By Cian O’Connell

Eight All Irelands, 12 Munster titles, and nine All Stars. Pat Spillane, the proud Templenoe native, remains one of the most decorated and dynamic players to have ever performed in Gaelic Football.

So many stories surround Spillane’s career. The memories and medals; the longevity; the development of the Dublin and Kerry rivalry.

Spillane flared to national prominence when Kerry surprised Dublin in 1975. It was a remarkable day for Spillane, who ended up climbing the Hogan Stand steps to hoist the Sam Maguire Cup.

“They ask you what are the things you aspire to,” Spillane remarked in an interview with GAA.ie in 2012. “You aspire to wearing your county jersey. That's number one. You dream of an All-Ireland medal. Then the icing on the cake is that you accept the Sam Maguire on behalf of your county on All-Ireland final day, and Jesus, I've done all those three.

“Now, it was a complete blur. It was only told to me at the end of the game that because I was from Kenmare, who were my district team who had won the County Championship in 1974, that I was the vice-captain, and that I would collect it because of course our captain Mickey Ned O'Sullivan had got injured during the game. In fact he was nearly decapitated, it was that bad.

“I still haven't much of a memory of it and in fact, I don't think I even have a photograph of it. I don't think I have a photograph of it even around the house which I should have by rights. But it was just fabulous. Just a blur.”

Kerry’s approach was direct with the emphasis placed on marrying fitness and skill. Mick O’Dwyer had Kerry primed for so many battles by reinforcing the fact that they needed to focus on themselves.

“Defining us, you could use the Spain, Barcelona thing,” Spillane says. “It was about passing, keeping possession, movement. And it was all about attacking. The one thing Mick O'Dwyer always said was that when you had the ball in your hands, never look at your knees. It was all about getting the head up and moving the ball to a better-placed colleague. Boom boom.

“I've said this millions of times before - in all Dwyer's team talks, we never spoke about the opposition, and we never spoke about the opposition's key players, or came up with plans to stop them. It was all about believing in our own ability to deliver, and that was what it was all about.

“You can use the analogy of Spain or Barcelona - we were of a similar ilk.”

Far from Croke Park, though, Spillane worked in diligent fashion: his own training schedule was relentless.

“I trained savage,” Spillane remarks. “Remember, I was the first person in Ireland to come back playing football after rupturing a cruciate ligament. I was told in 1981 that I would never again play football, and I came back and proved them wrong.

“In the latter part of my inter-county career, I used to train 12 times a week. Twice a day, six times a week.

“That was the level I went to. Brutal, absolutely brutal. Between weight training, running around the field, laps of the field with 10 pound weights around my ankles, doing sprints up hills with 10 pound weights around my ankles. Between spending hours just on my own kicking the ball into the goals, that was exactly it.

“Mostly I'd be down in the field just kicking and kicking and kicking. Three or four balls, just kicking and kicking and kicking.

“When I went to a Kerry training session, and people who went to those sessions would know this, I was out there three quarters of an hour before it started, or maybe an hour, just kicking the ball. And then when training was finished, I'd spend another three quarters of an hour doing the same.”

That so many key games took place against Dublin added to the rivalry with Spillane stressing that the capital team brought so much joy and colour to the sport.

“It was the start of a golden era for GAA,” Spillane admits. “GAA in the 1960s and the early 1970s was beginning to die on its feet. BBC, Match of the Day, cross-channel soccer, it was all suddenly gaining in popularity.

“The soccer was seen as sexy, glitzy and glamorous and the GAA was Irish and boring and whatever like that. It was the arrival of Dublin, and in particular then the rivalry between Dublin and Kerry that made the GAA hot and sexy again.

“GAA became 'in' again from 1975 on because Dublin brought the glitz and the glamour and the songs, and brought the media with it. Kerry brought the rest of the country following them, because it was sort of 31 counties against Dublin, you know.

“Those fellas, like, I went to college with Brian Mullins, would be great friends with Tony Hanahoe and (Jimmy) Keaveney, Seán Doherty and Paddy Cullen. All the boys! They're just great lads, good characters, larger than life.

“I believe the GAA owes an awful lot to those players, and in particular those Dublin players, for making Gaelic football a hot sport again.”

In Kerry the year is classed as a disappointment if Sam Maguire doesn’t rest in the county for the winter. That was just part and parcel of being a Kerry footballer for Spillane.

“The one thing I don't have in life is regrets,” Spillane comments. “In my sporting career, I haven't a single, single regret because I was really, really lucky. I played in 10 All-Ireland finals and I won eight. I have no regrets.

“The bottom line in Kerry is that you're judged on your ability to deliver an All-Ireland. If you fail to deliver an All-Ireland, you're a failure. It's all about success. There's no moral victories, there's no hard luck stories, there's no eulogising glorious losers.

“Win an All-Ireland, you're a hero. Fail to deliver, and you're a failure and that's the pressure of being a Kerry footballer. Anything less than being number one isn't acceptable.”

Spillane’s last game for Kerry at Croke Park was the 1991 All Ireland semi-final defeat to Down. Glorious victories were sampled since his first exacting visit as a player for the 1972 Hogan Cup decider.

St Brendan’s Killarney were soundly defeated by St Pat’s, Cavan. “They had brought back a bunch of repeats,” Spillane replies.

“It was like men against boys. If you ever see the photographs from it, it was like seeing a bunch of youngsters playing against a senior team. They were like a senior team. They were men. I remember loads of them had come back to repeat and they were just huge men. I don't think there was an age limit at that stage.

That was in 1972, and then my last game was in 1991 and by Jesus has Croke Park changed a lot since then. In every single regard.”

Importantly, valuable lessons were learned at the Jones Road venue. Persistence and passion counts. “Páidí Ó Sé was on that team with me in 1972,” Spillane continues. “We got a bad beating. That's the amazing thing about it though.

"If somebody had said after that match in 1972 that myself and Páidí would both go on to have such a long and successful innings in Croke Park, be amongst the greatest players of all time - they certainly wouldn't have said it on the basis of what they had seen in that colleges' match.

“But look, there's a message there. Youngsters who get beaten in underage matches and get beaten in colleges' matches and aren't good enough - never despair, and never give up.

“It's all about belief and commitment and you get out of anything what you put into it. We put a lot of work into football after that and we reaped the rewards and we're thankful for that.”

Templenoe and Kerry were grateful too for the service and success Spillane provided during a silverware laden era.