Tony Hanahoe explains how Kerry won

The Dublin manager/captain reflects on the All-Ireland final defeat and on the rise of the Super-Dubs.

HOW did the reputedly unbeatable Super-Dubs suffer such an abject defeat by Kerry?

There were a number of contributory factors. You must remember that things were going well for us for the first 2S minutes of the first half when we asserted the dominance over Kerry that characterrised our performances in last year's semiifinal and the 1976 final. However two swift fundamental and lethal mistakes were made which greatly unsettled the Dublin team. The first was the John Egan goal which was caused by our backs being caught badly out of position. It was a quickly taken free kick up into their forward line that started the move. One of Dublin's full backs was at that time up on the Kerry 40 yard line leaving the defence exposed. The Kerry forwards interpassed quickly, they had an over-lap and there was little Paddy Cullen could do to stop the goal.

The other serious error which had devastating consequences for us was the second Kerry goal from the Mike Sheehy free kick. Paddy Cullen was out of his goalmouth arguing with the referee. While he has been widely blamed for this goal it should be remembered that there are other defenders on the field who might have covered for his distraction. One of the ironies of that goal was that it was a Dublin back who handed Sheehy the ball, thereby enabling him to take the kick unexpecteddly. I should also mention the prevailing amazement that the free kick was given at all. The referee seemed to have been influuenced by the crowd's booing of Paddy Cullen, which suggested to him that Cullen had been guilty of misdeamenor some minutes previously. The free seemed to have been a delayed action response to something he suspected had happened earlier.

The combination of these two blows had a devastating effect on the Dublin morale. We lost concentration, but more importantly Kerry were handed the initiative, having been deprived of it up tc the point at which they scored the first goal.

It doesn't say much for Dublin's supposed professionalism either that they made the two bad mistakes or that they alloued these to disrupt their game so completely.

Professionalism is a tag I have come to resent. It has usually been used in a derogatory sense, to imply that our achievements have been easily bought rather than being the product of honest endeavour, skill and a little know-how.

However, even in the most competitive circumstances players make mistakes from time to time and we made them against

Kerry, it's as simple as that. I don't accept they were or are the better team, if I did I could take the defeat and the comprehennsiveness of it with more equanimity. Nor do I accept that they are or were a fitter team, or that we underestimated them. The explanation for the defeat is that we made a few fundamental errors, which undermined our morale and we never recovered.

It mightn't be just as simple as that. For instance for the first time since their 1975 final victory Kerry seemed to have come to grips, if not solved, their midfield problems.

They certainly did better at midfield than they had done in previous matches against us but this was due almost entirely to Brian Mullins being injured early in the game. The injury restricted his jumping and thus Kerry were able to gain an advanntage here we have usually been able to deny them. Before Mullins was injured however, Kerry were in some desperation here. They had to bring Owen Liston out from full forward to help out and Paudie Lynch was also coming into midfield to give a hand.

As for Kerry solving their midfield problems, well you tend to solve a lot ol problems if you are four goals up.

Even the fact that Kerry used Liston and Lynch at centerfield at an early stage showed that they had prepared thoroughly for the game. Was Dublin as well prepared?

We were as well prepared for this game as we have ever been but of course the fact that we have been at the top for five years and the pressures associated with that have been persistent for so long inevitably has its effects. Players get tired and listless.

Motivation sags. Perhaps this too is an explanation for our performance in the final, but on a conscious level we were as well prepared as we have ever been.

As for Kerry being so well organised, the only stragegy I could see them operatting was to play the ball into Owen Liston in the square. It worked well for them on the day and Sean Doherty had one of his rare off days.

The entire full back line seemed a disaster area for Dublin. . .

Our full back line has been one of the most consistent elements of the team in the last five years. Of course they had an off day against Kerry-one can hardly deny that since Kerry got five goals-but then once the game begins to get out of control everything tends to go wrong. There were also a number of bizarre refereeing decisions which unsettled the side and this factor has been much discounted in the evaluations of the game.

The half back line was none to impressive either.

I don't agree with this. We have three superb players in the half forward line and I don't think they have been matched since they came together onto the Dublin team in 1976. Tommy Drumm and Pat 0 Neill have been outstanding throughout the season and of course Kevin Moran is exxceptional. While I contend theY played quite well, they, like the rest of us, suffered from the effect of the rout-it is diffficult to make a greateffort when you are four goals in arrears, although Kevin Moran tried right up until the end.

While you yourself appeared to be having your best season possibly ever, David Hickey and Anton O'Toole appeared not to have hit their form of the last two seasons.

Naturally I am the least well placed to evaluate my own contribution and indeed one of the chief worries I have had since becoming manager is. that I might reach the stage where I was not contributing to the team effort, yet remaining on the field.

