Paddy Heaney lambastes sneaky Kerry

[red hander]

'I actually get quite emotional when I see the heroic defiance of the Kerry players during that clip. They went down fighting (....as opposed to Tyrone who simply went down...diving bastards!!)'

We feel your pain, Michael.  We feel your pain.  Get it out son, get it out ... therapy is good for the soul, expunge your agony, share it with us, we're here to help ... deep breaths, deep breaths ... don't let the nightmare consume you, there, there, Mikey, Wikey

[orangeman]

Why do people hate Tyrone ? I can't figure that one out - when they play dunning football, they are a joy to watch !

[Square Ball]

anyone able to post the article?

[Lamh Dhearg Alba]

Also, looking at that clip you can see that, for all the talk, the Kerry players still manage to scrap and hold posession quite well despite intesnse pressure. Even when they lost it they won it back with a breathtaking piece of defensive play by Dara oSe followed up by a thumping hit on Cavanagh. This is the real display of class and defiance that can be taken from that clip.

I actually get quite emotional when I see the heroic defiance of the Kerry players during that clip. They went down fighting

Kerry committed 10 fouls in the first 15 minutes of that match, simply unable to cope with the pace and movement of Tyrone they pulled and dragged at anything that moved. Then they managed to paint Tyrone as the "puke footballers" afterwards. Thats cuteness for you, up the Kingdom.

[J70]

Whats the name of the tune and band in that music piece?

Any one?

Are you serious? If so, you're either very, very young or very, very old!

Its The Prodigy's "Smack My Bitch Up!"

[Mike Sheehy]

therapy is good for the soul, expunge your agony, share it with us, we're here to help ... deep breaths, deep breaths ... don't let the nightmare consume you, there, there, Mikey, Wikey

Some of lads are a bit mad...must be the diving related head injuries

[ONeill]

Jaysus she's all kicked off in the Irish News today. 2 pages of Kerry-loathing in the Off The Fence section. Great craic altogether. The funny thing is, Kerry are probably oblivious to this. It'll be a bit of an anti-climax if they don't meet Ulster opposition this year. I think Jack O'Connor has single-handedly united the Pronvince!

[Kerry Mike]

Stick it up here so we can all have a good laugh. We dont get that rag down here in Mexico.

It'll be a bit of an anti-climax if they don't meet Ulster opposition this year

We've a good record of meeting Ulster teams on the way to All Irelands, our last 6 titles have all yielded Ulster scalps along the way. We have had a few minor blips recently but these things balance themselves out over time.
1985 - Monaghan
1986 - Tyrone
1997 - Cavan
2000 - Armagh
2004 - Derry
2006 - Armagh

[5 Sams]

Make the most of it Mike while Ross and DJ get our boys sorted out

[full back]

Make the most of it Mike while Ross and DJ get our boys sorted out

Aw 5 Sams - forever the optimist

[ONeill]

Honest Jack is actually a breath of fresh Kerry air

AGAINST THE BREEZE 
by Paddy Heaney 

I hope Jack O'Connor makes an absolute packet from his new book, Keys to the Kingdom. Indeed, all Ulster football fans should share my wishes because Jack has done us all a great service. Jack has reminded us that we should hate Kerry, that we should despise them and resent their continued success and domination of gaelic football.

The Kingdom's unparalleled success is remarkable on two fronts.

The 72 Munster crowns and 34 All-Ireland titles speak for themselves. Dublin, with 22 All-Ireland titles are their closest rivals in the roll of the honour while Galway's nine wins make them a distant third. The rest of us, my friends, are really just paupers.

And herein lies the real brilliance to Kerry's glittering history. Despite their 34 All-Ireland titles, despite their routine march to Croke Park – we actually don't loathe and detest them. In fact, more perversely again, many of us like them, love them, and want to see them win more. This is quite sick. Think about it.

When Manchester United were dominating the English Premiership, we witnessed the creation of the 'ABU' mentality.

Supporters from every other club were happy as long as "Anyone but United" won a particular
competition. A few years later, and the same antipathy was being shown towards Chelsea.
Such is life at the top of the tree. And yet, there has never been a real anti-Kerry spirit.

In a country where the natives pride themselves on their innate begrudgery, and where people hate to see their neighbours doing well – we have never joined forces against the colonising Kerry men. It's an amazing anomaly of the GAA and it's worthwhile considering how the Kerry men have pulled off this stunning coup. The answer is quite simple. Kerry have mastered the game both on and off the field.

