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The Journal
4 days ago
- Sport
- The Journal
How Kerry's Joe O'Connor overcame injury and played his way into Footballer of the Year contention
JACK O'CONNOR WAS in Austin Stack Park on the evening that Joe O'Connor suffered his ACL injury, a few weeks after Kerry's 2022 All-Ireland win. 'I was at the game, just right here under the stand,' recalled the manager. That was Jack speaking in early January 2024 on the same piece of Tralee pitch where Joe had crumpled and received treatment 15 months earlier in the 18th minute of a county SFC Group 3 win for Austin Stacks over town rivals Na Gaeil. The comeback had gone well, O'Connor lining out at midfield in a near 20-point rout of Tipperary in a McGrath Cup game at the start of 2024. He scored a goal late on for good measure, palming home a Gavin White pass. It was the very best he could have hoped for after two full years of injury torment. Even before the ACL setback, O'Connor had played through the 2022 Championship with an injury to the same right knee. He initially injured it in the final quarter of the Munster club final, in early 2022, hobbling off in Stacks' defeat to St Finbarr's in Thurles. As far as timing goes, it was the very worst for a player handed the county captaincy as a result of his club's championship win. O'Connor didn't make it back for a league game with Kerry in 2022 until Round 6, started just once — against Tyrone in Round 7 — and was reduced to an impact sub role in the Championship as Kerry claimed All-Ireland title number 38. Tom O'Hanlon / INPHO Tom O'Hanlon / INPHO / INPHO Only Jack knows for certain if Joe's four introductions that summer, in the 67th, 65th, 66th and 72nd minute of games, were down to necessity or the fact that he was the Kingdom captain. Even with David Moran retiring after the 2022 win, O'Connor was still behind Diarmuid O'Connor and Jack Barry – the 2023 midfield pairing – and probably Adrian Spillane in the jersey queue. That January night against Tipp, he was replaced by former AFL player Stefan Okunbor, another Tralee native with a chequered injury history desperate to kick on as an engine room regular. Okunbor had played five times in the 2023 league as well, so had his foot in the door. A little over 18 months on, O'Connor's rehabilitation is complete. Remarkably, considering how 2022 and 2023 went for him, he has started all 15 of Kerry's Championship games across 2024 and 2025, and all but two of their league games in that period. Barring a disaster in Sunday's All-Ireland final against Donegal, he looks a decent bet for an All-Star award and, with a fair wind, could even be named Footballer of the Year. Okunbor, meanwhile, hasn't played a minute of football for Kerry in 2025. Advertisement O'Connor in action during Kerry's quarter-final win over Armagh. James Lawlor / INPHO James Lawlor / INPHO / INPHO 'While the ACL is a really serious injury to pick up, I think it helped Joe O'Connor because there's so much rehab that goes into it,' said Boylesports Gaelic Games ambassador Aaron Kernan ahead of the All-Ireland SFC final. 'You build an engine that you probably don't get the time to build when you're fully fit and you're just constantly going, from county season to club season. I think that injury has actually proved to be a huge positive for him in terms of physically how he's been able to develop his engine. 'He's an absolute man-mountain when it comes to that long, contested kick. He's getting up, being really physical, breaking it. And his running power, it's immense. 'It's also been infectious, what he's doing. You see him operating at that level, the next player then follows suits and it catches on. Whatever about the scores and the rest of it, that aspect for me has been something that's really stood out. The work rate that he, and Kerry, have shown over the past two games in particular has just gone to a whole new level.' O'Connor was Man of the Match in the marathon extra-time win over Cork in Munster too, scoring 1-1, including the game-hinging goal and drawing the high challenge – after a spectacular one-handed fetch – that led to Sean Brady's red card. Kernan may be correct about O'Connor adding a couple of extra turbos to his engine during that period across 2023 but he was already blessed with rhino power and line-breaking speed. And those assets almost took him away from Gaelic football completely with O'Connor excelling as a rugby player with Tralee RFC as a teenager. He lined out for a Munster U18 clubs side in 2016 – alongside current