1. Fifth All-Ireland medal brings him level with Tomás…
“Do you know what, no harm for that fella! He was the type of fella now, he’d only have it over you and he’d be pulling the piss out of you. I’m delighted I caught up with him anyway. Darragh is the type of fella he wouldn’t say anything to you – he’d be happy out.
“The boys were over in New York during the year and they were on a fundraising trip. The Bomber was with Darragh, Mikey Sheehy and Ogie Moran. Of course the boys with eight all-Ireland medals and Bomber grabbed a hold of Darragh at the breakfast one morning and said “minus 2, minus 2, come over here.
“Darragh didn’t know what was going on. Bomber was saying “you are minus 2 you only have six medals, but don’t worry they are calling me minus 1 it’s okay!’ That’s the Bomber for you.
“This one I think was the most special of them all. All of you gave us no chance genuinely but you see behind closed doors, no one realised how well we were going.”
2. The role of Éamonn Fitzmaurice…
“He certainly got inside my head anyway there is no doubt about that. I was very disappointed I felt he was wrong and I said it to him and he reasoned with me. We had a chat and after the game we looked at each other, we had a big smile for each other.
“He said this is the way I want it to go and I had no problem with that. I have the utmost respect for him and I think all the boys do because his attention to detail is just incredible.
“Every minute little thing, my God lads you wouldn’t believe it. Éamonn had this master plan and we were all so confident with Éamonn.”
3. Kerry not getting the credit they deserve…
“I couldn’t give a toss. Listen in 2000 we didn’t win the all-Ireland properly supposedly because Maurice Fitzgerald wasn’t brought on at the proper time or he didn’t start it.
“You win the All-Ireland and you go about your business and do your best. We’ve done our job we are delighted and we don’t care.”
4. First All-Ireland win without Páidí alive…
“You’d be thinking about him the whole time. He’d be the first man ringing you after the game guaranteed the first man on the phone and delighted for you. I could envision it after the game that he’d be ringing you and he’d be so happy and wanting to meet for a pint. I thought about him a lot on Sunday.”
5. Kerry’s younger players…
“I think this is a great team. Obviously you hear analysts saying this is a very limited team. I don’t agree with that. Look at the way Paul Geaney put away his goal, the assassin like way he got the ball into his hands and just cleverly put it onto his right foot.
“I think there is talent all around this team and we are in a very good position. The Dublin team are going to be back next year, they are going to be looking at this and thinking that should have been us. We will meet that challenge with the help of God.”
6. Satisfying to beat an Ulster team in an All-Ireland final…
“Absolutely. Look the thing about it is I beat Mayo in ‘04, beat Mayo in ‘06, beat Cork in ‘07 and beat Cork in ‘09. They were great but it was you’d love to broaden your horizons a small bit and that was part of it .
“It was great to beat Donegal not just because they are a northern team but because they are another team. It is sweet.”
