A HEFFO REVOLUTION BUT IT’S KERRY GOLD
Dublin’s tactical ploy not enough to throw Kingdom off course
ALL-IRELAND FOOTBALL FINAL, 1955 KERRY 0-12 DUBLIN 1-6 CROKE PARK, ATT: 87,102
BEFORE he revolutionised the game as a manager, Kevin Heffernan played a part in revolutionising it as a player.
It might seem quaint now in an era of blanket defence and double sweepers but back in 1955, the idea of a roving full-forward was the talk of the town.
The role was taken up by the St Vincent’s attacker and was a direct challenge to the old catch-and-kick routine with everyone just looking after their own patch of ground.
In trailblazing a path to the All-Ireland final, this new, unconventional approach captured the imagination of the public, particularly when the opposition happened to be Kerry.
While there is so much going on in the foreground of the accompanying black and white action shot, it’s the background scene that screams for context.
Safe to say, health and safety wasn’t top of the list then for supporters who had a rooftop view of the game.
Such was the excitement around the game that they came from far and wide, British Rail even running a special train from London to Holyhead due to the unprecedented demand.
And the record attendance was accommodated inside the ground, despite the lack of official space.
When Heffernan kicked an early point attempt wide, it went into the mass of supporters behind the goal who had spilled onto the grass on either side of the posts. How so many supporters made it onto the roof of the stand is a mystery.
The official attendance was logged at 87,102 but that wasn’t exactly a precise figure – two gates had been broken down by the mass of bodies streaming into the ground.
What also piqued interest was the home-grown nature of the Dublin team who all hailed from the capital as opposed to containing the usual contingent of country boys.
Not for the first time, Kerry football delivered a dose of reality to Dublin.
One of the game’s sharpest coaching minds, Eamonn O’Sullivan had his squad brilliantly prepped via collective training for a seven-days-a-week period, involving a brisk walk before Mass, a morning session and an afternoon training session.
Dublin were in shock when Tadgh Lyne hit six Kerry points as the team took a double scores lead, 0-12 to 0-6.
That was the year the same player might have been lost to football, but he turned down the offer of a professional soccer contract with Glasgow Celtic to play with Kerry.
Such was his impact that he finished the year as the Championship’s top scorer. An Ollie Freaney goal from a free close to the end made it interesting but Kerry held out.
A key figure for Kerry in the second half was Jim Brosnan, so valuable that he was flown home for the final from New York, where he was studying medicine.
He more than justified the airfare, galloping through for two classy scores as Kerry kept Dublin at arm’s length.
It was a defeat that played a formative part in Heffernan’s footballing education.
He returned with Dublin to reach the summit in 1958 and that defeat was a point of reference for him in his ground-breaking approach as Dublin manager during the 1970s.
He established a fast-paced running game built around support play and serious fitness levels — another world removed from the old catch-and-kick mentality.
The mad-cap crowd scene from 1955 was actually surpassed six years later when a record 90,556 attended the 1961 All-Ireland football final between Down and Offaly.
That outmatched the 87,102 that squeezed into the ground for that 1955 final, nearly 5,000 more than the existing capacity of Croke Park.
‘No defeat as a manager ever hit me like 1955,’ admitted Heffernan. ‘That was the first time there. It was Kerry.
‘I had great hopes. That formed a large part of what I became as a person.’
In terms of the evolution of the game, the year also carried a significance, the debate over formations and tactical set-ups never growing old.