GLENBEIGH-GLENCAR BOSS Aidan O’Shea was full of praise for man of the match Darran O’Sullivan, who scored 1-3 to lead the Kerry club to All-Ireland success yesterday.
O’Sullivan hit 1-1 in the first-half against Tyrone’s Rock St Patrick’s before suffering a blow to his quad muscle, leaving his participation for the second period in doubt.
“Look you could see that Darran wasn’t 100 percent,” said O’Shea.
“He got a dead leg and it was kind of a muscle injury as well. At half-time, he said he was going to come out and play again. We were toying with the idea of bringing him off and maybe bringing him back on again.”
The former All-Ireland winning Kerry captain was moved into the full-forward line and had a decisive impact, kicking two key scores in the final 10 minutes with the game hanging in the balance.
“We kind of said we’d leave him there, he was going to keep someone busy anyway.
“If Darran was sitting on the ground in the corner, there going to have to put someone over to watch him, aren’t they? So in fairness to him he couldn’t do a whole pile for a few minutes of the second-half but he came up with some big plays.”
O’Sullivan has struggled with injuries in the past but Eamonn Fitzmaurice will be relieved to hear it’s not something that should keep him sidelined for too long.
“I don’t think he did massive damage, I don’t think there was any crazy damage. He obviously won’t be fit to play in the next week or two but I couldn’t see it being more than two or three week thing.”
It was a physical contest with plenty of off-the-ball skirmishes. O’Sullivan was involved in an altercation with a member of Rock’s backroom team during the third quarter, when they traded shoves and the mentor was sent to the stands by referee Jerome Henry.
“It was bizarre,” continued O’Shea, who is the 31-year-old son of seven-time All-Ireland winner Jack O’Shea.
“I didn’t see it but when I turned around I knew what happened straight away. Obviously there was a bit of an altercation.
“Look, I’d say the same man probably wouldn’t have entered the field if he had his time over again. I don’t think there was a whole pile in it. He was (sent) into the stands afterwards. It wasn’t a major thing.
“It was a very tough game, it wasn’t unbelievably dirty but there were four sendings off which is an awful lot for a game. It was probably the hardest game we’ve had physically. They’re a really hard team and they were a mentally tough team as well.”
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