‘Winning your first All-Ireland medal is something special’

From the nadir of losing to Clare in the 1992 Munster Final to the zenith of being winning captain in 2000, Seamus Moynihan has done it all, but his first Celtic cross was particularly special as he tells DAN KEARNEY

T HE first thing that strikes you when you meet Seamus Moynihan is the shape that the man is in . Quite simply he looks as lean now as he was in his pomp for the Kingdom. Maybe a pound or two more in weight but that’s about it. The only thing that has changed is maybe there isn’t as much hair on top of his head as he had in 1997, but everything else appears pretty much the same. You could imagine him still being able to do a job on the field if it was required of him. A busy lifestyle that involves coaching his son Jamie’s U-12 team in Glenflesk and also the East Kerry minor team certainly helps to keep him in shape. Seamus has also taken to competing in adventure races in Killarney and beyond, and this helps as well.

When I met Seamus his memories of Kerry’s All Ireland win of 1997 were crystal clear as if it were yesterday. Moynihan had been brought into the Kerry panel in 1992 as a raw 18 year old Leaving Cert student and for the next five years he saw very little success in a Kerry jersey.

I first of all asked Seamus to take me through his first few years with Kerry.

“I was called into the team in 1992 and from ’92 to ’95 they were hard years. I mean even when I came in it was horrible and disappointing (Kerry were defeated by Clare in the 1992 Munster final). Cork were strong as well, and we were in transition. In ’93 we trained exceptionally hard, we had a great run in the league, but Dublin caught us in the end. We went flat then for the Munster championship, just too many injuries. In ’94 we left that one go again, Cork got two goals, (Colin) Corkery and Stephen O’Brien got a goal, and I mean we were up five or six points in that game, it was one that we completely let slip and in ‘95 they beat us in Killarney, but you knew it was turning. I think that in ’96 things had changed in fairness, we had won the Under-21 All Ireland in ’95 and in ‘96 we won it again. Páidí brought in a lot of young guys, the likes of William Kirby, Darragh O Sé, Dara Cinnéide, Donal Daly, Barry O’Shea, Killian Burns, Mike Frank Russell, all these guys really helped strengthen the team.”

Kerry finally stopped the rot in 1996 when the won the Munster Championship after a 0-14 to 0-11 victory over Cork in Pairc Ui Chaoimh. After that victory things started to go downhill however.

“We won Munster in ’96 when we beat Cork but after that it was a disaster. Our preparation was poor, I suppose that it was well advertised about the celebrations we had back in Páidí’s, but that was just one day to be fair, in general though our preparation was poor. The night before the All Ireland semi final Páidí had a video of Mayo against Galway in the Connacht final but it was such a bad game that we stopped watching it after 15 minutes, it was like a Junior B match on

a wet day, and it didn’t do Mayo any justice. There was a heavyweight boxing fight on the same night and we turned the video off and went watching the boxing (laughter)!”

“Páidí had suits got for everyone and we had landed into Croke Park wearing suits, it just looked like the Liverpool FA cup carry on the same year, when you look back on it now it was cringe, we were doing all the wrong things like. It was partly why we went out and played so flat and dead – we were way off the pace like. Mayo were fitter, hungrier, and way more used to playing in Croke Park. Not one of us played well and it was a kick in the backside, and it was a kick to Páidí as well. ….”

“Of course we had come in for serious criticism afterwards, we were a disgrace to be fair”.

“Within a month Páidí had us back in training and we had a hell of a winter campaign, it was extremely tough. In 1997 we won the national league, we wiped the board ,we didn’t lose a game and went all the way, guys were maturing and developing, and Páidí had re-jigged the team. Winning the league had given us the confidence that we could compete, and throughout the league we had given some teams fair trouncings. We beat Cork in the final up in Cork (Kerry 3-7 Cork 1-8) – and we knew that we were going the right way”.

“There were no wild celebrations or anything like that, we had learned our lesson from the year before. Funnily enough within a month Cork were out, they were beaten by Clare that year,a last minute goal, and they caught them on the hop. That opened up things completely, but we beat Clare in that Munster final comfortably(Kerry 1-13 Clare 0-11). Johnno [O’Keeffe] was over them and they were very fit, but thankfully they didn’t do to us what they did in ‘92 ,we were far more structured and composed. We were in a better place and it was great to win a Munster title again”. Next up for Moynihan and Kerry were Cavan in the All-Ireland semi-final. Cavan had beaten Derry by 1-14 to 0-16 in the Ulster final ,and co-incidentally it was the 50th anniversary of the Kerry v Cavan Polo Grounds All-Ireland final in 1947. “Cavan were trained by Martin McHugh, they had contested the All Ireland U-21 final in 96 in Thurles against Kerry and McHugh brought in a load of these fellas. We beat them comfortably enough though, 1-17 to 1-10, and Mayo were next in the final,” he recalls. Moynihan remembers the buildup to the 1997 All Ireland final well. It was a new adventure for both the play- ers and supporters and the hurt of the previous 11 years was soon to be put to bed. “It had been eleven years since we were in the final, and there was a generation of supporters that had never even been to Croke Park before, and they were starved of success. Obviously the players were anxious to join an elite band of brothers and win an All-Ireland medal. Our preparation in training was exceptional in the four weeks of the build-up, we were in great shape. One night Ruairi Rahilly and Stephen Stack clashed heads, every fella was fighting for a jersey. Billy O’Shea was flying for those four weeks in training, he was buzzing, and he was picked at corner forward, and Brian Clarke who was at full forward for the semi-final ended up being dropped. They went on form and that’s the way it goes.”

Kerry went up to Dublin by train the evening before the final and after a good night’s rest in the Tara Towers Hotel in Blackrock, they were ready for action the next day.

“We went in as underdogs and it suited us. The experience that they had from beating us the year before and the All Ireland final that they played in made them favourites and they are not a team that favouritism suits so that was great for us. We all had points to prove from the year before.”

“I was given the job of marking John Casey, he was picked at wing forward but he ended up going in at corner forward so I went in after him. Casey had done a lot of damage in ’96, and he had won a Sigerson with Tralee IT in 1997 so I knew him quite well. Barry (O’Shea) picked up (Liam) McHale at full forward so we had identified the lads to pick up. We should have been out of sight by the time they got the penalty.

“Maurice then kicked the wonder score from the sideline with the outside of the right, that finished it, and I suppose that it will always be remembered as the Maurice Fitz final, and no better man deserved the honour after spending ten years having brilliant games with Kerry and getting nothing for it. I remember that Maurice was very quiet for the first twenty minutes. Then he clashed with Billy (O’Shea) and broke his leg, and [Maurice] kicked the free kick off the ground with his left leg. It was then like he decided that he would put on the Maurice Fitzgerald show, unbelievable, he kicked some great points.”

Kerry celebrated long and hard after that All-Ireland win – and rightly so. Eleven years is a long time waiting in Kerry and Seamus remembers fondly some of the celebrations.

“The craic was dynamite after the game, I mean winning your first All-Ireland medal is something special. It was a huge weight off our shoulders as well, the pressure was lifted and thankfully we went on to win more. Mayo still have that fear, the fact that they have never won since 1951. Thankfully we won at our first attempt after eleven years and it was fantastic.

“We had a few drinks in Croke Park afterwards and we visited Billy O’Shea in hospital. We stayed in the Burlington that night, great celebrations. Funnily enough on the Monday morning the IFA had a kind of a semi function inside in the Burlo for fellas that were farmers. I come from a farming