It’s all Kerry in today’s Hospital Pass, as we examine just what’s motivating Jack O’Connor’s latest crop and the tweeting habits of the unmistakable Paul Galvin.
When you’ve won about 67 All-Ireland titles like Kerry have, motivation for yet another push for the Sam Maguire must be hard to come by. To be successful on the third Sunday in September not only requires skill, determination and one of the most talented set of forwards to have ever played Gaelic football, but a hunger to want it more than any of the many pretenders to the throne that the Kingdom have seen off over the years.
As a result, every year there seems to be a different cause driving those famed ‘cute hoors’ to victory. This weekend, for example, reference was made to the fact that Jack O’Connor told a crestfallen dressing room of Mayo players in 2006 that Kerry’s hunger was far greater than Mayo’s after what had gone against Tyrone the year before.
At that stage, Mayo hadn’t won an All-Ireland title in 55 years, Kerry had claimed their 33rd after humbling the Green and Red two years previous, yet the Kingdom wanted it more. Go figure.
The 2011 Kerry team, however, are running out of ideas in their quest for fresh causes if Tomás Ó Sé is to be believed. Paying tribute to the one and only Colm Cooper after their defeat of Mayo yesterday, the soft spoken O’Sé revealed that a desire to do it for the Gooch is what’s driving them on this time around.
“Gooch is as good a player as has ever played the game,” Ó Sé said.
“His outlook on the game is that of a team player. He is always playing for the team and not for himself. If someone else is in a better spot than himself he will give them the ball. He is playing very well and we are very lucky to have him. I just hope we can do the job for him now and that he will bring Sam Maguire home to Kerry.”
Well meaning and all as Tomás’ comments are, has the Gooch not won enough already? To be fair, he’s not exactly starved of success. After all, this is a guy who has won four All-Irelands, three National League titles, six All-stars and whose pockets are so overflowing with medals that his trousers are down around his ankles.
But that’s not enough for Tomás and not enough for Kerry and they’ll be doing all within their power to ensure he follows a well trodden path up the Hogan Stand steps next month. To paraphrase a famous motivational quote, they’re going to ‘win this one for the Goocher’.
Galvin the victim of ‘Twape’
Speaking of Kerry, Paul Galvin’s Twitter feed made for some entertaining reading in the aftermath of the game yesterday evening, and indeed all weekend. On Saturday, he was ‘twaped’ (is that how you’d describe it?) by teammate Killian Young, who informed Galvin’s 6,768 followers of his bathroom habits. It didn’t seem to affect him too much, however, as the self-confessed style icon looked damn impressive during his second half cameo yesterday and was obviously in flying form afterwards.
Firstly, in conversation with Diarmuid ‘The Rock’ O’Sullivan, he paid tribute to the fight of the Mayo lads: “@dsully3 not too bad big man. Bit rusty. F**k me that was a physical Mayo. Proper game,” and a few hours later, possibly with a few beverages on board, tweeted about the craic the lads were having on the bus, complete with awful Nirvana-related pun.
“Unbelievable bants with the Kerry boys on the bus. Smells like team spirit!!!! Hon the lads!!!!!”
If himself and Gooch are in the mood they were yesterday, expect more of the same after the big one in four weeks’ time.