They win with grace and modesty. Or, to be more accurate, they appear to win with grace and modesty. After the Sam Maguire Cup is wearily lifted on the Hogan Stand for yet another year, they tell us: "Yerra, we're just delighted to be here, it was all a bit of fluke, we can't believe we were so lucky.''

Then they beg our pardon and race off to the Killarney where they get rip-roaring drunk and spend their days making crude jokes and comments about the other 31 counties. (It's true, I tell you). The great Mick O'Dwyer epitomised the Kerry man's genius in front of a microphone. Whenever his teams won, he never exuded triumphalism. Whenever they lost, he took the result on the chin. Paidi O Se maintained this proud tradition. When Armagh beat Kerry in the 2002 All-Ireland final, O Se was dignity personified.

There was no moaning or bleating. O Se and his team licked their wounds and kept their heads down. This is unquestionably a key factor in Kerry's charm and helps to explain why they continue to generate such affection and admiration. Of course, it's all a total pretence. Or, to be more precise, it's just cute hoorism on a grand scale. Mercifully, there are a few Kerry men who don't always play the media game. Every now and again, the mask slips, and we get to see what our friends in the deep south
are really thinking.

In 2003, Pat Spillane couldn't contain his disgust when Tyrone didn't allow Darragh O Se to catch the ball uncontested in the middle of the field and then strike glorious passes to Colm Cooper. Tyrone had the temerity to devise a strategy that stopped Kerry from tramping over the top of them. Pat was furious. He called it "puke football''. The two words which probably helped Tyrone win two All-Ireland titles. Cheers Pat. A year later, and Kerry had the All-Ireland title back in their grasp. But this time, they didn't tip their caps and trot back to Tralee.

This time, the county chairman Sean Walsh proclaimed that Kerry had restored the natural order of gaelic football, the implication being that the county had saved the game from the ravages of the northern hordes. Even Mike Sheehy joined the chorus of disapproval against Tyrone and Armagh. Such outbursts from the Kingdom are rare, although we should be thankful to the likes of Spillane, Walsh and Sheehy. Their only sin is honesty and we can safely assume that they represent a sizeable body of opinion in their native county.

Jack O'Connor has now provided us with a further revelation into the Kerry psyche which is never shown on The Sunday Game.

In his book which is "The story of the outsider who led Kerry back to glory", O'Connor revealed that Armagh and Tyrone's success had generated a fair degree of antagonism within his Kerry soul. He stated: "There's an arrogance to northern football which rubs Kerry people up the wrong way. They're flash and noveau riche and full of it.'' He went on: "They talk about how they did it, they go on and on about this theory and that practice as if they'd just split the atom. They build up a mythology about themselves.

"That doesn't sit well in Kerry where a man with four All-Irelands would quietly defer to a man who has five.'' Many Tyrone and Armagh fans will take exception to O'Connor's comments and he is in danger of becoming public enemy number one. This is the wrong reaction.

Instead, we should be grateful to the former Kerry manager. We should be thankful that O'Connor has had the good grace to put his real thoughts in print. It's a welcome change from the Kerryman whose comments on television are totally at odds as what he actually thinks. Dara O Cinneide tipping Tyrone to win this year's All-Ireland title is a prime example of this Kerry bluffing. O'Connor had told us what he really thinks. He is candid, direct and doesn't engage in doublespeak.

Given these characteristics, it's no wonder that he was an 'outsider' among his own.

Our good friend Jack probably has more in common with his Ulster brethren than he realises.

[ONeill]

Armagh and Tyrone fans dish out the flak to Jack 

Off The Fence 
with Seamus Maloney 





TONY Blair should count himself lucky he didn't have any competition from Jack O'Connor when he took up his Middle East envoy role after quitting Downing Street. The Kerry manager's skills in bringing opposite sides of an argument together have just been unleashed in his book Keys To The Kingdom where, in a few short paragraphs, O'Connor managed to create an alliance not many would have thought possible: he got Tyrone and Armagh supporters singing from the same hymn sheet.




• JACK'S assertion that Ulster counties, or rather Armagh and Tyrone, were "arrogant" and "nouveau riche" got Off The Fence's lines of communication buzzing with indignation in double quick time. 'Ciaran, a Reserved Red Hand', was first out of the blocks.

"Thank you Jack O'Connor for the greatest laugh I've had in a long time. For any Kerryman to call someone arrogant is the greatest irony of all time. Is he serious? The word arrogant was invented for these people.

"These are the people who do not bother attending All-Ireland semi-finals as they believe in their divine right to walk into the final.

"How 2003 put the manners into that line of thinking! These "pure" footballers believe that no-one should touch them, tackle them or harry them. This was maybe the reason that they have a few of their latter All-Ireland medals.

