O’Connor happy for Cordal after a difficult twelve months

NOT quite the setting of Croke Park like his other All-Ireland Junior success of 2015 of Mayo but Phillip O’Connor was still happy to claim a second All-Ireland Junior medal with the Kingdom no matter the surrounds.

“There’s a fierce standard amongst the level of players at Junior level. You have a lot of guys that eager to wear the Kerry jersey and it’s drove us on in terms of being involved two years ago to come back and put the effort in for it again.

“Yes there are a lot of us who want to be involved in the senior set-up, but it’s only when you are in there and see the standard that’s there that you realise how difficult it is to break in. We have players here though are capable of going on and making it though I think,” O’Connor said.

On the win itself last Saturday, O’Connor felt that the timing of the two goals was crucial to the win.

“We knew Meath would put up a fierce challenge and they tested us physically early on but Conor’s goal had a big effect in settling us and I think Tomás’ [Ó Sé] goal probably made sure of it. He has a great leap from the dancing and there’s no better man that you could hope for in getting n the end of a ball like that,” the Cordal player said.

O’Connor felt that there was an edge to Kerry’s preparations for the decider that came from disappointment at the nature of the performance against Leitrim in the semi-final, but placed huge credit on the management team for their work in guiding the team to another All-Ireland success.

“I don’t envy them with trying to prepare us with all the other games they had to work around not just in Kerry, but also with players involved in the UCC vs. CIT game in the Cork County Championship like we had.

“They managed everything well, however, and I’m delighted for Jimmy [Keane] that he has managed to put another All-Ireland on his CV. I’m happy for the club [Cordal] as well, it’s been a tough time following the deaths of Tom Wrenn and Jimmy Roche in the last year but they have been behind me personally during my time with the juniors and I’m grateful for the support they have given me.”