O’Donoghue ready to use namesake Cup win to reboot inter-county career

WHEN James O’Donoghue comes on to the stage and takes hold of the life-size glass football trophy one almost expects him pop his tongue out the corner of his mouth, drop his shoulder, spring across The Brehon Hotel’s banquet room, and same the ball over the bar, as it were.

Some footballers have a more distinct ‘gatch’ than others, and O’Donoghue is one of them: even in silhouette, who wouldn’t instantly recognise that hunched stride, elbows slightly protruding from the body, the football oscillating between hand and left foot, and the tongue out and clamped between the lips, like a proboscis sensing danger and opportunity all at once?

It is over five years now since the Legion man was awarded the national Footballer of the Year award, but the 29-year-old is far from yesterday’s man.

Sure, he’s had his problems with injuries, and has had to see ‘the kids’ like David Clifford and Sean O’Shea come through, but O’Donoghue says he’s now as fit and well as he’s ever been, and is rearing to go on a new season with Kerry, which will be his 11th as a Kerry senior.

It’s Friday night at the East Kerry GAA All Stars awards night and O’Donoghue has just been named the Dr O’Donoghue Cup Footballer of the Year for 2019, the first from his club to get the honour in the 10-year history of the All Stars.

He was, by general consensus, the standout player for Legion as the club ended a 43-year wait for its fifth East Kerry SFC title, and it’s a medal he desperately coveted.

“It’s a fantastic medal to have,” he says with genuine satisfaction. “The rest of the county probably don’t understand it because they probably don’t have the same emphasis on their divisional championship, which speaks so highly of the East Kerry one, but it’s so hard to win.

“We were very, very aware (of how special it is) because we got to the final in 2013, ’14, ’15, ’17 and again in ’19 to finally win the final. We fully realised how hard it was to win a final and how long it was since we won it before. As a team we had won nothing so every year we said (the O’Donoghue Cup) is the one we really want to win because it would bring the club closer together, it would be a monkey off our back, it would be silverware, and it would just be important for the club.

“We’ve had some good teams over the last five or six years and we haven’t come close to winning it. We’ve been beaten by some unbelievable Crokes teams and Rathmore have had a great run. It’s such a hard competition to win, it’s almost as hard as the county championship, and I’m not just saying that now because we won it. It was a sweet one to win.

“It’s a sweet medal to have because my father (Diarmuid) has one, playing wing forward in 1976 final. They lost the final the following year to Spa and they were sickened. So there’s lots of hard luck stories in there along with the good stories. At least now I’m up there with the father in terms of O’Donoghue Cup medals, and hopefully we can win one or two more by the end of it. You have to win something now and again to keep it enjoyable.”

He lists off team mates like Darragh Lyne, Cian Gammell, Peter O’Sullivan, young, emerging players who “are going to take us on again” and “freshen it up”.

He makes it sound like he’s some old timer, and though he won’t be 30 until June he says he thinks he was the third oldest player on the Kerry team holiday to Thailand earlier this month. Maybe that says more about some of his elders who didn’t make the trip but O’Donoghue’s enthusiasm for both a good time off the playing field and hard work and success on it hasn’t diminished with the passing years.

“After we won (the O’Donoghue Cup) I don’t think we realised just how big it was going to be. It certainly wasn’t wasted on us because we had a serious rattle off the celebrations, we had a great time and that’s what it’s all about,” he says of the need to celebrate all the victories that come one’s way.

With that and the team holiday out of the way now, it’s down to the serious business, and whatever about the boardroom and chat-room debates about player burn-out and cluttered schedules, O’Donoghue certainly had no qualms this year with December football.

“That’s what’s good about the O’Donoghue Cup, it’s played late and it leads you on nicely into the new season. Last year (2018) we lost to Currow at the start of October

so we didn’t play any football for October, November, December, January until the (National) League started on the first weekend of February, but this year we managed to stay in it and win it right up until the middle of December, so it’s easier to move on and have a good start to the season and you’re not worried about the body as much.”

And speaking about the body, what’s the position with those series of injuries that have really interrupted and curtailed his time in the Kerry jersey over the last couple of seasons?

“I got injured in training before the Tyrone game (start of 2019 League) and I tried to play that day and I ended up making it worse. It was Peter (Keane)’s first day in charge and I wanted to be involved but I probably made it a little bit worse. I found it hard to come back from that and maybe that led on to another problem or two, but the longer you can stay on the field the longer you will stay on the field. When you’re in and out, out and in, you’re not getting there, but I think I have put down a good block (of work) since then.

“I had a miss-diagnosis on my hamstring as well which cost me towards the end of the year, which was very frustrating because I should have really known myself. I’ve more experience and I knew there was something wrong with it. We should have gone with it but we found out afterwards... As I said we’ve had a good run of training under Pat (Flanagan, Legion trainer), the body feels good, so hopefully I can carry that on into the League and then the Championship.

“I think I’ve a handle on everything. It’s just minding the body and not thinking you’re a superman at times,” he says.

After a frustrating League and Munster Championship he did finally win his way back into the team, albeit a cameo appearance in the replay final against Dublin.

“We needed a goal in the replay and Peter brought me in to hopefully try and create something but it didn’t work out,” he reflects. “Hopefully this year we’ll be a bit stronger with the lads a year older and better. You don’t want to tempt fate and say we’re going to be better but I think that extra bit of experience, that extra year for fellas, and even the experience of disappointment really is a motivating factor when you’re going to bounce back the following year.”

Bouncing back means trying to bounce All-Ireland champions, among others, out of the way. Can Kerry go one step further this year and win the All-Ireland and what would be O’Donoghue’s second medal after that high-water mark year of 2014?

“To be honest we haven’t even mentioned another team because you can’t. You can have no control over what they can do. For all we know Dublin could pull three gems out of the bag, they could be centre-forward, full-forward and a midfielder, and they could be twice as good as they were last year. We just don’t know.

“All we want to do is improve and we have lots to improve on. Even from the All-Ireland Final there are things we can improve quite easily and there are things that might need a full League to improve. Also there is new blood to be introduced so you can’t get caught up with anyone else because you’ll lose concentration and lose your own identity.

“I’m taking every session as it comes, I’m just trying to enjoy it this year and stay on the field as long as I can. I know then that once any fella is on the field the form will come good come the summer. I’m looking long-term in that regard but I also just want to get going.”

And with that he’s gone. Glass football under his arm, champion footballer of East Kerry, fit as the proverbial fiddle. Enjoying life and enjoying football.