Ó Cinnéide: ‘I think there’s more in us’

WHAT do you do when it all comes to an end? As a storied player, a former All Ireland winning Kerry captain no less, as a man who won county titles with his club, as a man who played in an All Ireland club final, Dara Ó Cinnéide has had to readjust to life after football.

That should probably read life after playing because Ó Cinnéide never left football behind him and he certainly never left An Ghaeltacht behind him. A staunch club man he’s always played some role and had some interest in the Gallarus-based outfit.

There’s a bit of Barcelona about An Ghaeltacht. It’s ‘Més que un club’, more than a club. It’s the tie which binds the Irish-speaking community together on the western most edge of Europe.

It was no surprise then to see Ó Cinnéide involved this year as a selector alongside managers Marc Ó Sé and Conall Ó Cruadhlaoich and fellow selector

Tomás Ó Muircheartaigh.

“I kind of think about what Páidí Ó Sé said twenty years ago when he won the All Ireland,” he says.

“Winning as a player is the pinnacle and when you’re two stone overweight and 42 years of age – as he was twenty years ago and as I am today – you know winning one on the sideline isn’t too bad either. That’s it.

“The kick from a management point of view is to see a quiet player becoming vocal, to see a player who is weak in a particular skill developing a particular skill and that’s one of the things we said to themselves when we got them together.

“We want them to have what we had at the club. We had great memories, because that’s what you have when you’re finished. We can get obsessed in Kerry with medals and cups and what you win, but what I remember from sixteen/seventeen years playing senior level with the Gaeltacht is great block downs.

“Fergal Ó Sé jumping over somebody’s head to catch a ball, Mikey Connor being unbeatable inside in the corner, that’s what we’re trying to create here with our gang as well.

“Whether that brings cups as it did today, great, that should be a by-product like.”

Ó Cinnéide is clearly relishing his role with this bunch of young men and over the moon to see his club back dining at the top table, but he’s keen to stress that their success was the fruit of many people’s labour.

“There’s a lot of work gone in,” he explains.

“They contested a Féile above in Derry, Under 14s, a number of years ago. Tomás Ó Conchúir, the late Tomás Ó Conchúir would have guided them along that time and they’re a product of his and Eamonn Fitzmaurice inside in the school and they’ve come along.

“They’ve been used to winning and I think it was a bit of a surprise to them then in the first couple of years of their senior careers when they weren’t winning stuff. Paul Ó Cuinn had them for three years and brought them up along the ranks from three to two to one.

“They played well with West Kerry this year as well, so the progression was there. Templenoe would have a similar story to tell had they won today.”

To emerge on Sunday as champions the west Kerry outfit had to really dig deep, Templenoe pushed them all the way and are probably left disappointed this week not to have taken something from the game.

“It’s a thing I’ve been saying all year I think there’s more in us,” Ó Cinnéide says.

“I know it’s a couple of minutes after winning a county title, but I think there’s more in us. I was disappointed today to see that there was a wet ball and things, because I just think that we are a fine day [team] and we’re not going to get a whole pile of them for the rest of the year, but I do think there’s 5% more in these guys.

“They played very well today and I think they were at their most honest and their best in the last five minutes when they stopped thinking about it too much and went for it.

“They were under the cosh, fellas thinking about it too much and we thought about it too much in the second half...

“Today will bring them on an awful lot, they’ve never been tackled like that and it’s a credit to Templenoe. They’ve never been turned over as often. Our kick-outs we’ve never lost as much all year and that’s all credit to Templenoe. I think there’s a huge learning curve for us.”