By John Harrington

There’s a good chance Sean O’Shea’s injury-time winning free against Dublin in last year’s All-Ireland SFC semi-final was one of the most electrifying moments the average Kerry supporter has experienced in their years following the team.

There was a lot in the mix to make it so. The kick itself from all of 55 into a swirling wind was a thing of beauty, and the context made it iconic.

It ended an era of pain for Kerry against Dublin in Croke Park, and served as a nice counterpoint to the moment that started it when Stephen Cluxton converted that winning free in the 2011 All-Ireland Final.

The stadium was bedlam in the seconds before O’Shea struck that free as Dublin supporters did their best to ratchet up the pressure and Kerry supporters watched through their fingers.

But what did it feel like for the man himself? How did he compose himself mentally so he would be physically capable of achieving such a sporting feat?

“You obviously have your routine and that’s something you’ve done thousands of times now,” he says.

“You don’t even think about it, it’s just there. You obviously have your target and when you’re aiming but a lot of it is about feel for me. Every kick is different because of angles and wind and it can change during games, blowing stronger.

“A lot of it would about feel for me, just how the body is going and how you think the ball is going to travel in general. I wouldn’t have a specific target behind the ball. I’d just kind of judge it by my feel and how I think it’s going to play out."

Considering the distance he was from goal and the tricky wind he was kicking into, successfully converting that free looked like a big ask for O’Shea. As he addressed the ball, just how confident was he in his own ability to land it?

“It was hard to know because at that stage of the game the legs were probably tired as well and there was a lot of energy gone out,” says O’Shea.

“I was just saying to myself, ‘Put it down, last kick, focus on the strike’. The body is obviously full of adrenaline at the time as well so that can do a lot of funny things for you.

“Paudie Clifford was beside me when I got the ball and he just said, ‘Look, have a go, don’t force it. Trust that the kick will get there.’ And he was dead right, like.

“If you try and force that, if you try and put extra into it, you could end up drilling it along the ground. I just went with what I knew, tried to get a nice contact on it and thankfully it travelled then.”

A lot of thought as well as strength went into the kick. O’Shea knew a right to left wind would pick up the closer the ball got to the posts, so he aimed well to the right of the right post and trusted the wind to the rest.

“I could see as the game was developing that a lot of shots were being pulled left that day,” he says. “I’d say the conversion rate in the Canal End was way higher than the Hill that day.

“I knew it was a tricky one and to be honest I just gave it plenty outside (the right post). It wasn’t a particular yardage or anything, throw it out plenty and leave it swing back in.

“I knew I hit it well. I actually thought I hit it too well at the start. I didn’t think it was going to come but then it started coming back in and the wind caught it then. It came in nicely alright.”

So, just how good did it feel when he knew he’d nailed the match-winner in such dramatic circumstances?

“Ah, it was great,” he says. “Delight. But I was afraid there would be one more play and they would get a chance to come down and level it so thankfully the whistle blow and it was great.”

Finally beating Dublin brought as much relief as joy, and it was a similar feeling when they got over the line against Galway in the All-Ireland Final.

“Yeah, it definitely was relief,” says O’Shea. “I suppose just the relief to finally win an All-Ireland was huge. It was something all of our squad would have been hoping for since they were young and only four of our squad had done it before. Just relief to know you’d finally won an All-Ireland you had set to do since you were a young fella.”

Because O’Shea’s much vaunted generation of players had to suffer before finally winning the Sam Maguire Cup, he’s confident they’re driven to keep winning more rather than be happy with their lot.

“Absolutely,” he says. “It probably made it all the sweeter losing a final in '19, '20 being beaten by Cork, '21 semi-final here to Tyrone. They were tough days and they took a lot out of you.

“But then you knew when you finally won how tough it actually was to get there and it made you enjoy it that bit more because you'd been through the bad days.

“So when it finally did come around you knew you just had to enjoy it because it's something that you'd worked really hard for and took a lot of effort and time to get there. To come back after a couple of bad losses probably made it all that bit sweeter alright.

“There's a serious focus there in the group this year. You can just see it even on the training field. Last year is parked now. You'll be retired long enough. There will be plenty of time to be looking back in 10 or 15 years' time. For now it's just back to square one again.

“Everyone is on a level playing field again at the start of the League and Championship and we just have to work as hard if not harder than last year to try to get back to where we were. We're focused on the short-term at the moment. We're looking at Saturday night, we're looking at Mayo.

“We'll build our way through the League campaign and then get ourselves right for the Munster Championship later on in the year. We're not looking anywhere past that.

“There's no complacency or anything like that in the camp. Everyone is very focused and back to working really hard again which is the least you need to do anyways."