A sweet All-Ireland SFC win for Jack O'Connor and Kerry

​By Paul Keane

This time 12 months ago, Jack O'Connor found himself in a difficult spot.

Kerry had been beaten by Armagh in an All-Ireland semi-final and, if O'Connor was going to stick around as manager for 2025, he'd have to replace significant figures in his backroom team who'd stepped down.

Clearly, it all worked out pretty well as Kerry are All-Ireland champions again since Sunday, for the 39th time, but O'Connor remembers the back end of 2024 as being a difficult period.

"We suffered a heartbreaking defeat to Armagh in a game that we appeared to be in control of," he recalled. "Then I had my whole management team broke up. So I had to try and put the management together while I was dealing with the personal heartbreak of losing an All-Ireland semi-final. That can be a lonely, tough place to be, when you're trying to do that.

"So right from this time last year, I found the going tough and there were times when I felt like packing it up and whatever. I'm glad I stuck with it and saw the year out because, sure, we got the reward. But it was a tough year."

O'Connor is sitting in the lobby of Kerry's All-Ireland final hotel base in Dublin as he speaks, preparing for the journey home with the Sam Maguire Cup. It is the fifth time he has made such a journey out of 11 seasons, across three different spells between 2004 and 2025, in the Kingdom hotseat.

But did he really think about packing it all in last autumn or winter?

"I did," he nodded. "I did, certainly, yeah. I would be conversing with some of the players and stuff and they would have said to hang in there. It's tough going when you lose your management team, lads that you soldier with and that you trust and can confide in.

"Then you have to try and gel with a new management team. That can be tough at times. As it turned out, the lads have been brilliant. Cian O'Neill, James Costello, Aodhan MacGearailt and Pa McCarthy were absolutely brilliant. As it turned out, they brought real freshness and new ideas to the set up. I think the players relished that."

O'Connor and Kerry had an old friend looking down on them on Sunday, urging them on against Donegal. Kingdom great Johnny Culloty, whom O'Connor had worked closely with in county U-21 and senior management teams, winning senior titles together in 2004 and 2006, passed away in February.

Was he in Kerry's thoughts on Sunday?

"Oh he was for sure," said Jack. "Johnny was a great friend of mine who passed away during the year. He got a few calls during the match and before! I remember his son saying to me at his funeral that Johnny would help us to win the All-Ireland so fair play to Donal, he predicted that.

"But Johnny was a great friend of mine, a great confidant and he certainly got a couple of calls on Sunday."

O'Connor has now completed four seasons in his third spell as manager and isn't sure what the future holds.

"It isn't like I'm playing hard to get at all," he said. "I'm a long old time at this thing now. I found last year particularly tough, I have to say, and I'm not sure I can put myself through that stuff again because when you reach a certain age, your priorities change a bit.

"There's a lot of other things I like doing. I like playing a bit of golf. I like spending time with my grandson, Jeaic. He's mad for golf as well, he'd be around the lawn below and the golf club learning to swing it.

"I live in a nice part of the country and I enjoy being out in nature and going out to my old homestead in Dromid, stuff like that. So we'll see. I'll leave it settle for a couple of weeks. I won't hang people out to dry or keep people hanging on. I'll have a think about it."