NEIL Young’s “Harvest Moon” was used as the backing music to The Sunday Game’s Armagh-Kerry recap in what was a clear nod to this year’s Glastonbury line-up.
Like the Somerset festival, this weekend saw swathes of colour and cheer in Croke Park including Orchard fans in orange contrasted with the green and gold of Kingdom supporters.
And like the 79-year-old Young, Kerry proved there’s life in the old dog yet as they upset defending the All-Ireland champions on the back of an awesome second half display.
They actually trailed by one point at half-time with that deficit extended to five by the 40 minute.
However, the 38-time kingpins kicked into overdrive between that moment and the 55th minute by scoring 14 unanswered points and virtually ending the game as a contest.
Afterwards it was clear that Jack O’Connor had used them largely being written off beforehand to fire his troops up to the nth degree.
And despite the crushing victory the 64-year-old remained fairly fired up himself in his post-match media dealings as he hit out at a few former Kerry players-turned pundits.
O’Connor 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 said: “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.”
FAN FACTOR
The Kerry cohort in the 70,530 attendance revelled in seeing their team turn a five-point deficit into a nine-point lead during a blistering 15-minute spell.
O’Connor beamed: “A big performance and a big Kerry support came up and backed the team, which is great. We love seeing that because a lot of people had us written off during the week.
“But obviously the supporters felt there was another kick in the team. They’ve seen it happen before.
“They saw it happen in 2006, they saw it happen in 2009. Kerry is a proud county and we weren’t going to fizzle out of the Championship without a hell of a fight.”
Meanwhile, Armagh boss Kieran McGeeney admitted “it’s hard to know” what the future holds after he was asked about the prospect of staying on for a 12th season.
He said: “It’s all about the players first and foremost – what they want and how much they want to push on. My appetite for football has always been the same. I love it. I enjoy it, despite the abuse.
“It’s just one of those things. I don’t know. Maybe it’s an addiction. I haven’t even thought about that.”
