'No, we were never overly worried about Gooch'

GAELIC GAMES:"SURE THIS is his theatre, his happy hunting ground. No better place to come into form." Jack O'Connor says this with a smile, knowing he wasn't telling us but reminding us something we already knew: he'd heard the rumours too, that Colm Cooper was losing form, maybe struggling under the weight of the Kerry captaincy, his genius and creativity deserting him just when Kerry needed it most.

So he goes out and paints us a masterpiece.

“No, we were never overly worried about Gooch, because we know what he can do. We felt that game was in him. Certainly over the last fortnight he looked very, very sharp in training. Hopefully he can maintain that now over the next month.”

That’s the beauty of winning this All-Ireland semi-final: Kerry can kick back, focus on the positives, get ready to take on Dublin or Donegal – knowing their prized forward has sprung into perfect form. The Gooch may have been quiet so far this summer, but he soon turned up the volume on Mayo to number 11, landing himself 1-7, including one magnificent goal that, well, only the Gooch could muster.

He wasn’t the only reason Kerry are preparing for their seventh All-Ireland final in eight years, yet he showed again that when Kerry play to their strengths they’re impossible to contain.

“Yeah, we felt we possibly weren’t playing to his strengths before,” admits O’Connor, “and getting him on the ball enough. A big part of here was about getting him on the ball, because he’s a genius with the ball. It wasn’t wasted, and maybe we weren’t actively looking for him enough in the games up to now.”

What makes the Gooch such irresistible viewing in form like this is that he makes it look so easy, and if he really is doing all for fun. “Sure if you can’t enjoy yourself out there you might as well forget about it,” as he says himself. “It’s the place to do it alright, in Croke Park, and it’s just great to get back. We played well at times out there, it just took us a while to get going.

“Things came back a little bit today and like that Croke Park can bring it out in you. Like that, it took me a while in the first 15 or 20 minutes too so I’ll have to look at that and see if we rectify it.

“I suppose the scoreline probably doesn’t reflect the game as a whole. If we came out of here with a one-point win we would have been just as delighted. Fellas played well in areas but we know we have a lot to improve on.”

O’Connor has much to be pleased about, not least of all the summer evening twilight that takes him to the championship endgame: it’s where he feels Kerry belong, or at least feel they’re missing if not: “That’s the name of the game, getting through the semi-final. And it’s a great feeling now to have an All-Ireland final to look forward to, and four weeks to prepare for it . . . and this time of year lads always enjoy training. It’s not a burden going training in September, that’s for sure. We missed it last year.”

There are things to work, nonetheless, and he admits their nine-point victory doesn’t reflect the true nature of Mayo’s challenge.

“I know we pulled away in the end but it certainly doesn’t feel like nine points. It feels a good bit closer than that. I thought that was the most physical game by far. Even more physical than the Cork game. That might have had more pace in it, but this was very, very physical, I have to say.

“But that’s fine. The two teams left on the other side of the draw, Dublin and Donegal, are no shrinking violets. They’re going to hit and hit hard, so it was good our fells got that experience out there today, and we have to built on it, because I didn’t think coming into this game we’d been tested, and we need to be tested.

“There was serious pressure on the ball there today, and in fairness to Mayo they were very intense, kept it going for 50 to 60 minutes. And thankfully we pulled away in the last five minutes. I think James Horan has brought a tougher edge to Mayo, certainly. I never saw a Mayo team tackling like that before . . . in my time anyway. That’s where the game is at now, and we’ve practised tackling a lot ourselves this year.

“So hopefully we can withstand whatever pressure is on us in the final now.”