Jack O’Connor’s chance to end barren run in Donegal?

Player availability is one reason. Should both teams begin as they did in Round 1, Kerry will have seven All-Ireland SFC final starters and Donegal 10. And Kerry will again be without All Stars Paudie Clifford, Brian Ó Beaglaoich and Gavin White whereas all but Michael Murphy of Donegal’s honoured quartet are set to be available.

Then there’s the amount of work the respective set-ups have put in. For the second year in a row, O’Connor referred to the amount of pre-season training Donegal have done.

“Clearly, Donegal have a lot more work done than we have, so we’d be well up against them next week, and they obviously have the added incentive of trying to get one over us after last year.

“I saw where Jim (McGuinness) was fine and cranky with the media, which means he’s well up for it again. So that’s great. It’ll be a good test for us.” 

If anyone was cranky this month three years ago, it was O’Connor. Donegal’s sole victory in that ill-fated campaign of theirs came against Kerry in Round 1, although the margin was a disputed Caolan McGonagle point. “Donegal had a point there that was blatantly wide,” O’Connor commented afterwards. “Everyone in the stand – ye saw that, did ye?”

Kerry had been five points ahead at one stage, but O’Connor qualified the performance by stating his group were “behind the curve” in their preparations having holidayed in Dubai and Mauritius the previous month.

The same can’t truly be said this time around as the tans were on Kerry’s faces for the All Stars by early November after a break in the US and Mexico. Three Kerry teams went deep into the club championships as they did in January 2023, but O’Connor’s options now are far more plentiful. And unlike three years ago David Clifford is available.

If McGuinness is still feeling indignant about last year’s All-Ireland final, O’Connor appeared to be the same in the build-up to the game. Clifford’s post-match comment about how the two managers were perceived was enlightening.

“I don’t think Jack was happy with all the commentary around the Donegal manager and what he could do. I think there was a lot of disrespect in that for Jack. A lot of that was for him today.” 

Now 65, O’Connor has regularly shown an ability to move with the times but the perception that McGuinness was being showered with more plaudits was reminiscent of John Brennan taking umbrage about something similar before the 2011 Ulster final.

Aged 68 at the time, Derry manager Brennan took offence at how McGuinness, then 39, and Rory Gallagher, 33, were considered a “slick” management team. “I use a laptop, too, you know. They might be slick; they might be all that, but I have come across these people before.” 

Brennan and Derry came out on the wrong side of that result but his argument about football being a simple game would chime with O’Connor. Following last July, he spoke of adopting a “less in more” approach for the final. A training weekend was ruled out. Instructions were reduced to basic points.

He mentioned the All-Ireland final experience of his players counting for a lot. “Only two or three of the Donegal lads had played in a final before,” he told this newspaper. “I think that was underestimated.

“An All-Ireland final is a different animal. All the razzamatazz of parades and meeting the president. There is a lot of time between the warm-up and throwing up of the ball, time for a lot of quare things to go on in players’ heads.” 

Would O’Connor have allowed Gavin White to lead the introductions to Michael D Higgins and the parade as McGuinness did Patrick McBrearty had he not made the cut? Hardly. No player would have been afforded such a luxury and permitted to become a distraction.

Of all O’Connor’s attributes, common sense is probably his most overlooked. It might be he, not McGuinness, who is cranky just after 3pm on Sunday, but his good judgement will abide.