KIERAN MCGEENEY AND Jack O’Connor’s careers have only intersected briefly over the years, though they’ve been totemic figures in the GAA over the past few decades.
Kerry’s defeat to Armagh in 2002 and Tyrone a year later, convinced O’Connor he needed to introduce more steel into the team after replacing Paidi Ó Sé for the 2004 season.
The Dromid Pearses man observed that in the 2002 final against McGeeney’s steely Orchard, Kerry played some of the best football they had produced over the previous 15 years, yet had no medal to show for it.
“We’re trying to strike a balance,” O’Connor said after taking charge. “We’re trying to get them to work harder as a team when we don’t have the ball. I don’t care what you call it. Call it the ‘Northern style’ if you want. It’s always been the philosophy I’ve had on football.”
McGeeney’s last game at Croke Park for Armagh arrived in 2006 against Kerry, managed by O’Connor, who prevailed in the All-Ireland quarter-final by 3-15 to 1-13.
Kerry’s hardened approach was typified by the introduction of Aidan O’Mahony, Paul Galvin and Kieran Donaghy into the starting team, who made their first championship starts under O’Connor. The Kingdom went on to lift the All-Ireland that September and O’Connor stepped down after winning his second Celtic Cross as manager.
12 months later, McGeeney retired from county football and was fast-tracked into his first management role with Kildare just days after hanging up his boots.
When McGeeney was surprisingly voted out by the Kildare clubs in 2013, O’Connor was the man widely tipped to replace him. By that stage, the Kerry man had won a third All-Ireland during his second stint in as senior boss.
O’Connor met with Kildare officials to discuss taking over from McGeeney, who missed out on being ratified for a seventh campaign by a single vote. But O’Connor ultimately decided against taking the job and was appointed as Kerry minor manager.
He has long-standing links with Kildare dating back to his college days. He studied in Maynooth College and played club football for a couple of years with Leixlip, where he lived in the late 1970s.
His sons Cian and Eanna play with Moorefield, whom Jack has been heavily involved with in recent seasons. He eventually assumed the Lilywhites job this past off-season, taking over from Cian O’Neill.
Today will be the first time O’Connor and McGeeney meet on the sideline as opposing managers.
Much of O’Connor’s squad came through McGeeney’s hands, even though it’s been seven years since his departure. During his tenure the Mullaghbawn native also took charge of the county U21s, leading them to Leinster glory in 2013.
Of the side that featured against Longford in that provincial decider, ten players are part of O’Connor’s current senior panel: Mark Donnellan, David Hyland, Paul Cribbin, Fergal Conway, Johnny Byrne, Tommy Moolick, Niall Kelly, Daniel Flynn, Paddy Brophy and Padraig Fogarty.
Another player, Kevin Feely, would have been involved had he not embarked on a career in professional soccer with Charlton Athletic. That crew form the backbone of O’Connor’s team.
The U21 grade is formative in many ways for young men and the professional environment McGeeney instilled no doubt helped them go on to establish themselves as senior inter-county footballers.
A criticism that was always levelled at McGeeney was he never delivered silverware during his tenure in Kildare. Yet the county haven’t come close to reaching the heights they enjoyed since he left.
They fell to Mick O’Dwyer’s Wicklow in his first championship game in 2008, recovering in the back door to reach the All-Ireland quarter-final. Between 2009 and 2011, Kildare peaked under McGeeney and became a formidable outfit.
They were a physically imposing and mobile team who hurt opponents with a strong running game. Granted, he had some fine players at his disposal.
At their best, they possessed marauding half-backs Eamon Callaghan, Emmet Bolton and Morgan O’Flaherty, teak-tough defenders in Andrui Mac Lochlainn, Michael Foley and Hugh McGrillen, plus Daryl Flynn at midfield.
When Dermot Earley struggled with injury during his latter years, leading score getter Johnny Doyle often picked up the mantle in the middle.
McGeeney got a tune out of a talented attack that featured Tomas O’Connor, James Kavanagh, Padraig O’Neill, Eamon O’Flaherty, Alan Smith and Ronan Sweeney.
They suffered an agonising two-point defeat to Down in the 2010 All-Ireland semi-final as Rob Kelly’s late free was tipped onto the crossbar to deny the Lilywhites a win.
If McGeeney had brought Kildare to a final that year, his stint would have been viewed through an entirely different lens. They ran the Dubs close in Leinster, losing the 2009 final by three points and the 2011 semi-final by one point.
In 2011 came another crushing blow, the All-Ireland quarter-final loss to Donegal after extra-time. Kevin Cassidy’s wonder point off his weaker foot consigned Kildare to a fourth successive defeat in the last eight.
The wheels started to come off the following year. Kildare lost by seven points to a rapidly improving Dublin in Leinster before Cork handed out a 13-point beating in the All-Ireland quarter-final.
A 16-point thumping to Jim Gavin’s Dublin and round 3 qualifier exit to Tyrone followed in 2013.
The controversy over Seanie Johnston’s transfer saga weakened McGeeney’s position, while the clubs were unhappy with a lack of access to the county players that season.
He lost his job after a vote of club delegates by 29 to 28.
The Kildare players released a statement demanding his reinstatement, while Daniel Flynn, who was called up to the senior squad by McGeeney in 2012, tweeted: “Absolutely sick! Joke that people who haven’t got a clue about what goes on behind the scenes have an input at all, let alone the final say!”
29 days later, Flynn signed a two-year deal to join AFL side Port Adelaide. He may have gone anyway, but there’s every chance McGeeney would have convinced Flynn to stay if he’d remained in charge.
“I haven’t a bad thing to say about him,” said Flynn in 2013, before adding that the former All-Ireland winning captain played a major part in his development as a player.
Flynn returned from Australia to become a key figure for Kildare in the intervening years. He was enticed back into the set-up by O’Connor in the winter after taking a year out in 2019.
The Armagh manager, who is coming up against Kildare for the third time, will undoubtedly be instructing his defence to keep a close eye on Flynn, who was an All-Star nominee in 2017.
Flynn is one of a host of former U21s who clearly benefited from operating under the driven 48-year-old, who never stopped chasing self-improvement during his playing days.
McGeeney might be in the opposite corner in the Athletic Grounds this evening but his fingerprints remain all over this Lilywhites team.
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