Jack O Connor - Saint or Sinner

[hatchetman]

As Jack O Connor heads to inevitable beatification in the eyes of Kerry fans it seems a long way from early last summer when most of them were looking for his head on a plate.
Of course the catalyst for his change of fortunes was the positioning of Kieran Donaghy on the edge of the square against Longford and the rest as we know is history.
What I've always wondered though is why it took Jack so long to try this switch, which, with the benefit of hindsight seems so obvious.
I wonder if he had been played there in the 2005 final would we now be looking forward to a four in a row!
You would have thought having seen how we failed to break down Tyrones blanket defence in 2005 that the direct ball in to a target man (or men) would be the obvious tactic to try in the following league campaign or the early championship matches. However it was only when their backs were to the wall having twice failed to beat Cork that the management tried something different in the back-door round. We were fortuitous to draw Longford in this round as it provided an opportunity to experiment which may not have been possible against stronger opposition.
I can't believe in the regular games of backs and forwards they must have had prior to this that nobody spotted his potential especially as he had played in that position quite regularly for his club.
I'm not really having a go at Jack as I do rate him very highly, however it just goes to show that luck can have a huge impact on a Manager or teams fortunes. If we had struggled past Cork last summer we may never have tried this approach. Sometimes you learn a lot more in defeat than victory.
It also goes to show the importance of tactical nous, ie if things are going wrong the temptation for wholesale change of personnel is very tempting whereas sometimes a change of tactics can have a much greater effect.
I was also wondering what other tactical changes we could adopt this year if the direct ball to Donaghy isn't working.
What about playing both Donaghy and Quirke in a 2 man full forward line with Gooch hovering between the forty and the full forward position and Brosnan/Declan roaming or charging through to feed off the 2 big men.
I suppose what I'm hoping is that the day Donagy is off form or being held , by a decent full back like Graham Canty, then Pat O' Shea and his selectors have a well planned and practiced Plan B.

[seamus]

Great post hatchetman.
It was strange that it took Jack so long to change. There was several of us here on this forum who were screaming for Donaghy to be moved for months.

Of more importance is your post about the upcoming year. Donaghy was poor on sunday which can be explained by his slow comeback from injury. He will meet Canty in 3 weeks who will give him a game for sure. Has Pat O'Shea got a Plan B?
Of real concern to me is that Donaghy needs the diagonal, high well directed ball to thrive. At the moment we are just lamping it from the middle which makes it a backs ball.
Who delivered all the telling ball into Donaghy last year? Sean Sullivan. Where is he? On the bench? Why? To accomodate Declan on the wing who is accomodating Brosnan on the forty for his goal threat. Bit like Lampard and Gerrard really as we have 2 outstanding centre forwards but need balance on the wings.

[buck02]

The lack of any real pattern to our forward play in Munster last year meant Jack was FORCED to make the decision to put Donaghy in full forward, forced by the fact we failed to create a goal scoring chance in 4 games and also the fact that he was under severe pressure after losing to Cork.

Dont forget however that in the last 10 minutes of the Tyrone final of 05 we brought on a big target man in full forward to try get more direct ball in but it didnt work. Also Brosnan had started that game full foward with direct ball going into him in the first 15 minutes but it then stopped for some reason.

On seamus' point surely Paul Galvan and Declan can kick 50 yard diagonal balls into Donaghy if they are instructed to.

[kerrygold]

sean sullivan tends to kick in a very high ball which if not caught tends to bounch high giving forwards a second chance at gaining possession while other players play in a slightly lower balls which if not caught tends to run on towards the endline away from forwards.

the kerry team last summer has ground to a halt and seized to function in munster,tactics were all over the shop in'05 v tyrone,brosnan was superb in the first 15 minutes v tyrone in that game,the whole thing fell apart when the gooch got injuried.

[watchdehop]

Um in three seasons Jack got us to 3 AI finals
We won two in a canter
You can throw in 2 leagues and 2 munsters.

If thats a bad record i would be dying to see a good record....

[Mickmack]

Paul Galvin posts a lovely diagonal ball too.

If ye have a change take a look at the 2005 final v Tyrone. Look who is wearing the number 25 jersey as the subs come out for the second half. its Ciaran Donaghy as he walks up the steps to where the subs were sitting. If we only knew then what we know now.

