O’Mahony was the Kingdom’s iron fist

T was the quintessential O’Mahony – or simply Mahony in the Kerry vernacular – that day. It wasn’t the performance which earned him highest praise or the greatest honours, that was the 2006 All Ireland final when he was named Man of the Match, no this was something different.

This was a player doing what had to be done and making no bones about it. This was a destructive, disruptive performance. A day for niggling and frustrating and getting under the skin. It was a masterclass in all that and more.

Michael Murphy won’t forget it of that we’re quite certain. Nor will Eamonn Fitzmaurice or any other number of Kerry men or women indebted to Aidan O’Mahony for the All Ireland title secured on that September Sunday.

A lot of factors go into an All Ireland triumph. Kerry wouldn’t have won that day without James O’Donoghue playing the decoy role for the first goal. Kerry wouldn’t have won that day had Kieran Donaghy not caught Paul Durcan on the hop.

Central to it all, however, was O’Mahony. That final was one of the most tactical ever played. More than that it was a dogfight, an arm-wrestle, a battle of wills and in a battle of wills there’s nobody you’d want in the trenches alongside you more than O’Mahony.

“Aidan was a warrior for Kerry right up until the last minute of his last game for Kerry last August,” is how Eamonn Fitzmaurice put it in his statement this week following O’Mahony’s retirement and Fitzmaurice would know, not just as a manager, but also as a former team mate.

Fitzmaurice was there with O’Mahony from the very beginning. There when Jack O’Connor brought him into the starting fifteen for the first time in a league game against Cork in Austin Stack Park – O’Mahony played at corner-back, Fitzmaurice in his customary number six shirt.

For Jack, O’Mahony – and Paul Galvin who he also introduced at the same time – was emblematic of a change in style and emphasis upon his assumption of the managerial reins.

O’Connor wanted, needed, to introduce a harder edge to the Kingdom in the midst of a northern revival. The silken Kerry glove needed an iron fist and in O’Mahony and Galvin found it.

“When I took over as Kerry senior manager in 2004 it was fairly obvious to me that we needed to go in a new direction,” O’Connor noted this week.

“Kerry had been bullied by the likes of Tyrone, Armagh and Meath three years in-a-row so we needed a new harder edge if we were to compete at the top table. Aidan O’Mahony fitted that bill perfectly. He was teak tough and fearless. The tougher it was, the better he liked it.”

Of course, there was more to O’Mahony than grit and determination, though he had all that. O’Mahony was a footballer. He could be constructive as well as destructive. Indeed you don’t become a mainstay of the Kerry team and win five All Ireland titles over a thirteen year period without class.

Aidan’s greatest gift as a footballer was undoubtedly his vision. It’s what made him such an effective sweeper in the latter stages of his career. Remember it just last August when he put in a performance of real quality playing the sweeper’s role against the all conquering Dubs.

That performance means that now when he stops, he stops on top and that had to be a consideration when he was deciding to call it a day. For sure it would be better to finish with Sam Maguire in tow as the train pulled up to Rathmore station, but this was a chance to leave em wanting more. Not every footballer gets that chance.

Nor is this the end of O’Mahony as a footballer. This is a man who has won junior and intermediate county championships with his beloved Rathmore. Impressive as that is it means there’s unfinished work to be done.

For the last two years running Rathmore have been within touching distance of a first ever appearance in the County Senior Football final. For the last three years running they’ve won the East Kerry O’Donoghue Cup, seeing off Dr Crokes in this year’s final.

A county final and, indeed, a county title should not be beyond this group of Rathmore footballers. We’ve got to believe that O’Mahony will be doing all he can to ensure that they do.

The template for what he could do has been set by his erstwhile team mate and manager, Eamonn Fitzmaurice. It’s years since Fitzmaurice proved the driving force in Feale Rangers’ unlikely triumph over a four in-a-row chasing South Kerry.

O’Mahony still has the hunger and the will to succeed. He was player of the year in East Kerry team year following some brilliant performances in the Rathmore midfield.

No we’ve not seen the last of O’Mahony yet, not by a long shot.