JACK BE NIMBLE, JACK BE QUICK... JACK BE GETTING ALL KINDS OF STICK

THERE’S a story about Jack O’Connor ringing Tommy Lyons in 2004, a couple of days after his Kerry side beat Dublin in the All-Ireland quarter-final. Lyons told O’Connor about the abuse he was getting in the capital since the defeat. ‘You think you have it bad getting grief after losing?’ asked Jack, ‘down here, I’m getting slated after winning.’ That’s always has been the way in the Kingdom. Even when Kerry win, someone will wonder if they won by enough. Or in the right manner. O’Connor’s third stint as Kingdom boss has gone swimmingly thus far. Securing the League title — just as he did before the AllIrelands of 2004, 2006 and 2009 — has lowered the volume of grumbles about Jack enlisting a Tyrone man (Paddy Tally) to sully Kerry’s style. Well...slightly. The grumbles remain, of course, but will only become deafening if the team’s form takes a nosedive. That won’t happen tonight. The landscape has changed a lot since O’Connor last took charge of his native county. Cork football has mostly been in crisis — although no doubt there have been plenty of reminders of Mark Keane’s last-minute winner at a drenched and empty Páirc Uí Chaoimh in the winter of 2020 over the past week. The Rebels were O’Connor’s most familiar Championship foe in his previous two spells in charge, both inside and outside of Munster. His record stands as seven wins, three draws and three defeats. It will be another win in Pairc Uí Rinn. But no matter what Kerry do, or how much they win by, there will be some who will find something to moan about. O’Connor (left) has long accepted that getting slated is part of the hardest gig in football, regardless of results.