A second successive championship win over Derry took time to manifest but with Cillian Burke putting himself about on his introduction and Killian Spillane and Dylan Geaney scoring final quarter points, Kerry found a way to rise above the drudgery that had unfolded for much of this quarter-final.
“That’s a tough game to play,” said O’Connor. “When you’re playing that kind of game, you have to run 100 yards back after a turnover. That’s energy-sapping. That’s a lot of running,” said O’Connor.
“We were fairly sure that fellas were going to struggle after 50 minutes so it was very important that we got energy off the bench. They certainly gave us that,” he added.
O’Connor accepted that Kerry had played on Derry’s terms early on and had resolved to bring more energy to their play when they convened at half-time.
“I just thought we were playing around the periphery in the first-half,” said O’Connor.
“We felt we would have to play with more energy and get more bodies ahead of the ball to test Derry’s defence a bit.
“I thought the first-half was too easy for them. We weren’t committing enough bodies and we were playing everything in front of them.
“In the second-half, we made an agreement that we would go at the game aggressively. I thought we started to find pockets in the second-half and just show a bit more intensity and a bit more energy.
“I thought we got runners going through the lines and just those pop-passes inside with runners coming off them, we got that going a lot better in the second half.
“It was more or less what we expected,” added O’Connor, referencing Derry’s entrenched defensive set up.
“It probably wasn’t a game for the purists because it was defensive. But we were happy to play the game on whatever terms we came across. Derry set the terms early on.
“They got a rake of men back and made it tough for us to find space.”
O’Connor said his team could not have played risky football, even against opponents who have had such a bruising championship.
“If you think you can play a kind of gung-ho open football against that type of structure then that’s not living in the real world,” he said.
“The last thing you need to be doing is kicking away loose ball to a team like that who can seriously hurt you on the counterattack because of their pace.
“So you can’t blame players for being a little bit cautious. But we spoke at half-time of players being a little bit braver, being more energetic. If that’s trying to open up the game then that’s the language you need to use,” he said.
Kerry played little ball into David Clifford, marked by Chrissy McKaigue – and the two were largely on the periphery.
Early on Clifford scored a spectacular point from a play and claimed a mark which he scored, providing a false impression of how Kerry might play. O’Connor stressed it simply wasn’t possible to provide that service.
“David caught it between two Derry men,” reasoned O’Connor. “It wasn’t as if it was one-on-one. You can kick in the odd one of those balls, 100 per cent. But like, most of the time, if there’s two v one, the two are going to come out with it.
“And it’s such an energy-sapping game to play – giving away the ball kills you. So I can see why players are a bit cautious.
“But we needed to bring more energy which we did in the second half. And we needed to be braver and commit more players ahead of the ball to allow pivots develop and runners coming off. It’s a different game.
“There wasn’t a huge amount of space to kick ball inside. And that’s credit to Derry, they blocked up those channels.
“Derry got bitten two or three times in the last six or eight weeks. They were bound to go back to a more structured, defensive type of game. Which they did against Mayo. So it was no surprise to us that they were as defensive as they were.
“But I just felt that if we hung in there, we might have the legs in the last 15 minutes because of the freshness that we had coming into the game.
“Derry going to extra-time and an extra 20 minutes against Mayo eight days ago was bound to take a bit out of them – I don’t care how much recovery they did.”
The nature of the game will inevitably place renewed focus on the work of Jim Gavin’s Football Review Committee as they continue to test possible rule ‘enhancements’ through the summer.
O’Connor met one of the committee members and one of his predecessors, Eamonn Fitzmaurice, at Micheál Ó Muircheartaigh’s funeral on Friday in Dingle and it was briefly discussed.
“Sure we’d love to play open football, that’s the way we want to play it. I met Eamonn down at Mícheál’s funeral down in Dingle, and some of the changes are very promising,” he said.
“Sure we’ll play it any way it’s put in front of us but of course, traditionally, Kerry want to play that more expansive type of game.
“We have to adapt with the times. But some of those changes are obviously very promising. I hope they get a good airing and a good hearing.”
