O’Connor: ‘I think Meath or Wicklow will hurt someone in the league’

HE barrelled into the conference room in Austin Stack Park a grin as broad as the shed end plastered across his face. Yes, this was one of the good days for Fintan O’Connor. To be fair to the Kildare man he’s had his fair share since he’s come to the Kingdom, but this one you sense was sweeter than most.

There was as much relief as elation you suspect as his team took their time in sealing the deal on Sunday afternoon. The Kingdom took nearly twenty minutes to get back on terms with Offaly after the dismissal of their midfielder Cillian Kiely before finally pushing on to victory.

“We never seem to make it too easy on ourselves,” he said.

“That said now the conditions were very hard and scoring chances that looked like bad wides maybe weren’t bad wides, but you’d like to take a score on a normal day. Now there were some of them that were bad wides definitely and something to work on, maybe one or two more goal-scoring opportunities that we could have been a bit more clinical, took the ball on a tiny bit more.

“But as I said the talk this morning was that we’d show a genuine effort and a genuine consistent approach to emptying ourselves out on the field and definitely from one to twenty five or six, whoever was there today, even in the warmup, the lads who weren’t playing were driving the others on. That’s important too.

“Really happy to get the two points, disappointed with some of the hurling in it, but hugely happy with the effort and the determination and the genuine kind of sense of purpose that everyone had in the game that was the real important message in a league game that this time of year and you knew the conditions were going to be like that.

“The forecast, I knew coming down that there would be a gale of a wind and rain, which isn’t ideal for hurling, but when you see the effort and the honest it’s hugely pleasing at this time of year.”

There were so many very good performances for Kerry against the Faithful. Mikey Boyle gave a man of the match display from number six. Seán Weir was as whole-hearted as ever in the fullback line. Michael Slattery showed up brilliantly before his injury.

The performance of Shane Conway, however, as note worthy for how deep he played and the influence he had upon proceedings – not just his five point haul.

“Look there’s no secret the more Shane’s on the ball for us the better we’ll be and I’m sure I’m not giving away anything tactically by saying that, any team that plays us knows,” O’Connor continued.

“I’ve seen him play for UCC a good bit and he’s given the freedom to rove around a good bit, he was definitely a midfielder for us today and with the conditions I thought with the ball going in and the scrappiness of it that he’d do a better job for us around the middle working and getting on ball.

“I don’t know how many hooks and blocks he got, but I’d say it was off the charts and sometimes he’s not given the credit for being a kind of [worker]. Sometimes when a fella is skilful you don’t see the work that he does and he’s constantly doing that sort of work.

“Shane is a great young fella and he’ll do kinda whatever you want him to do, which is nice as well.”

Another guy who had a big role to play with Michael O’Leary who came on for the injured Slattery, having himself just returned from an injury of his own.

“He twisted his ankle,” O’Connor explained.

“We played above in UL in the astroturf two weeks ago and he just went over on his ankle and he was probably too big to be playing on astroturf in reality and we couldn’t get a field. He just went over on his ankle and it was fairly swollen and just because this game was so important to the whole thing we just thought we’d bring him and when Michael Slattery was going and just tweaked his hamstring and we had to get him off and when we had to get him off we just said we’d give Michael a go and see how long he’d last.

“We were hoping to get fifteen or twenty minutes out of him, but again the nature of the character there is to just kind leave him on and he kind of forgets what’s wrong with him and he just goes and that’s a nice quality to have too.”

Kerry’s win means that they now have their fate very much in their own hands. If they beat both Wicklow and Meath on the road later this month they should be qualified for a league final even before the visit of Antrim to Tralee.

“I don’t think there’s a huge amount between ourselves and Meath and Offaly,” O’Connor stressed.

“Wicklow lost to Meath by four points today away from home in a real thriller of a game by all accounts, so definitely our fate is in our own hands, but we still have to go up to Meath which is not simple and try and pick up another two points and then go to Wicklow and get another two points.

“Look it’s nice to win your home games, it’s important and we’ll be looking to beat one or Meath or Wicklow and win our last home game here – you want to win all your home games obviously, but Antrim had a massive win today over Mayo so they’ll be looking to be in a league final themselves no more than Offaly will be trying to put a hole in Antrim when they play as well. It’s an interesting dynamic in it. I think Meath or Wicklow will hurt someone in the league.

“I think they’ll beat somebody we have to go up and ensure that we go up to Meath and are 100% ready to go.”

O’Connor also confirmed that Jason Diggins might be available for the trip to Trim, but that Bryan Murphy and Daniel Collins would miss out.