The truth hurts, and this Kerryman is in agony.
Tomás Ó Sé’s final game as a Kerry footballer came in the 2013 All-Ireland semi-final.
His last ever time in Croke Park, and his last act was to be on the end of a devastating loss to Dublin in a pulsating last four clash.
Two years before that, Ó Sé also lost to the Dubs, in an All-Ireland decider that climaxed with Stephen Cluxton’s free sailing between the posts into the Hill.
However, it seems that those losses were not nearly as painful as seeing his former colleagues lose by 11 points to Jim Gavin’s side in the Allianz National Football League final on Sunday.
The Kingdom collapsed in the last ten minutes after playing the final quarter of the game with 14 men thanks to Aidan O’Mahony’s red card.
Writing in his column in today’s Irish Independent, the Nemo Rangers man has not spared many of the players he soldiered with over the years, and feels Jim Gavin’s side can now easily be described as the best Dublin team of all time.
He admonishes Aidan O’Mahony for his red card for a tackle on Jonny Copper, describing it as “foolish on Aidan’s part, but he’s been sailing close to the wind too often in my view. I know he’s a bit of a marked man, but what he did was ridiculous, basically ending the game.”
The five-time All-Ireland winner also describes Kerry goalkeeper Brendan Kealy as “having a howler on his kick-outs” and was not surprised he put the ball on a plate for Paul Flynn to score the decisive second goal as the kick-out strategy employed by Kerry was simply not working.
Ó Sé also takes his own brother to task, describing Marc Ó Sé and Fionn Fitzgerald as “not at the races” on a day when Kerry suffered their heaviest loss in Croke Park since the Meath blitzkrieg of 2001.
O Se feels that for Kerry to once again fail to beat Dublin, and suffer a fifth straight Croke Park loss to the dubs, was simply not acceptable.
“Making hard judgements on old team-mates isn’t something that comes easy to me but, for Kerry to not perform again against this team just struck me as inexcusable.”
The former wing-back simply believes the Kingdom are not well enough equipped to deal with an awesome Dublin team, and the Kerry legend feels that manager Eamonn Fitzmaurice faces a massive task to get them right for the championship, as Dublin are so superior.
“I felt disgusted going home because we just didn’t answer any of the important questions… but we simply cannot handle Dublin one-on-one.
“It was never a close match in my view. Dublin’s pace seemed to have us in trouble all over the field. I wouldn’t say the race for Sam Maguire is over, it’s just Dublin have every card marked.”
