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22nd July 2025
11:15am BST
Kerry manager Jack O’Connor has hit back at claims they are a “one-man team” ahead of the All-Ireland SFC final against Donegal.
O’Connor’s side travel to Croke Park after seeing off Tyrone 1-20 to 0-17 earlier this month, looking for a second Sam Maguire in four years.
David Clifford’s contributions to Kerry’s run - hitting 1-05 against Tyrone and 0-07 against Armagh - has prompted many to suggest they are overly reliant on the forward.
But O’Connor insists the quality of contribution is spread right across the team.
"It's always the mantra by us that we want the burden shared," he told RTE Sport.
"We've managed to do that fairly well in different games. The likes of Joe O'Connor, Seán O'Shea, and different players have stepped up on different days.
"I don't think we're a one-man team, the way some people try to portray us," O’Connor added, while smiling.
"There's a good share of experience in the room. Most of them are going into their fourth All-Ireland. A couple of them - Paul Murphy and Paul Geaney - are going into their sixth All-Ireland.
"There's a good bit of experience and that always helps."
O’Connor also admitted the 15-minute bulldozing of Armagh in the quarter-final - where Kerry scored 14 unanswered points - was ‘funny’, and not necessarily representative of what could come in the final.
"It was a funny game. For a 15-minute period we got a stranglehold on the kick out and that was the game there really. We scored 14 points in that period.
"So I thought the Tyrone game was a truer reflection because we struggled early on and then from there for most of the rest of the game we were quite steady.
"That's what we'd be looking for the next day, a good, steady, even performance."
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