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The fear of going for glory can be a killer - Pat Spillane
KILKENNY may be doing everything they can to distance themselves from the All-Ireland five in-a-row talk and the hype surrounding the bid, but the drive for history could still be a huge factor in Sunday's eagerly awaited showdown with fierce rivals Tipperary.
The only other team that got a shot at the 'famous five' was the great Kerry football side of the 1978 to 1982 era. Jack (O'Shea), Keneally (Tim), Deenihan (Jimmy), Sheehy (Mikey), Eoin 'Bomber' Liston, Pat Spillane and company had a go but they saw their big chance to rewrite the GAA record books go up in flame.
"It was within sight of the winning line that it got to us," recalled flying wing-forward, Pat Spillane when he looked back on the bid for 'five' in the 1982 final.
A late Seamus Darby goal destroyed the Kerry bid and gave Offaly the Sam Maguire Cup on a 1-15 to 0-17 scoreline. No other team before or since went as close as Kerry to putting five wins together in the finals, hurling or football.
Now the Kilkenny hurlers find themselves in the position Kerry found themselves in all those years ago with the chance to create history beckoning.
Kerry's big mistake that day? They took their foot off the accelerator when in front when they should have driven on strongly to victory.
Went negative
"We froze," admitted Spillane when asked to put some sort of perspective on the challenges, mental and physical, facing Kilkenny. "We went negative when in front. We retreated into our shell. We went defensive.
"Even Mikey Sheehy, who never passed the half-way line in his life, was back in the defence. Jack O'Shea spent most of the second half in front of the goal. Consciously we weren't trying to do the five in-a-row, but sub-consciously it was there." Kilkenny, he warned, would have to be careful of that aspect of Sunday's final. Lurking deep in the mind could be thoughts of what might be, and they could surface.
Spillane, an eight times All-Ireland medal winner, warned Kilkenny that if they did manage to get into a position like Kerry during the final they should be ruthless.
"Being ahead is worse," continued the RTE big match analyst. "If you are behind you are totally focussed on trying to catch up. When you are ahead you begin to focus on holding on, not driving on. Sub-consciously there is a fear thing. A sort of what we have we will hold thing soaks in.
"That is something you cannot do in Gaelic. Attack is still the best form of defence."
Spillane, a sub that day because he was labouring under a cruciate knee ligament injury, said he remembered the occasion vividly. At the time the defeat was a huge disappointment.
"We always felt that the five in-a-row was a media thing rather than something like a dream to be achieved," he continued. "I mean two in-a-row, three in-a-row, four in-a-row to the players didn't mean an awful lot. Winning All-Ireland medals was the thing.
"It didn't matter whether you accumulated them over 20 years or in the space of five or six years. Winning an All-Ireland was it," he insisted.
Similarities
The eight times All-Star winner said he could see a lot of similarities between that Kerry team and Kilkenny now. This year's hurling final was a repeat of the 2009 decider. The football final of 1982 was the same, Kerry having beaten the Leinster champions by 1-12 to 0-8 in 1981.
Kerry had difficulties with injuries - Spillane with the cruciate ligament and corner-back Jimmy Deenihan was out - like Kilkenny have now.
"The injuries was the big thing with us," Spillane insisted. "If Jimmy Deenihan had been at corner-back Offaly wouldn't have scored the winning goal. If Kilkenny are without Henry Shefflin and if anything happened Tommy Walsh or anyone else it could hurt them.
"There are other things too. You need luck. You need the key decisions from the referee to go your way, or that he will at least give you a break. Kilkenny got the rub of the green last year. That might not happen again. A similar decision like the late penalty last year could cost Kilkenny this time.
"When you are beaten you are beaten, but I will argue to the day I die that the referee in the second half of our final gave the performance of a weak referee. Weak referees give handy frees to the team being beaten. That happened several times in the second half, and then there was the infamous push in the back that led to the winning goal. We had a chance after that to equalise, but it wasn't to be."
Another Kilkenny/Kerry similarity would be the vast experience of both teams at the time of the five in-a-row bid.
"Like Kilkenny, we were an experienced team," Spillane reminded. "We were cool and calm. We had played in seven All-Ireland finals before the five in-a-row chance came up. The Kilkenny boys are pretty similar. We wouldn't have been taken in by the hype."
Problems
There were a couple of problems, he felt. The players could try and block out the possibilities that lie ahead, and manager Brian Cody, just like Mick O'Dwyer with Kerry, could issue every warning possible. But the minute the players left the training ground, went about their daily lives and met the fans the talk about the game would be there.
Kerry, he said, never brought into the hype. They were calm. But with 20 or 25 minutes to go and they were winning by a few points thoughts of the five in-a-row suddenly flowed into the minds. Everything changed.
Spillane was easy about the big miss now. These days when the players of that era get together they never refer to what might have been. They moved on. There were more All-Irelands to be won. Kerry got back to winning ways in 1984, 1985 and 1986.
"If we had won five in-a-row that would have been it," he said almost casually. "Bang, bang we would have rode off into the sunset and we would all have had six or so All-Ireland medals. Because we lost the five in-a-row we reorganised.
"If I had won the five in-a-row I wouldn't have had the operation on my knee to come back to play football again. Three months after the defeat by Offaly I went to England and had a cruciate ligament replacement operation.
Finish on a high
"We won three more All-Irelands. We lost the five in-a-row, which was one medal, but we gained three more. There was life beyond the five in-a-row or whatever it was. It never meant an awful lot to me."
The thing was, he insisted, sports people want to finish on a high.
"Great teams are motivated by failure," Pat said. "That drives them on. If Kilkenny fail to do the five in-a-row they could come back and win another four in-a-row or a three in-a-row."
The fact that Kerry didn't win the All-Ireland five in-a-row didn't take from the fact that they are still regarded as the best football team of all time, Pat Spillane said.
"That is something," he said with satisfaction. "Kilkenny are there already. But whatever happens on Sunday, next year will be a new chapter in the book."
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Wednesday 23 May 2012
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