Clare footballer Ikem Ugwueru, who was playing for Ennis RFC – when they beat Connacht to clinch the interpro title. It was Munster's first win at the grade in 13 years and O'Connor lasted the duration of a landmark win. He went on to play for Young Munster while at college in Limerick, and was involved with the Munster Academy, but the draw of club and county activity in Kerry won out. He has already captained an All-Ireland winning team, lifting the Sam Maguire Cup jointly with Sean O'Shea in 2022, but it's only now that his senior county career is really lifting off. Chances are O'Connor will finish this year's Championship having played every single minute of it, all nine of Kerry's games. 'He had some semi-final and if he performs to the same level in the final, albeit you'd probably need (David) Clifford not shooting the lights out, Joe O'Connor would definitely be a Footballer of the Year option then,' said Dublin great Diarmuid Connolly. 'But Kerry have to win this final, I'm still sweet on Donegal. I think Donegal have a better squad and a better chance to win this.' A resumption of the Joe O'Connor-Diarmuid O'Connor midfield partnership could leave the Dublin great eating his words. And Joe O'Connor celebrating a success that would mean so much more to him than when he captained Kerry to the All-Ireland three years ago. Check out the latest episode of The42′s GAA Weekly podcast here Written by Paul Keane and originally published on The 42 whose award-winning team produces original content that you won't find anywhere else: on GAA, League of Ireland, women's sport and boxing, as well as our game-changing rugby coverage, all with an Irish eye. Subscribe here .
The 42
4 days ago
- Sport
- The 42
How Joe O'Connor put injury hell behind him and played his way into Footballer of the Year contention
JACK O'CONNOR WAS in Austin Stack Park on the evening that Joe O'Connor suffered his ACL injury, a few weeks after Kerry's 2022 All-Ireland win. 'I was at the game, just right here under the stand,' recalled the manager. That was Jack speaking in early January 2024 on the same piece of Tralee pitch where Joe had crumpled and received treatment 15 months earlier in the 18th minute of a county SFC Group 3 win for Austin Stacks over town rivals Na Gaeil. The comeback had gone well, O'Connor lining out at midfield in a near 20-point rout of Tipperary in a McGrath Cup game at the start of 2024. He scored a goal late on for good measure, palming home a Gavin White pass. It was the very best he could have hoped for after two full years of injury torment. Even before the ACL setback, O'Connor had played through the 2022 Championship with an injury to the same right knee. He initially injured it in the final quarter of the Munster club final, in early 2022, hobbling off in Stacks' defeat to St Finbarr's in Thurles. As far as timing goes, it was the very worst for a player handed the county captaincy as a result of his club's championship win. O'Connor didn't make it back for a league game with Kerry in 2022 until Round 6, started just once — against Tyrone in Round 7 — and was reduced to an impact sub role in the Championship as Kerry claimed All-Ireland title number 38. Advertisement Tom O'Hanlon / INPHO Tom O'Hanlon / INPHO / INPHO Only Jack knows for certain if Joe's four introductions that summer, in the 67th, 65th, 66th and 72nd minute of games, were down to necessity or the fact that he was the Kingdom captain. Even with David Moran retiring after the 2022 win, O'Connor was still behind Diarmuid O'Connor and Jack Barry – the 2023 midfield pairing – and probably Adrian Spillane in the jersey queue. That January night against Tipp, he was replaced by former AFL player Stefan Okunbor, another Tralee native with a chequered injury history desperate to kick on as an engine room regular. Okunbor had played five times in the 2023 league as well, so had his foot in the door. A little over 18 months on, O'Connor's rehabilitation is complete. Remarkably, considering how 2022 and 2023 went for him, he has started all 15 of Kerry's Championship games across 2024 and 2025, and all but two of their league games in that period. Barring a disaster in Sunday's All-Ireland final against Donegal, he looks a decent bet for an All-Star award and, with a fair wind, could even be named Footballer of the Year. Okunbor, meanwhile, hasn't played a minute of football for Kerry in 2025. O'Connor in action during Kerry's quarter-final win over Armagh. James Lawlor / INPHO James Lawlor / INPHO / INPHO 'While the ACL is a really serious injury to pick up, I think it helped Joe O'Connor because there's so much rehab that goes into it,' said Boylesports Gaelic Games ambassador Aaron Kernan ahead of the All-Ireland SFC final. 