1963
That is the last time that a Kerry minor side successfully defended their All-Ireland minor football crown.
Hard to believe, but if Jack O’Connor’s side are to make history they will have to bridge a gap of over 50 years on September 20th in Croke Park against either Kildare or Tipperary.
The Kingdom got the better of Derry on Sunday in the Electric Ireland All-Ireland minor semi-final by 1-11 to 1-6, and we’ve taken a look at five key factors in their history-making season so far.
The Jack O’Connor effect
Mick O’Dwyer may be the man who led the Kingdom to more senior titles than anyone else, but we doubt anyone has ever reached more All-Ireland finals at various grades than his fellow South Kerry man.
From his days with Colaiste na Sceilge through to senior ranks, and now with the county minor side, the Dromid Pearses man has worked his magic at all levels.
His previous experience working with teenagers means he has the man management skills to deal with 30 different characters while his game plan is clear.
O’Connor is known as a hard taskmaster, and his personality has not always sat well with some of the older generation in Kerry, but young players respond to his ways and with Declan O’Sullivan as very visible link to the recent past there could be a future senior manager being groomed at minor level.
Learn from past mistakes
The old way to look at Kerry football was for the men from the south to play their game and ‘we won’t worry about the opposition’. Noble in some respects but astoundingly arrogant in many others.
The idea that Kerry would play their game and that would be better than any opposition worked for the best part of 100 years but in the 1990s that began to change.
Mickey Harte’s minor side got the best of a Paul Galvin and Tadhg Kennelly-led Kerry outfit in 1997, while Kerry sides failed to match Ulster teams on the biggest of occasions at both minor and senior level.
There is hardly a senior player around that has not lost to a side from Ulster in his career at some point, be it club or county.
However, last year’s All-Ireland deciders against Donegal showed a recognition that it was change or die.
Be defensive when required and then strike when the opportunity arises.
Derry tried to play defensive on Sunday but they found no way through a determined Kerry side that flooded men back when they had to.
The waited for their chances, they moved ball back and forth and waited for the right option.
At other times they were open and exposed but their opponents could not capitalise. A blanket defence no longer suffocates a Kerryman like it used to.
Experience
Trying to win back-to-back All-Irelands in any grade is very difficult, and almost impossible over the last 20 years, but to do so at minor is regarded as hardest of all.
Kerry lost half of last year’s successful minor panel but the household names of Killian Spillane and Tomas Ó Sé have been replaced by men who have won at schools and county level and hold no fear of the biggest occasion.
Derry are a fine outfit but it seemed that they were frozen by Croke Park on Sunday. Kerry’s players, either with their schools or with last year’s panel, looked more at home in the stadium and even the conditions looked to have spooked the Ulster side.
Tipperary may hold a slight advantage over Kildare in their semi-final by virtue of their extensive list of dual players, who will have tasted Croker’s electric atmosphere in August already this month.
Kerry have been there, done that and brought home the cup. That type of experience, especially for men of 17 or 18, is incomparable.
Dingle
It would have been all too easy to say that Kerry would not be in a All-Ireland final only for Conor Geaney, but even he was overshadowed by his attacking colleague Michael Foley on Sunday as the Spa man scored 1-3.
Instead, it would be much more accurate to say that Kerry would not be in a final if it was not for the seven or so young men who have already won their second All-Ireland medal in a row in 2015 with their school Pobal Scoil Chorca Dhuibhne which includes the corner forward.
And who just happen to be managed by current Kerry senior boss Eamonn Fitzmaurice.
Geaney, Mark O’Connor, Tom O’Sullivan and the others are supreme footballers and who have been coached this season already to deal with hype and with expectation, but also knowing that they are under massive pressure to try and retain their place in a starting 15.
Kerry football has traditionally been dominated by backs from north of Tralee, a sprinkling of ‘townie forwards’ from Killarney and stylists south of Killorglin.
West Kerry always produced talent but this is very much a golden period for the men from beyond Annascaul at both minor and senior.
Below the radar
It’s hard to believe now as we enter September but there was almost nothing expected of this group of Kerry players in their Munster opener against Clare back in April.
The loss of key players in every line of the field from last year’s famine-ending panel meant that a Munster final, or even a title win over an emerging Cork side was the best that was hoped.
Even then, injuries to key players such as Mark O’Connor should have derailed Kerry’s ambitions long before now.
But that is the measure of the talent in the county, as well as a style that means no one player is absolutely crucial to the team’s success which has been a welcome adjustment for the Kingdom.
Also a huge factor is how the county are responding to their minors is the lack of pressure.
1994 to 2014 was a famine for a county reared on underage success at schools and colleges level.
However, now that the albatross was lifted last year any experience compared to men who will be looking to follow O’Connor to Under-21 level next season is a bonus.
But Kerry do not operate in bonus territory. Now there is an All-Ireland to win they are looking at making history.
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