MARC Ó Sé has “set the record straight” after Joe Brolly cited a text exchange they’d had in his column prior to Kerry vs Armagh match.
Prior to the Kingdom dispatching the All-Ireland champions with stunning ease, Brolly had written a Sunday Independent piece dismissing their chances on the day.
However, it wasn’t only Brolly’s opinion permeating the whole way through the article as he referenced conversations he’d had with several Kerry greats such as Ó Sé.
The five-time All-Ireland winner has now clarified that the ex-RTE pundit had exaggerated the extent to which he had written off his county’s chances.
Writing in his own column in the Irish News, Ó Sé stated: “I want to set the record straight on a text I had sent Joe Brolly that went into his column.
“Kerry totally dominated at the weekend, particularly at midfield, and I’ll admit that I didn’t see that coming.
“I outlined to Joe that we had several key guys missing, our midfield pairing is completely different, and I gave good reason behind why I thought Kerry weren’t going to win.
“I wasn’t alone in thinking that. He just wrote that I had said ‘Not a hope’. So there’s context required with these things.
“Tomás (his brother) was more confident than me. He had said if David Clifford performs… but little did we realise what Seánie O’Shea was going to do.
“So it says a lot that Clifford could have gotten man-of-the-match just as easily. He recovered so well from a few early wides.”
After the one-sided victory Marc and Tomás’ older brother Darragh was clearly the main naysayer that Kingdom boss Jack O’Connor had in mind when he cited a few Kerry pundits who had “let themselves down” in the build-up.
The 64-year-old vented: “What’s to be gained by slating people? It’s the easiest thing in the world. I’m in the business of building people, not knocking people.
“I’d ask people who are knocking that group and knocking people involved with the group to look in the mirror and say, ‘What have you contributed?’
“It’s very easy to knock people. Go away and coach a team. Go away and coach a development squad. Go away and coach a minor team. That’s how you help Kerry football, not knocking people.”
A group-stage defeat to Meath raised major doubts over the All-Ireland aspirations of the Munster champions.
The nine-point loss caused Darragh Ó Sé to claim that “the mood isn’t great” in the county as the former Kerry midfielder tipped Armagh to bring an end to their season.
O’Connor added: “We think we have a lot of good footballers but sometimes we’re being judged on different criteria to other teams.
“For example, Dublin got beaten by Meath in the Leinster Championship and I didn’t see any ex-Dublin players coming out slating the team or slating the management like we had down south in our county.
“There’s a sense of commitment to the team and a sense of loyalty to the team. Unfortunately a few pundits down our way let themselves down in that regard.”
O’Connor admitted parallels could be drawn with the same stage of the campaign 16 years ago that concluded with him leading Kerry to an All-Ireland SFC title for the third time.
His charges will next face Tyrone in a July 12 semi-final with a throw-in time of 5pm.
