IT’S not the first time that Jack O’Connor has had to digest a Kerry-Dublin game determined by a dramatic last-gasp free kick into Hill 16.
The tremors from Stephen Cluxton’s winner 11 years ago were still being felt right up until Sean O’Shea stood over that free kick from some 53 metres with six minutes of injury time having elapsed.
Kerry looked to be leaving Dublin firmly in their slipstream when leading by six points early in the second half having just missed a goal chance through Stephen O’Brien and seen an O’Shea penalty saved before half-time. Dublin were hanging on.
READ MORE: Monster Sean O'Shea free sees Kerry down Dublin in All-Ireland semi-final
But, clearly burdened by the recent history of this fixture, Kerry were reeled in as Cormac Costello’s goal flipped the momentum of the contest.
“That game was going against us, that was a fairly significant wind there,” said O’Connor.
“We had thrown everything at it up to then and I think the absolute key to it was in the last 10 minutes, when Dublin were pressing our kick-outs Shane Ryan got off all our kick-outs.
“I think that was hugely significant. If they turn over one of those kick-outs I thought we were done.
“Fellas like Brian O Beaglaoich must have shown short for four or five of those kick-outs and more importantly broke out and broke the line and got us moving again.
“We were still creating a bit down the other end, even though we were a bit wasteful. But what a battle, Dublin are a great team.
“Probably the greatest team of all time so you can imagine how much it took for us to finally get over the line.”
More than O’Connor thought O’Shea had in him at that stage, he admitted.
“I didn't think it was kickable to be honest with you, straight up. I didn't think a man could get the distance because Seanie Shea had emptied the tank.
“That was the 76th minute. He had given a ferocious performance up to then."
He added: “We were mentally preparing for extra-time with two or three minutes to go because you know, we were even discussing on the line who we'd put back in because there were lads who were out on their feet, the likes of Jack Barry.”
The sense of relief washed all over O’Connor. Taking down Dublin was essentially his brief when he was handed a third stint as Kerry manager.
“Jesus I don't know lads. Tis tough going. Tis tough on the heart. I'll tell you, that was tough going there near the end.
“Can I ask ye a question, was it the classic that we thought it was on the line, as a battle? Two prize bulls going toe to toe.
“It felt on the line that it was two kind of heavyweights going at it, trading punches. That's the way it felt to me on the line. Not that I should have been getting those kind of notions on the line.
“Every now and again, you'd say, ‘Jesus wouldn't it be great to be inside in the middle of this, trading blows’.”
Having finally stopped the rot against Dublin, inflicting their first Championship defeat on them since 2009, the first year of O’Connor’s second stint, the potential psychological benefits for Kerry are obvious.
“Look lads, only time will tell,” O’Connor cautioned. “I keep going back to the thing that we have a final to play for and a final to try and win and we want to put this on the back burner.
“We're just hoping the game will bring us on another bit. We thought the Mayo game was going to bring us on because we needed that game and we're hoping this game will bring us on another bit as well.
“That's as much as we're taking out of this at the moment. There's going to be no fella being tapped on the back about beating Dublin if we can't go the distance here now.”
O’Connor was irked at the three-minute delay for treatment to Dublin goalkeeper Evan Comerford in the first half that ate significantly into John Small’s black card sin-bin.
It was compounded by Comerford saving O’Shea’s penalty when he got back to his feet.
“There was a bit of pressure on Seanie for that kick because the goalie obviously stayed down for a considerable period of time.
“This craic that you can lie down and waste three minutes off a black card, that’s ridiculous. To what degree can you exploit that?
“If that’s the case sure everyone could get players lying down for five minutes and waste half the black card, do you know what I’m saying? Ye’d agree with that? That’s a rule that needs to be tweaked, isn’t it?”
The game was a tale of the Gaelic football’s two boy wonders in a way, David Clifford and Con O’Callaghan, both of whom were injury doubts beforehand. The former played and contributed 0-6.
On Clifford, O’Connor said: “He jarred his ankle and it was swelled after the Mayo game. He basically didn't train for the following week.
“But he did a bit last Tuesday. And we did a little bit Thursday, but it was some performance by him considering.
“He had missed a bit of time before the Mayo game with a calf injury time, so some performance considering the amount of time he had missed.”
And O’Callaghan?
“Sure obviously he's a great player. They've a lot of great players. Some of the best players of all time. Yeah, yeah, maybe we got a bit of a break there.”
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