As for the other two half forwards. I don't agree that David Hickey has not been playing well, indeed I think he was in , the game right up to the end against II Kerry. Anton O'Toole was outstanding for ius last year and especially in the 1976 final against Kerry and it would be unreasonnable to expect him to attain those specctacular standards consistently. Every player has periods of fatigue during as long a spell as five years and then Anton has suffered this season from injury.

That leaves the full forward line. How do you think they fared?

For the entire team the score speaks for itself. We let in five goals and didn't score any and as it is the job of defenders to defend and the job of forwards to attack they were both at fault. Jimmy Keaveney however was in the game throughout and I don't agree that john O'Keefe got the better of him.

We haven't mentioned Brendan Brogan.

HOW do you think he played?

The injury to Brian Mullins placed a very heavy burden on him but overall I think he is a much underrated playerrindeed I would rate him as the finest athlete I have every known.

How is it that he too was outplayed against Kerry then?

As I mentioned, Brian Mullins was injured early on in the match and that left a gap in midfield, putting an enormous strain on Brogan. With Liston and Lynch coming into that area it was just impossible to expect even him to Fope with the resulting problems.

Why didn't yqu make changes to deal with these problems 'and incidentally whose authority was # to "lake changes on the team during the course of the game?

Before each match, the two other selectors, Lorcan Redmond and Brian Colfer, and I discuss possible changes durring the course of the game. They take the on-the-spot decision to make the changes if and when the contingencies we have jointly anticipated arise.

We did make a positiional switch against Kerry by bringing Anton O'Toole to middfield for a period during the second half and of course we were about to make a change when Kevin Moran looked as though he would have to go off. But changes are very seldom the answer to parrticular problems and I don't think the result would have been any different against Kerry had we made switches.

Deficiencies in the team were apparent against Offaly during the Leinster Championnship. Did y014 think you resolved these at the time or maybe it was that the All-Ireland exposed those deficiencies more glaringly?

The main problem against Offaly was that Brian Mullins was injured. This wasn't generally known at the time and thus it was believed that other, more serious defects were in the team. Then of course we tried to experiment without Kevin Moran. That didn't succeed and were happy to have him back in the team for all of the remaining matches.

There has been a lot of criticism of the referee Sean Aldrich, in this game ... What were your views of his performance?

I personally objected to the referee before the game, and I had objected to him before the Offaly game.

Why? .

On the grounds of prejudice. It now must be apparent to most people that there was one common factor in the AlllIreland fmal which we lost, the game against Offaly at Portlaoise which we nearly lost, the game in New York against Kerry which we lost, and the bizarre game against Wexford in the first round of the championship last year. That Me common factor was the referee.

What decisions in particular did you object to in the final against Kerry?

I objected throughout to his interpretattion of the rules of the game. I am referring not just to the incident which led to the second Kerry goal but to his handling of the entire match.

This is beginning to sound a bit like sour grapes.

I am aware of that and having connsidered it I reiterate my comments on the referee. However, these criticisms should not be taken to detract in any way from the merit of the Kerry perrformance on the day. They took their opportunities well and they deserve credit for doing so.

Are you going to retire as a player and/or as a manager now? .

If those who have the authority to decide these matters wish me to continue in either or both capacities then I am availlable. My personal inclination, now that we have been pushed off the pinnacle is to come back and prove ourselves. As I said at the outset of this interview I don't believe we were beaten by the better team - we made bad mistakes and my dissposition is to have these corrected rather than succumb to them.

There is a general assumption that just because I am aged 33 and others are of a similar age on the team that we should retire. As far as I am concerned, I thought I was getting over the top at the age of 26 nowadays such thoughts don't enter my mind.

Are there indication of any other retirements from the game among the Dublin players?

As far as I know there are none, that is, voluntary retirements. Actually, there is far too much condescending talk about the end of a five year era and all that. The defict was not the end of the world. It was a bizarre game in many respects and I certainly will be surprised if the team doesn't again prove itself.

HOW did you start in foottball? Which really brings us on to your family background.

I was born on April 29, 1945. I was brought up in Clontarf and went first to Schol Mhuire, Marino and then to St. Joseph's Fairview, where I learnt football, hurling, some acadamic knowledge as well as how to be a schemer. I began my apprenticeship as a solicitor-my father was and is a solicitor-after leaving school and took lectures in Trinity, for whom I played football.

I had joined St. Vincent's at the age of 12 and have been associated with that club since then. I was chosen for the Dublin team in 1964. My first match was a friendly one against Kerry and I honestly can't remember who won the game. Dublin football was chaotic at the time, although there were some outstanding players around, including the Foley brothers, Mick Whelan, Mick Kissane,

Simon Behan, and Paddy Holden. Jimmy Keaveney was also on the team at the time. There was very low morale, an almost complete lack of organisation, and very poor administration. Dublin should always be a formidable force in football simply because it can draw players from a populaation of one million people. Therefore, if we are not doing well it must be because of bad organisation and so it was in the midd'sixties.