"The fact that Meath in 2001 showed that these supermen did not like a bit of "physical stuff" alerted other teams to this fact, and I believe gave Armagh the extra belief that they could overcome Kerry in 2002. Tyrone ran and played them off of the park in 2003, and looked like being deserving winners in 2005 long before the final whistle.

"Maybe Jack O'Connor feels a wee bit of an underachiever when compared to his predecessors, and is trying to justify his failings, or maybe he's just trying to sell a book?"

Whatever O'Connor's reasons for feeling the way he does, it's unlikely that he feels an underachiever. In his three years in charge, Kerry won the All-Ireland title twice. That's not bad. If Mick O'Dwyer had stepped down after his first three years as Kerry manager, he would have had one.



• THAT was the view from Tyrone. Here's the Armagh perspective, from 'Damian'.

"I have to say, as an Armagh man I never thought I would sit with a smile on my face and say 'well done Tyrone.' When I looked through Jack's quotes I said to myself, God bless Tyrone, God bless the north and God bless Armagh, because when you beat those boys down there they can't take it, and they only have to play two matches to get into the quarter-finals. Well done, Ulster football."



• 'Armagh realist' emailed to say:

"Jack O'Connor's tirade against Armagh and Tyrone doesn't surprise me.

"I have, in the past, spent many a pleasant week in Kerry touring around that lovely county.

"Before Armagh's triumph in 2002 I was always met with the usual greeting from that county's GAA followers. 'Sure, we wouldn't begrudge you an All-Ireland, you have come through a lot up there and still kept the game alive.'

"Contrast that with my visit in 2003, the Armagh team were castigated as 'brutal, and typical dirty northerners'. This was the general attitude with most Kerry GAA supporters.

"I am an Armagh fan and would dearly love to see them go on and win this year's All-Ireland, but, any team from Ulster will get my support – and that includes Tyrone."



• Perhaps the most enraged comment on the matter came from 'Eugene in Cavan'.

"I have just read what can only be described as the 'biggest load of tripe ever' from Jack O'Connor's book and felt I had to respond to the 'special one' [Careful, Jose Mourinho won't like that] and his accusations about northern football.

"Firstly, the question of arrogance. This is almost laughable if it wasn't so factually flawed.

"Judging by the numbers who attend the bigger games in Croker, surely it's not the 'northern' people who are guilty of being arrogant.

"It certainly isn't Armagh or Tyrone supporters who only bother to turn up for the final, Jack

"Secondly, the myth that Kerry play the 'beautiful' game is only a myth, with evidence of this being the route one football played into big Kieran Donaghy last year.

"Jack, accept your beatings with the grace of Harte and Kernan etc, and instead of wondering what these northern teams were doing in training maybe you should have observed how these two great managers were conducting themselves on and off the pitch."



• Rather than deal specifically with Jack O'Connor's tirades, another caller decided to take a swipe at the entire county. 'CJX, Dublin' emailed: [/b]

"Everyone has to remember that Kerry has loads of sleveen tacticians who take every possible chance to influence referees, and even more so administration, in their favour.

"Having gotten away with murder for many years, they cannot take it when their God-given rights (as they see them) are disturbed.

"Tyrone showed against Donegal that if Tyrone can keep playing the game hard but fair without losing their cool they can do to Kerry what they have done before in Championship over the last four years."

Kerry didn't win 34 All-Ireland Senior Football titles because of underhand tactics.



• ANOTHER caller said: "I'm amazed at the arrogance and the condescending attitude that man has. "I'm an ex-county footballer of 60 years ago and I have always maintained that if Kerry were playing their football in Ulster or Leinster they wouldn't have a quarter of the medals that he is talking about them having today.

"Let's have an open draw and see what Kerry are really made of. Down showed them in the early 60s, Armagh showed them and Tyrone showed them. There is a hell of a lot more to come from Ulster."



• A 'Tyrone caller' thinks O'Connor is just preaching to people he hopes will buy his book.

"I think Jack is trying to sell a few copies of his book, and I'm sure it will do no harm to criticise Ulster football in Munster.

"Tyrone beat him fair and square in the All-Ireland final. "Armagh beat him fair and square in the All-Ireland finals, and there is no mention of Tyrone absolutely destroying them in the All-Ireland semi-final."

Jack O'Connor wasn't Kerry manager when they lost to Armagh in 2002 or Tyrone in 2003, but he probably still didn't like seeing it happen.



• 'Hugh from Tyrone' called to say: "I feel that he has shown his true colours and certainly has gone down in my estimation as a manager.

"I can never envisage Mick O'Dwyer resorting to such things.

