By John Harrington

When Jack O’Connor entered the media auditorium under the Hogan Stand after Kerry’s All-Ireland SFC semi-final win over Dublin he was still visibly charged by the electricity of the achievement.

The Kingdom had just beaten Dublin in Championship football for the first time in 13 years, and O’Connor was struggling to come down from the high of how they’d pulled it off courtesy of that last gasp 50-yard Sean O’Shea free.

“Jesus, I don’t know, lads!”, gasped O’Connor “‘Tis tough going, ‘tis tough on the heart!”

It might have been tough going, but O’Connor wouldn’t have wanted to be anywhere else.

18 years after leading Kerry to a Championship and League double in his first year in charge of the team, he’s now just one game away repeating that trick for an incredible fourth time in what’s his third coming as Kerry manager.

Little has changed about O’Connor since his maiden season as a senior inter-county manager in 2004.

He still exudes the same focused energy on the sideline, and in conversation he strikes you as someone possessed of a shrewd mind who takes a calculating approach to the role.

He’s Kerry to the core, and has the same relentless hunger for success that he has always had as a manager. It’s quite obvious the passing of the years have done little to dull his edge.

“I keep myself in good shape,” said O’Connor . “I keep myself fit and I've the energy and most importantly the time to give it. The time to go and meet players, the time to think things through clearly without being in a rush.

“You can't put a price on that. Age doesn't come into it. I don't feel like an old man yet anyway. Like Ronald Reagan said long ago, experience is more important than age.”

O’Connor has led Kerry teams to six All-Irelands titles across the minor, U-21, and senior grades.

Throw in 11 provincial titles and four National Football League titles and you’re looking for a formidable body of work when it comes to the business of winning at the highest level.

Where does this happy knack come from? What makes him the serial winner that he is?

“I suppose it's just experience,” says Micheal Ó Sé, Chairperson of O’Connor’s club Dromid Pearses.

“He's been there, he's done it before. In '04 we won our first South Kerry Championship and he came in that year and took us under his wing. He had won the League and All-Ireland with Kerry the same year.

“He just commands respect, you listen to him. He's very approachable and he engages with you. He'll pull you aside and he just has a good manner about him in the way he explains things. He's not afraid to get stuck in at training and if it's not going right he'll stop it, he doesn't let things go for the sake of it.

“He has his game-plan and he sticks to it. Everywhere he goes, he's just a good man to get his point across.”

Previous achievement gives you instant credibility in a dressing-room, but you need to be then able to back it up and get players to continue buying into your message.

What stood out for former Kerry footballer, Barry John Keane, when he played under him was O’Connor’s man-management and clear tactical vision.

“He gets the most out of fellas,” says Keane.

“He’s his own man. He wants to play football. He wants the workrate and everything that comes with it. You have to do what he wants. He wants to kick, kick, kick. Everything on the money.

“Move the ball, everyone moving. He wants the performance. At the end of the day, he knows with the team he has, what way they’re set up, if they get the performance that he wants, they should have enough. That’s what he’d be looking for.

“Everything that he’s been involved with, he’s nearly won it. Schools, underage, seniors, he’s done it all.”

O’Connor had previously managed a large proportion of the current Kerry senior panel at minor or U-20 level, but he wasn’t about to rest on those laurels when he took over the senior reins again.

Instead, he made it has business to meet every player individually and give them an insight into what he wanted from them going forward.

“I met Jack shortly after he was appointed as Kerry manager,” says Kerry defend Tadhg Morley.

“In fairness to Jack he’s a very good man-manager. He went around and met all the players around Kerry, which is a really good touch I thought. It showed a good progression and good management skills.

“I’d a good chat with him. He kind of saw me more as a half-back player, that’s probably my most natural position to be out there. There wasn’t anything specifically said about sweeping. We had a good discussion then about the role of a number 6 and what he was looking for in that.

“I tried to do that then for the sessions we had post that meeting into the league. Me and Jack have developed a really good relationship we’re able to chat about different things and it’s developed from there really.”

The best managers are those who recognise they can’t do everything themselves and have the self-confidence to delegate to others who might have greater insight in a particular area.

Despite having three senior All-Irelands on his CV, it says something about O’Connor’s lack of ego that he was willing to go outside the county to recruit Paddy Tally in the hope he could bring greater defensive nous to the team.

In 2021 Kerry conceded 12 goals in eight games in League and Championship, whereas this year they’ve just conceded three goals in 12 matches, so bringing in Tally certainly looks like it has been a master-stroke.

“Paddy does a bit of everything to be honest with you,” says Morley. “He’s an incredible coach. He runs some really good training sessions with Jack and Micheál [Quirke] and Murph [Diarmuid Murphy] are all involved in as well.

“Coming from the Tyrone game last year we were just really disappointed with the goals that we conceded. Three in that game, we conceded four in a league game against Dublin in Thurles so we knew we weren’t going to win an All Ireland the way that was happening.

“We’re looking at the defence from 15 back, so like when we lose the ball the lads are working really hard up front, putting in some big tackles. We’re really priding ourselves in our defending for sure.

“It’s a huge thing for us to get a turnover and to hear the Kerry supporters roaring and shouting and cheering us on. We’ll have to have a few more of them against Galway.”

Kerry’s players will also have to shoulder a considerable burden of expectation on Sunday.

They’re warm favourites to win and the county’s supporters are desperate to see the Sam Maguire Cup return to the Kingdom for the first time in eight years.

That’s a potentially dangerous combination because Galway have improved with every match they’ve played in the Championship and will be quietly confident of springing a shock.

“Of course, there is that danger,” admits O’Connor. “I mean, look, that’s why you have to insulate the players as much as possible from the public. They all want a piece of the lads but I’ve been in this situation a good few times. I think this is my eighth or ninth final and I know the pitfalls that are there, players are in a different bubble to supporters.

“Supporters see All-Ireland finals as occasions with razzmatazz whereas players have to divorce themselves most of the time from that.

“They have to enjoy the build-up, of course, they can’t go into a cave for two weeks, but they have to understand that this is about performing on the big day and not getting carried away with any sideshows.

“You have to absolutely park all of that stuff and concentrate on the performance because like I said the Dublin performance will be well forgotten about if we can’t get over the line now.”

O’Connor is still as hungry for success as he was in 2004 but he’s also a much more experienced manager now.

No better man to finally guide this talented generation of Kerry footballers to the promised land.