{"id":605918,"date":"2026-07-27T04:25:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T04:25:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/605918\/"},"modified":"2026-07-27T04:25:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T04:25:13","slug":"mayo-had-more-legs-more-hunger-jack-oconnor-reflects-on-kerrys-energy-deficit-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/605918\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Mayo had more legs, more hunger\u2019: Jack O\u2019Connor reflects on Kerry\u2019s energy deficit \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

They came within touching distance of back-to-back All-Ireland SFC titles but, according to Jack O\u2019Connor<\/a>, Kerry<\/a> never really got going all year.<\/p>\n

There were many reasons for that, with the main one being injuries. However, O\u2019Connor reiterated his belief that club competitions within Kerry, which run on late into the calendar year, take a significant toll on his county players.<\/p>\n

That could partly explain the lack of chutzpah exhibited by the defending champions from the second quarter onwards, with O\u2019Connor continually circling back to one word, and lamenting the lack of it \u2013 energy.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously it wasn\u2019t the ending we envisaged after a tough enough year,\u201d said O\u2019Connor. \u201cBut you have to take your hat off to Mayo<\/a>. I thought they had more energy than us, more legs, more hunger, even though we fought hard to the end and could have snatched maybe a draw and taken it to extra-time. One or two passes just went astray near the end. But I thought that on balance, Mayo were better than us on the day.\u201d<\/p>\n

After a tentative opening, Mayo hit Kerry with everything they had, turning the middle third into a battle zone and rolling over green and gold jerseys with Panzer tank-like efficiency.<\/p>\n

Mayo\u2019s powerful press on the Kerry kick-out, which meant that Shane Murphy only hit a colleague with 15 of his 25 restarts, was significant too.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, we knew that was coming,\u201d said O\u2019Connor of Mayo\u2019s high press. \u201cWe didn\u2019t have a whole pile of time to prepare for that type of stuff because we basically had maybe two, two and a half sessions to prepare for it. They brought that and more. In general, I just thought they had more energy than us.\u201d<\/p>\n

But why?<\/p>\n

\u201cSure, that\u2019s the 50 million dollar question,\u201d O\u2019Connor said. \u201cI just thought on breaking ball and stuff, it showed at times.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Kerry player ratings: Clifford brothers impress but too many fall below usual high standardsOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cIt possibly goes back to some of the stuff I was talking about in the last few weeks, that we\u2019ve had men that have had long periods out of football this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cGavin White was out of football for six months. Se\u00e1nie [O\u2019Shea] was out of football for 10 weeks, Joe [O\u2019Connor] eight weeks. Brian \u00d3 Beaglaoich had a stop-start kind of a season. Paudie Clifford the same; he missed a good chunk of the league. On All-Ireland final day, coming up against a hungry, energetic Mayo team, I feel myself that was a factor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kerry\u2019s misfortune around injuries continued into final week with Tony Brosnan and Diarmuid O\u2019Connor the latest to suffer knocks.<\/p>\n

Brosnan\u2019s injury was made public in advance of the final but news of O\u2019Connor\u2019s hamstring tweak and unavailability came as a surprise, having been named at wing forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cTuesday,\u201d said Jack, explaining when the injury occurred. \u201cInnocuous enough. It wasn\u2019t as if we were going too hard on Tuesday. It was a very handy session, but it was just one of those things.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mind you, with 16 minutes on the clock and Kerry leading by 1-5 to 0-1, everything appeared to be going swimmingly with the holders apparently on course for a first back-to-back of All-Ireland wins since 2007.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0All-Ireland final key moments: Kobe\u2019s 45 put Mayo on the road, Ryan O\u2019Donoghue\u2019s two-pointer took them homeOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cWe only hit our straps, I\u2019d say, two or three times this year,\u201d said O\u2019Connor, who listed out their championship highlights.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe second half below in Killarney against Armagh, that was us at our best. We played great football in a league game above in Armagh as well, in the first half.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut we just weren\u2019t consistent enough. We possibly got a bit of luck against maybe Tyrone, and possibly a bit of luck against Dublin. And sometimes your luck runs out. Mayo might have got one or two breaks today, so it balances itself out. But overall it was a year where I thought we played in fits and starts. That\u2019s a fair summation.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"They came within touching distance of back-to-back All-Ireland SFC titles but, according to Jack O\u2019Connor, Kerry never really…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":605919,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[76],"tags":[10416,18,131567,19,17,197603,26710,132],"class_list":["post-605918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-kerry-gaa","tag-eire","tag-football-championship","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-jack-o-connor","tag-mayo-gaa","tag-sports"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116990045471775962","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=605918"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605918\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/605919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=605918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=605918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=605918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}