Centre stage for unlikely hero

It's almost a tradition now that All-Ireland finals throw up some unlikely stars, players who emerge from the shadows to deliver the brightest performances. Kerry had several of those in Sunday's win over Mayo - Aidan O'Mahony, Declan O'Sullivan, Seán O'Sullivan - but one player whose performance caught a lot of people by surprise was Tommy Griffin.

When Declan O'Sullivan was recalled to the starting line-up, the assumption was Eoin Brosnan would move to midfield, and Griffin would miss out. Instead, Griffin held on to his number-nine shirt and during Sunday's final frequently outshone his more esteemed midfield partner, Darragh Ó Sé, before proving equally prominent when moving to wing back.

Yesterday Griffin reflected on the experience of recent weeks: "It's been unbelievable, unreal really. Sunday was a funny kind of game, though. We've been talking about it there, and in the end it was a bit of an anti-climax, the way it finished. But of course we're still delighted with the win, no matter how we got it.

"We got the dream start, but we said we were going to tear right into it from the start. Just try to win as much ball as possible. The short kick-out Mayo have is something they used all year and that was one of the things we targeted. Either our wing forwards or our wing backs, and then myself and Darragh would try to break it or else get a hand in. And I think we did manage to break them there right from the start, and the boys picked up some unreal breaks, the likes of Declan O'Sullivan, who really came into his own."

Griffin had a hand in two of Kerry's first-half goals: "Well I can't remember much about them. It was just about catching the ball and firing it inside. It's a simple thing really, but maybe something we'd got away from. And since Kieran Donaghy went in there the whole idea is to win as much ball and get it in to him as quickly as possible."

Sunday's win may have looked simple, but Griffin's road to success hasn't been. He had been troubled with a knee injury in recent weeks, and endured a lot more before settling into the starting line-up.

"Yeah, I'd a few operations last year. In 2004 I went over on my ankle after the Munster final with Limerick, and had to get it operated on early last year. It came back at me around April or May, and it was June of last year before I was ready to play my first match. Then in October I needed an operation on my hand, and only had four or five months to get back in shape after that."

Ironically, it was the Munster final defeat to Cork in July - with Griffin appearing in the replay - that proved the final turning point. "After that game we made a pact that we'd all put our shoulder to the wheel for a few weeks, because we knew there was still a lot more in this team. We changed the attitude a bit as well and really upped the tempo in training."

At 28, Griffin was one of the older Kerry players starting on Sunday and yet his future has never looked brighter - and ideally he'd like to see Jack O'Connor oversee it: "I think we'd all like to keep a winning team together. And I think there are more All-Irelands in us. Things don't always work out they way you think they will, but we'll just relax for a while and see then what happens next."