My only criticism of Jack was his failure to repace John Crowley at full forward with another target man. It happened eventually with devestating results.

I think Jack is the business...........

[Piggy]

ya Crowley caused havoc against Mayo as a target man,maybe its just something that suits us in Kerry.cant think of many target men down thriugh the years from other counties who have been sucessful!your man Cussen could prove me wrong on the first of July tough

[Mickmack]

Heres a few...


Eoin Liston
Ronan Clarke
Eoin Mulligan

[MrT]

I wonder did jack decide himself to play Star inside or was there external influences
Also from listening to a couple of seminars he has given, there seemed to be a bit of tension between himself and a few players. But a the man says a bit of ill will is not necessarily a bad thing

[kerryman]

Saint. His track record is the best in the modern era for any manager.

as for Donaghy, it turned out to be a master stroke, but earlier on last year I didn't think he was even close to worth his place on the team, especially as a forward.
He always seemed like a headless chicken once in posession.
I've no idea how he did it (crash course in football?) but he transformed almost over night into a great asset to the team.

[buck02]

Aidan Mahony, Paul Galvan & Kieran Donaghy.
Jack transformed them from panel members to all stars.
That will be a big part of his legacy.

[Mickmack]

look at the 2004 league final v Galway....... O Mahony and Galvin were bit players .......... now look at them.

[Attacking Wing Back]

In fairness i think jack was reading this forum and saw my continued calls for donaghy to be given a shot at full forward and thats what swayed him Seriously though Kieran has played well for stacks there so it wasnt a big leap of faith or tactcal genius from jack. I think the best thing jack o connor did for kerry football was to make the hard worker like paul galvin fashionable in the home of beatiful football. He also put emphasis on defence and defensive systems that were badly lacking in the previous era when every game was a shootout in scoring stakes, This is why kerry crumbeled in 2003, they couldnt outscore the opponents and didnt have a defensive system in place to counter act this. Thirdly he introduced pat flannagan to the footballers and look how phsically strong they have become. Kerry are right up there with the Armaghs in terms of physical presence now.

Jacks legacy ;
1 Introduced a Sound defensive system
2 Reintroudeced the catch and kick game
3 made us more physically imposing.

In essence Jack has restored a direct link with the football played by the team in the golden years and before that. Physical & Skill full players, playing a long ball game all based on the foundation laid by intellignet and skillfull defenders each of which can adapt to any position a la Paidi O Se from wing to corner, tom spillane, ger power, sean walsh

Definitely Saint

[Piggy]

any man who brings Sam back to Kerry twice is a saint

[kerry07]

Saint
1 Improved P Galvin creating one serious footballer
2 Ditto A Mahony
3 Brought tactical awareness to a new level defensively
4 Brought P Flannigan and Sport Science to the equation with devestating effect
5 Dunno if the Donaghy move was that out of the blue to be honest. Had been worked on in training occasionally before that despite what Jack says publicly
Jack is definately a Saint and has a large contribution to make yet. (Underage developement supremo)
Finally
6 Put some manners on a certain corner back (I said some) and badly wanting too!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[austinstacksabu]

Jack was a fantastic manager for the main part, but he had his flaws, as each Kerry manager has had.

1) He played Declan for too long after it was patently obvious he was off the boil.
2) he changed winning tactics for the Tyrone All Ireland final.

But he brought Kerry on leaps and bounds by having the courage to let Pat Flanagan have free reign when it came to physical preparation and letting Pat be the conduit between a number of the players and Jack. He finally gave Star his change. He led Kerry to beating Armagh again. And he continued to strenghten the squad.

[Mickmack]

A fault can be found with every manager............... Micko Dwyer had his favourites

In 1982 Micko introduced Pat spillane for Ogie at half time. Spillane was hobbling. His cruciate wasnt fully mended. Spillane contributed little. Ogie was sadly missed.

Offaly won.

There was no forum back then........... just as well for Micko

[JOAN]

as with all humans he is a bit of both and its not a bad thing........

[MrRasherstoyou]

Saint - it's as obvious as the crozier in front of your face - the one on the emblem/coat of arms

[ruralgaa]

Saint, full stop.

[Mickmack]

Joe Kernan won one as a manager and he is a legend as in Mickey Harte with two.

Same with John o Mahoney.

We are a gas crowd altogether............ only in kerry would you get a thread like this in Jacks circumstances.