Calculation pays off as Fitzmaurice saw All-Ireland prize coming all along

The Icemen Cometh. They'd won vast numbers of All-Irelands before – both magically and majestically. Never before had Kerry won with such simple economic urgency as keeping their cool.

It also took some flexing of their physical strength as well as their mental strength. But in keeping their cool – also known as composure – they just about lasted everything Donegal threw at them.

They might not have lasted without Paul Geaney's early goal. And later, a gift of a goal for Kieran Donaghy. All of which meant All-Ireland number 37 wasn't just one of their hardest won. It was one of the most special, too.

Reasons why

It has to be if manager

Eamonn Fitzmaurice

immediately elevates it above the three All-Ireland’s he’s won as a player – listing off several reasons why: he traced the trail of the season – the initial retirements of Tomás Ó Sé and

Paul Galvin

, the injury to their

captain Colm

“Gooch”

Cooper

and the 10-point “hosing” they got from Cork in the last round of the league.

Yet soon, Fitzmaurice felt, they were coming around – that moment actually sensed during a training camp in Portugal not long after that league defeat.

“I would have always said that nothing compares with being a player, but this does, very favourably, it really does,” he says. “Because I actually felt like a player this summer. I promised myself I wouldn’t, but I became so obsessed, and was so excited going into training every night.

“That’s all down to the lads, the players, down to the management team, and everyone else around me. It’s a great environment to be working in, so this one is every bit as special as any of the medals I won as a player.”

He thinks back on how it was won, too – and while the rest of the country had written them off as All-Ireland contenders, Fitzmaurice felt maybe they weren’t that far away.

"Going into the Munster final, in Páirc Uí Chaoimh, there had been a very good vibe in training. And I knew we were onto something special. That really began in the period after the league. We built a massive spirit in that period. We went to Portugal on the Thursday (after the 10-point defeat to Cork), went over there on the Easter weekend, and our season changed there."

It continued to change, especially after beating Mayo in their semi-final reply – if only for The Second Coming of Donaghy: "He's had had a massive contribution, a renaissance in the second half of the season, really, which was always going to happen because he was always working very hard. It was just getting game-time into him. After the Galway game he was a man on a mission. He had the bit between his teeth and his training form picked up. That's the criteria. That's been the criteria all year long, training form. His training form went through the roof and you saw that then in the last few games."

Then, even with just three weeks to prepare for the tactical and physical challenge of Donegal, Fitzmaurice never doubted Kerry’s season could make one last pivotal turn.

“After seeing Donegal beat Dublin, we had a three-and-a-half hour drive home to discuss it. By the time we came in training on Tuesday night we were ready to go, we knew what we wanted. We weren’t going to give them space. It was as simple as that. It was developing and tweaking our game plan in training. And when they are so focused on their game plan they probably don’t have the flexibility to change it then massively in a short time. We knew that there would be the odd curve ball but fundamentally we knew that it would be as expected.

“Another thing we had discussed in the lead-up to the game that we felt goals were going to be very important. Donegal, if they don’t get goals, they probably struggle to score enough and if we could get goals it could be a big factor. Thankfully we got the two goals because they were very close right at the end.

“Even at the end there, was a few times the lads were testing my mettle with a bit of their decision-making. But it’s a great place to me and I’m delighted. And I think what makes it so special is that it certainly wasn’t expected at the start of the season.”

Highest scorer

Very special too for James O’Donoghue – their highest scorer all summer, who even though was held scoreless here, will never forget his first All-Ireland. Not that he expects it to be his last.

"It was fairytale stuff, because it was something we had worked on, with Paul Geaney inside," he says of Kerry's first goal. "It was actually Kieran Donaghy's idea, to put him in there for the first couple of balls, up high, And we pulled out because Paul is excellent in the air. It went in and he stuck it in the net and it was fantastic

“The game was ferocious intense and every shot every solo was blocked. We kicked a few wides, but look everyone kicks wides. We got the win and that’s what matters. And I think the county will be buzzing for a while, after winning the minors too.

“This sounds ridiculous now, but we are not going for one-in-a-row. We are going for next year, and we are going to have a couple of players back. And I think we are going to be hard to beat next year.”