O'Se puts in good word for absent brothers

CHAMPIONSHIP 2008 NEWS:THERE WERE a few issues to be broached with Tomás Ó Sé when he arrived, along with the seven other captains, in Croke Park yesterday to publicise the All-Ireland football quarter-finals. How he was promoted to the captaincy role, by default, was an obvious starting point. There was also that tough battle with Monaghan. Not to mention the thorny subject of that second-half collapse against Cork in the Munster final. After that there would be a few queries about the big brother. Thankfully, Tomás was in fine form.

Darragh Ó Sé has sealed his place in the hall of midfield legends. Before last weekend, however, he was being branded a has-been. When a player is finished it happens very quickly. Darragh struggled during that hectic Cork comeback, ending up with a second yellow card.

After such a regal performance against the same opposition in last year's All-Ireland final, some were asking whether he'd gone a season too far. The big Monaghan boys were the perfect tonic for the five-time All-Ireland winner. In the final minutes, Darragh Ó Sé was to be seen catching a high ball under his own crossbar. Kerry move on. And so does Darragh Ó Sé.

"I don't know does he listen to any of the stick he's getting," said Tomás. "A lot of fellas were saying there was a lot of stuff going on between himself and (Dick) Clerkin but I know for a fact he has a fierce respect for Clerkin as a midfielder - he'd be one of the better midfielders in the country, he plays a lot of ball.

"When you come up here you know it's knockout so you have to throw whatever you have at it. He (Darragh) had a good game the last day and he'd be trying to build on that again.

"I mean we didn't clear them out or anything at midfield; Monaghan broke even as far as I could see the last day. We were delighted that we got more possession around there than we'd done in recent games."

This brings us neatly to their hoover-in-chief of breaking ball - the absent Paul Galvin.

Tomás Ó Sé is a natural leader, and of the three brothers the most similar in looks to a young Páidí, so his answers to taking on the captaincy issue are hardly surprising.

"Yerra, it doesn't really bother me. There's plenty of talkers in the dressingroom. As far as I'm concerned I just go up and do the toss. There's a lot of fellas that talk, there's no one fella that does it, it's no big deal at all."

No change of role then?

"Not at all. I'd be great mates with Paul. It is done and dusted. The main thing was that the players stayed out of it.

"Paul was well entitled to follow it up the way he did. I think it dragged on too long . . . nearly two months. I thought that was ridiculous for an end result.

"Paul would be the first to admit that he was wrong. When Paul was gone you kind of treated it . . . it's like having an injured player, do you know?

"It was supposed to be a big year now for him captain-wise. It hasn't worked out his way but we'll see how it ends up. Hopefully it'll be a long year yet and it would be great to see him back at some stage. It's a very long way off yet."

We eventually get around to Galway this Saturday back at Croke Park. He slips easily into straight-bat mode. Respect for the opposition in light of former battles, like that one back in 2000.

Maybe we'll hear more from Tomás Ó Sé about goings-on around the Kingdom later this month.