PAIDI O SE'S first season as manager of the Kerry footballers has scaled a peak he might have regarded as more of a bump during his playing days but Munster titles haven't been easily come by in the interim.
Yesterday's Munster final, played before 36,405 people at Pairc Ui Chaoimh, yielded what was only the second provincial title won by the county since they last won an All Ireland 10 years ago. O Se and the team's coach Seamus Mac Gearailt had their work cut out yesterday when with the match finely balanced, they had to watch a key player, centre back Sean Burke, carried off with a suspected broken jaw.
6 Sea was delighted after the match but relief was an equally heartfelt emotion.
"A bit of hunger, a bit of belief," he explained. We made some astute switches bringing Maurice Fitzgerald to midfield where he did well. The injury to Sean Burke was a loss but it drove the lads on. They showed a very good fitness level even though we didn't train over the winter.
His captain, Billy O'Shea, reflected on the difference between yesterday's match and the recent meetings between the counties when Cork had always seemed to have the bit extra in the tank.
"Cork came back at us and it was ten points apiece. Two years ago, they did the same thing and we lost it or, more, we threw it away. Today we held ourselves together and played with a certain amount of confidence which was lacking the last couple of years."
Outside the losing dressing room, Cork captain Mark O'Connor felt that the match had turned on two questionable awards by Clare referee Kevin Walsh.
"I'm very, very upset. We had the winning of the game out there. Kerry got two crucial decisions which I felt were very harsh, particularly the sliding tackle. After that we were chasing a goal. We were playing okay up to then but the scores we failed to convert in the first half were crucial.
"We knew at halftime that we weren't playing as well as we could and Kerry upped their game in the second half. You have to give credit to them for the way they did that. I hope they go on and win the All Ireland. Munster football needs an All Ireland victory. Football here is the best, I believe, in that there's not so much pulling and dragging. We're no angels but we do genuinely go out to play football and I hope Kerry go on and win it. Their hunger could get them to the final.
"We'll wait until the club championship matches are out of the way and then get together in earnest to decide where we're going. We've got to rediscover the hunger."