I retired, or perhaps more accurately, was retired, from the team two years later and didn't come back onto the team until 1971 when Kevin Heffernan invited me to join the panel in an attempt to rebuild the team.

Kevin Heffernan revolutionised football not just in Dublin but generally. What do you think were his unique contributions to the game?

Kevin Heffernan's contribution to the game hasn't yet been realised. It is true to observe that he revolutionised football. He did so by the amount of thought he brought to the game, the variation of tactics and the new level of fitness he brought to Gaelic teams. It is not yet properly appreciated what he did for Gaelic football but his contribution was jrnlTlC'D8e.

Tactically he concentrated on the creation of space in attack and I think it fair to say that the Dublin teams which he managed did this more methodically and creatively than had previously been done by any team.

The team really came together in 1974 and from the outset of that season I felt we would not be beaten in the championship that year. Eventually we won the fmal, having played seven championship matches. There was marvellous morale in the side then, in contrast to the situation of the mid-sixties.

We were expected to do well in 1975 and we did. We lost just two games that year and unfortunately these were the AlllIreland fmal and the League final-ito Kerry and Meath respectively. I became captain in 1976 and manager in 19777we won the All-Ireland both years. I had no ambition to manage the side but it was impressed on me that I had an obligation to help ensure that the high standards set by Kevin Heffernan were maintained. That I have tried to do, although obviously I have had to deal with different circumstances and with a team that is a little older and maybe a little more complacent. From that perspective perhaps we required a defeat of such magnitude to galvanise us again. It would seem we have little option but to get back there on top-you don't retire in defeat.

Who do you think were the best footballers you have come across in your career?

I couldn't honestly say. Actually I have only two heroes in sport: Muhammed Ali and Lester Pigott.

THERE was a lot of talk prior to the general election last year that you might stand as a candidate for either Fianna Failor Fine Gael, what actually happened?

Obviously, I cannot talk frankly about confidential conversation I had with a number of political leaders at that time but

I can confirm that I was approached by senior members of both parties and invited to run. I declined to do so because of presssure of commitments both as manager of the Dublin team and as a practicing solicitor.

Which party would you have opted for or were inclined towards?

Fianna Fail.

Is there a tradition of family allegiance to Fianna Fail?

Not that I'm aware of. Although my father is from that highly politicised county of Donegal I just don't know what his political preference is, nor indeed would I enquire.

Are you interested in standing for the party sometime in the future?

The situation might never arise again.

In the first place Fianna Fail's need for candidates such as myself is considerably less now than it seemed before the election and secondly I might not be as attractive a political commodity. Also, of course, I would have to consider my commitments in other areas but the cut and thrust of politics does have an appeal.

What changes would you like to see in the GAA?

There is far too much spurious democracy within the organisation at the expense of getting things done. The struccture which is all to unwieldly needs to be entirely overhauled and in particular the county board structure needs to be reexamined. Facilities at most grounds throughout the country and even in Croke Park itself vary from the non-existent to the primitive at least as far as the players are concerned, and, frankly, I just don't believe the GAA is doing anything enough for the game in the urban centres where most of the country's young people now reside. We have obligations not just to the traditions of the GAA but to the young people of the country to provide them with sports facilities where possible. And one of the areas of greatest need at present is in city centre areas.

Wauld you like, to see any changes in the competition structure?

Yes. The first thing I would like to see here is an intemationalising of Gaelic foottball. We should be coming to some accomodation with Australian Rule Foottball in order to start an international competition and maybe the GAA in America could organise an all-American team there, and then there could be triangular competitions. The international dimension would be a great boost to the sport and competition for places on the international team would be .very healthy. Apart from that I would like the league

competition to become the major competiition in the game, which of course would mean running it during the summer. We should rename it and call it the championnpresent arrangement and to the proposed open draw. The championship on a proovincial and all-Ireland basis could be run during the autumn and winter months. ship. This in my view would be preferable to the present arrangement and to the proposed open draw. The championship as now known on a provincial and alllIreland basis could be run during the autumn and winter months.

How about changes in the rules of the game?

I think the principle that anything which increases the mobility of the game is beneficial should inform any proposed changes to the rules. This means that the hand pass should be retained and the rules governing posession and disposession should be changed and simplified.

I also feel that the standard of refereeing must be drastically improved. We will have to give some consideration to renumerating referees, provided the} undergo basic courses in refereeing and also refresher courses. The principle of consultation with linesmen should be encouraged.