"Is he not aware that, for so many years, northern football teams have looked at Kerry as being arrogant and cocky when they won their All-Irelands?

"I think he should look to the credit that should be given to northern counties, and respect what Tyrone and Armagh achieved in winning All-Ireland titles, what they have to do to get out of Ulster and to give them credit where it is due."



• A 'female caller' added:

"I think Kerry's Jack O'Connor is getting his northern counties mixed up.

"When Armagh beat Kerry in 2002 it was a game of two halves, with Armagh coming that little bit stronger in the second half and were obviously maybe a bit lucky to win that one.

"If he's talking about arrogance, I think it's Tyrone he should be speaking about. They played Kerry off the pitch in the semi-final in 2003. In the final that they beat them in they absolutely played they off the park.

"So, if Jack O'Connor means Tyrone when he says northern, why doesn't he say Tyrone?"



• 'Martin from Lurgan' picked up on another aspect of Jack O'Connor's new book-gate.

"Having just read Paddy Heaney's column 'Against the Breeze', I have to agree there is a lot of truth in it, but I have to disagree with his stated belief that we continue to be charmed by the 'cute hoorism' of Kerrymen.

"I think that does us all a disservice, most of us are reasonably mature and can identify when we are the subject of a snow job.

"I also read that Jack O'Connor's 'loss of earnings' tab was picked up when he was manager which allowed him to work virtually full-time as the Kerry manager, in breach of the GAA regulations.

"I have to ask will there be an investigation into this admission and will Jack and the Kerry board be asked to produce financial statements so the admission can be verified and the benefactor identified?

"Alas, we all know the answer to these questions! Why? Because it's Kerry. We have all become accustomed to Kerry (and similarly Dublin) existing in a parallel universe when it comes to scrutiny and officialdom.

"Had it been Joe Kernan, Mickey Harte or Brian McIver the southern press would be beside themselves.

"I applaud him for doing what he did on the field of play and having the bottle to admit the facts, now let's see if the powers that be will follow it up.

"What we should ultimately be concerned with is ensuring that Ulster football doesn't fall back to where it was 10 years ago by continuing to match and surpass the standards set by Kerry, ensuring equality of treatment on and off the field and that Ulster hurling gets the investment it needs at all levels to raise its standards."

While The Irish News understandably led with O'Connor's comments about Ulster football, there was plenty of coverage in the Dublin-based press about O'Connor's financial revelations.

In turn, O'Connor says his comments in the book were misinterpreted.

[Kerry Mike]

Jaysus I was going to open up a mobile chippie in Clones on Ulster final day but it seems most people have enough Kerry chips on their plate and shoulders already.  Salt and Vinegar anyone??

Heaney should rename his column Pissing Against the Breeze, as it will all come back on him one of these years 

[Mike Sheehy]

Jack has reminded us that we should hate Kerry, that we should despise them and resent their continued success and domination of gaelic football.

ha,ha,ha....jesus you bies are gas...what the hell do you think ye have been doing since god knows how long ?

People think this anti-Kerry bias is new...bullshit ! remember when they changed the handpass rule in the early 80's ? That was mainly in response to some heavy thumpings we handed out. In particular it was Northern Counties that did most of the griping with a particularly heavy defeat of Monaghan sticking in my memory. We had to listen to a bunch of crap about "basketball" etc etc.that make spillanes puke football comments seem mild ..and unlike Sean Walsh's call for a change in rules you bies actually DID get the rules changed. Now thats a sore loser !!

and you accuse us of cute hoorism..listen,  we never bought that guff that you lads tell us about how you admired Kerry football etc,etc...we know that you hated our guts and were only waiting for a chance to put the boot in.Remember our "famine" of '86-97...well by jaysus there were plenty of you lads dancing on our graves around that time  !! and Ulster triumphalism was rife with Down, Derry and Donegal winning AI.

No lads, the history of anti-Kerry sentiment in Ulster goes back a long way, from "robbing" accusations by Antrim and Armagh, from Joe Lennon telling us that Kerry football was finished back in the 60's, the resentment of our success in the 70's , 80's, the triumphalism in the early '90's and now the modern day version. This bias is usually accompanied by some bucko telling us how they have reinvented football such as, again, Lennon, Mickey Harte, Joe Kernan...

Ye are fooling no-one (well not us anyway). Ye have plenty of "form" in this area so, bring it on, its not like we havent seen it before.

[ONeill]

You know, I was about to write yesterday that every time Mike posts something, he digs a bigger hole. I don't think I need to say it now.

Now, tell us about that Monaghan match that sticks in your mind that led to the hand-pass ruling.