park and play in a league final you want to win it but from the outset I was clear about what we needed to achieve. We needed a strong group of players . . . so if we were struck by injuries we could cope. We introduced nine new players, used 31 players in the league and I feel our position has been very much validated.

“To get here was a bonus. The game was there for us to push on, certainly in the second half. If we had got ourselves a point ahead in the middle of the second half it would have created an opportunity to push on. In terms of the overall campaign we have been quite successful.

“The positive is we got to a final with so many new players in the panel. We received a number of injuries over the last couple of weeks. That validates the position we adopted. I don’t know if we had been in this position last year could we have coped with that many injuries. That haunted us in the championship last year.”

And so looking forward to another summer ended another typical league.