MARK O’CONNOR FREELY admits his good fortune.
One of Kerry’s top young football prospects, O’Connor captains the Kingdom in tomorrow’s Electric Ireland All-Ireland minor final.
Croke Park has been a happy hunting ground for him in the last 18 months – he’s won a pair of Hogan Cup finals there with PS Chorca Dhuibhne and was also part of last year’s Kerry All-Ireland minor winning team.
The sheer quality of coaches that O’Connor has absorbed lessons from should stand him in great stead with Jack O’Connor and Declan O’Sullivan at county level and Éamonn Fitzmaurice and Tommy Griffin at schools level.
‘Ah, definitely, I’ve been blessed with all of them. Even this year in school, Ciaran Moran, he’s unreal.
“Éamonn and Tommy and Jack, they are the best around I suppose when it comes to management. They are all very intelligent fellas and you can talk to them, they’ll talk to you and they are very easy – that helps a lot as well.”
The addition of Declan O’Sullivan to the Kerry minor set up this was a welcome surprise.
“It was a surprise at first. He came in, had a few words with us. He is an unreal speaker. he’s done it all.
“To hear words from him is very inspiring. Sure, he’s a very intelligent fella anyway. If we feel any bit nervous he’s been there and can give us a bit of advice.”
O’Connor was a mainstay on the teams that Éamonn Fitzmaurice cut his coaching teeth with.
“We won kind of everything with the school with Éamonn and Sean Daly. We had a very strong team in fairness.
“You’d see him (Fitzmaurice) on TV, at the games on the sidelines – to have him on our side is something special and no doubt it helped our development definitely.
“Maybe, we drove him mad sometimes I’d say. he got through it and he knew how to handle us.
“Eamonn, he knows nearly everything about the game. His knowledge is always expanding as well.
“He doesn’t let emotions get in the way either. He is always keeping a rationale mind.
Fitzmaurice was drafted in to the Kerry senior setup by Jack O’Connor in 2009 and there are clear parallels that can be drawn between their coaching philosophies.
“When he’s watching a game as you can see, he never reacts to anything really,” says the Kerry minor captain.
“He’s always thinking, similar to Jack, he does kind of see it like a chess table I would imagine.”
“It does definitely give you the extra bit of confidence. You can go out on the pitch and just think about your own game and express yourself fully kind of.
“You know they are going to make the right move. Their records are unbelievable, so you can’t doubt him, especially at my age when I wouldn’t have seen as much.