'You build an engine that you probably don't get the time to build when you're fully fit and you're just constantly going, from county season to club season. I think that injury has actually proved to be a huge positive for him in terms of physically how he's been able to develop his engine. 'He's an absolute man-mountain when it comes to that long, contested kick. He's getting up, being really physical, breaking it. And his running power, it's immense. 'It's also been infectious, what he's doing. You see him operating at that level, the next player then follows suits and it catches on. Whatever about the scores and the rest of it, that aspect for me has been something that's really stood out. The work rate that he, and Kerry, have shown over the past two games in particular has just gone to a whole new level.' O'Connor was Man of the Match in the marathon extra-time win over Cork in Munster too, scoring 1-1, including the game-hinging goal and drawing the high challenge – after a spectacular one-handed fetch – that led to Sean Brady's red card. Kernan may be correct about O'Connor adding a couple of extra turbos to his engine during that period across 2023 but he was already blessed with rhino power and line-breaking speed. And those assets almost took him away from Gaelic football completely with O'Connor excelling as a rugby player with Tralee RFC as a teenager. He lined out for a Munster U18 clubs side in 2016 – alongside current Clare footballer Ikem Ugwueru, who was playing for Ennis RFC – when they beat Connacht to clinch the interpro title. It was Munster's first win at the grade in 13 years and O'Connor lasted the duration of a landmark win. He went on to play for Young Munster while at college in Limerick, and was involved with the Munster Academy, but the draw of club and county activity in Kerry won out. He has already captained an All-Ireland winning team, lifting the Sam Maguire Cup jointly with Sean O'Shea in 2022, but it's only now that his senior county career is really lifting off. Chances are O'Connor will finish this year's Championship having played every single minute of it, all nine of Kerry's games. Related Reads 'At 18 years of age I would have done anything for football, at 21 I wanted an excuse to stop' 'He had some semi-final and if he performs to the same level in the final, albeit you'd probably need (David) Clifford not shooting the lights out, Joe O'Connor would definitely be a Footballer of the Year option then,' said Dublin great Diarmuid Connolly. 'But Kerry have to win this final, I'm still sweet on Donegal. I think Donegal have a better squad and a better chance to win this.' A resumption of the Joe O'Connor-Diarmuid O'Connor midfield partnership could leave the Dublin great eating his words. And Joe O'Connor celebrating a success that would mean so much more to him than when he captained Kerry to the All-Ireland three years ago. Check out the latest episode of The42′s GAA Weekly podcast here
Irish Times
23-04-2025
- Sport
- Irish Times
Darragh Ó Sé: Cork should have beaten Kerry - what they do next is crucial
Arriving down to Páirc Uí Chaoimh on Saturday evening, the mood was sombre and the weather was foul. It reminded me of a McGrath Cup game in the depths of winter, when you're already thinking of getting out of there even before things get started. It didn't help that so many people had completely written off Cork . Including myself. I did question if they were hurting enough, had any of the old anger on their side when it came to playing Kerry. And despite my best efforts, I couldn't make an argument for Cork getting anywhere close. Now, the last thing I'm going to do is take any credit for Cork's performance, although a few Cork people did remind me afterwards of what I'd said. In my defence, it was very hard to see that performance coming from Cork. For a good while after the game started, and even with about 15,000 people there, the place felt dead. From a Cork point of view it was all too pedestrian. It was midway through the first half, after Kerry went up 0-7 to 0-1, when of all a sudden Cork just got stuck in. The crowd, in fairness, got behind them, the players got a lot more physical and it was cracking stuff from there. READ MORE I do think some of this questioning of Cork did get to the players. Even the fact Kerry went off on the training camp to Portugal the previous week – and there was always going to be some hangover from that – wouldn't have gone unnoticed across the border. These are the kind of things that you can tap into on the day. Especially these days, when you're putting so much time into this thing. Of course you're going to be worried what people are thinking about you, how you're perceived. You wouldn't take it personally, most of the personal criticism would go over your head. But if there is that general perception about the group, especially if they are mocking your general application, you wouldn't stand for that. It's hard to stomach. And that anger will eventually manifest itself in some way. Cork may have been spurred on by the criticism of them before the Kerry clash. Photograph: Bryan Keane/Inpho When I started out with Kerry in 1994, we were being written off on a regular basis. By our own as well. So I know that feeling. I'm not talking about pinning articles to dressingroom doors or any of that craic. But you hear things back and eventually that must create some sort of siege mentality. So it was great to see some of that old fire back in the Cork bellies. You can go on all you like about systems and set-ups and structures, but there's still no match for sheer appetite and work-rate. Once Cork started to show that, they were in twos and threes for every breaking ball and wiped Kerry out in the middle of the field. Granted, Paudie Clifford was a huge loss for Kerry, and I don't think it was a sending off. The same with Seán Brady for Cork in extra-time. In fairness it didn't take from the spectacle, and given all their misses, especially in extra-time, my sense afterwards was that Cork should have won. I also think it's a huge win-win for Jack O'Connor. The league final was a big bonus, as was winning on Saturday night without playing great. And they've still a shed load of work to catch up. Kerry will have to come out of their shell a bit more, they were a little overly defensive on Saturday and still got caught for six two-pointers. Referee Barry Tiernan gives Kerry's Paudie Clifford his marching orders against Cork. Photograph: Bryan Keane/Inpho The new rules are still evolving, we're all learning as we go. Everyone was saying the kick-out would be the big thing, but the two-pointers have really taken off. If anything, that's what all the weekend's football games will be remembered for. You must reward teams for getting away from the blanket defence. Let's work with the rules. We've been watching enough bad football for the last 10 years. Look at the results across the board last weekend, they were more like hurling scores. Before we had buzz words such as 'the press', or 'on the loop', now the buzz word is 'jeopardy'. Look how Cork wiped out Kerry's seven-point lead in two minutes just before the hour mark. That's getting into the players' mindset now. Before, if you were seven or eight points down you'd be thinking the ball is already burst. Now, eight points is only four kicks if you get into the right position. That's making for better games and for some great entertainment. So Cork did very well to do what they did. Now it's the age-old question: do they still need to see the Kerry jersey to do this on a regular basis, or are they going to regress again into some of the inconsistencies we saw during the league. Cork sure showed they can play against Kerry. But can they keep doing it against others? Photograph: Bryan Keane/Inpho They've loads of ammunition now to build on this, but what they do next is crucial. This isn't a huge shock a to anyone who's been watching Cork underage football the last few years. And they've been playing schools and college football against most of these Kerry lads all the way up. Cork know their own ability, and to be still underperforming must bug you. Kerry are exactly where they want to be, having got the kick in the backside that they deserve, and have something to build on. Joe O'Connor made a huge contribution when generally Kerry were being beaten in the middle of the field and on the breaks. David Clifford was outstanding again, especially given the attention he got from all the Cork defenders. Kerry's lack of two-pointers has been mentioned again, but I think they are the best team in the country to create goal opportunities against packed defences. Cork still have a bit of soul-searching to do. This is another real test now, their next few games. They've clearly proved they can do it, but can they do it again? Because Saturday night is all for nought if they don't kick on. And I'm still not sure they can.
