Tomas O Se .

Brilliant player, easily the best half back of the last 20 years.
Hopefully he'll keep playing for his club An Gaelteacht for the another couple of years yet so we can enjoy his football ability down here a little bit longer.

2 hour hike from a lot of Cork over to Dingle / Ventry , newapproach .  Would have suited a certain other Kerryman who loved driving ( and the mileage allowance presumably )!

My son told me last night that he had heard Tomas was an excellent golfer  , presumably fostered in his youth . Was that in Ceann Sibeal ?

I suppose being a teacher he would find it easier to get back during the summer anyway but it's definitely a long old trek.
Don't know how good a golfer he is but that would be the only course that far west so it seems logical.
Marc is the only o'Se left in the panel now but i'd say it won't be long til we see Paidi's son brought into the fold.

When Marc was emerging some locals told me he was the best footballer of the lot of them .  Having been around football a long time I always took that sort of judgement with a pinch of salt as I saw a lot of young "stars" disappear throughout the years . Not sure how I would rate  all the o'Ses if it was X-factor time judgement , suffice it to say they were all excellent footballers and brightened up many a winters ( and summers ) day !

Re the future , one Kerry village (? ) I am familair with won a county title a few years ago ( under/age stroke young players ) .  Only 3 of that 15 are now in Ireland , 12 are in Australia , Canada , USA . Fairly cuts down the supply , emigration .  And not confined to Kerry .

You'd love driving too Kelly if you were getting more than just a fuel allowance but enough to buy a brand new Porsche?.

I wouldn't want to rate them either but on football ability, he probably was the best but has had to do a job at corner or full back for Kerry the last few years. In recent years, he was playing centre forward a lot at club level which shows how versatile he is.

Emigration is definitely a huge problem, especially in rural areas. A lot of clubs in South Kerry have amalgamated in recent years due to falling number. Pat Spillane is involved in some role for the government looking into issues in rural Ireland and has highlighted how there are only 3 or 4 children in school classes in certain parts of the county which suggest that clubs are only going to find it more difficult to field teams.

I don't know if you saw this article from the great man in last friday's examiner but it is well worth a read.

Tomás Ó Sé : I went as hard as I could for as long as I could
Friday, October 04, 2013
Whatever challenge threw itself up on a football field, I always worked diligently to ensure I was ready for it.
HANDS OFF:  Kerry's Tomás Ó Sé shrugs off the challenge of Dublin's Michael Darragh Macauley and Diarmuid Connolly in last month's thrilling All-Ireland SFC semi-final at Croke Park. Picture: Inpho/Ryan ByrneHANDS OFF: Kerry's Tomás Ó Sé shrugs off the challenge of Dublin's Michael Darragh Macauley and Diarmuid Connolly in last month's thrilling All-Ireland SFC semi-final at Croke Park. Picture: Inpho/Ryan Byrne
By Tomás Ó Sé
That was ingrained in me. If you worked hard and trained hard, you were never going to be afraid of anything that was ahead of you.

So I can’t really know if I’ll regret retiring from football because there’s not much you can do to prepare for the day when you’re no longer a footballer. ‘Former’ is a word I’m going to have to get used to seeing a lot of.

Over the course of the last three or four seasons, I’ve concluded it’s really hard to be where I want to be in terms of being happy with my game and remaining in good shape. When you throw into the mix the balances and pressures of life, you reach an undeniable conclusion that it’s hard to keep them all going. I felt I was continuously chasing my tail. Never having time to do things properly.

And that’s the key word — properly. I’d never be happy unless I was trying to be the best. If I was going out onto a field, I’d always want to be the best prepared player on that field. That was right up until my last game at the start of September in Croke Park.

I grew up across the road from PO; from the moment we understood how to walk or talk, it was always Kerry football. We saw what Páidí had won, we saw legends coming through the front door like the postman. I learned more watching him and it’s all I ever wanted to do.

Everything else in my life took a back seat after that; that is just the way it is, a lot of things suffered because of it. Even the Gaeltacht club took a back seat. Everything was geared towards Kerry and winning and getting myself geared up for that. Someone asked me lately did I ever regret not fecking off to the States for a summer. I did in my backside. The best place you could be of a summer in Kerry was training inside in Fitzgerald Stadium. Lucky enough too that we were up in Dublin every August, the best feeling you could have.

Retirement torpedoes all that; the three hours travelling to and from training that invariably meant having the craic and the banter with the lads; that was half the fun. I enjoyed the training, even though when you are working, there is no talk, no craic, just driving it on, soaking it up. I enjoyed that bit of it. There will be a big chunk missing from the schedule, and I’m not sure how I am going to deal with that.

I could have had a better send off than losing a semi-final and seeing my man, Diarmuid Connolly, get man of the match, but there’s no script to these things. Kerry were on an upward curve this year, but if anything we, the players, let management down in the finish. I think Kerry would have improved again for a final. I might have too. It’s where you want to be with your form, always have the curve going upwards with the autumn.

You look at Dublin this year, a lot of their younger lads were on a downward curve as the year was progressing but their go-to men were on an upward curve; the sign of a great player is being able to peak in September. Fair play to Dublin, I’d be the first to congratulate them.

It just goes to show that the two biggest games in any inter-county player’s season — certainly one with Croke Park ambitions — are the All-Ireland semi-final and final.

Reflecting now, maybe 2009 was the last year I was totally happy with where my form was at. Like Kerry, I’ve been doing stuff in patches since, sporadically doing things well. And well in Kerry is winning All-Irelands. But 2009 was probably the best season I ever had, even though I spent half an hour of it suspended to the bench after going offside for a few hours after one match. It was also the most fulfilling, because it felt like Kerry were either at one extreme or the other. We were being booed and laughed at one minute, and spanking Dublin in Croke Park the next. Beating Cork in the final had a nice feel to it too.

Páidí enjoyed that one. As a shaper of things for me, you look back more now because he’s gone. He was the greatest Kerryman I’ve ever known. He was passionate about culture and the language, and he was brilliant with the locals back west. But ultimately it was the football. To my eyes, Kerry is defined a lot by footballers from the past, and he was top of the pile because I saw what he did, I saw what he sacrificed. I saw his work suffering, his family life suffering — and this was all for the Kerry cause. The man would wake up and not work a tap for the day because he’d be on the phone as Kerry manager from dawn till dusk, trying to make the team better. That’s why it irked us when he was treated so harshly and with such disrespect in 2003. I saw fellas from his own era, his own colleagues, laughing behind his back. That kind of stuff irked me. PO wasn’t a saint, but he was still the greatest Kerryman I saw. He continually did it on the field for Kerry, and then did it as a manager. It was probably the time for him to leave when he did go but I thought that fellas, the Tadgh a dha thaoibhs, should have treated him with more respect.

The sting didn’t last though, because Kerry was the bigger issue, and he’d have said that to us at the time. He was sour, but only because of how much he loved Kerry. But for him Kerry was the most important thing and us kicking up was not the way a Kerry footballer should behave. He was right. You take it on the chin, you walk away. He didn’t walk away quietly but he did make up with the fellas involved with his dismissal at the time. The then Kerry chairman — and possibly next GAA president — Sean Walsh is no bad man at all, and he wished him well. Seán spoke at Páidí’s graveside because the family asked him to.

Fellas also said we got off on the wrong foot with Jack O’Connor, and that is untrue because we never made an issue of it. We could have been awkward but we bought fully into Jack O’Connor from the start because it was more about Kerry than Páidí.

Down through the last 15 years, I’ve been to a lot less training sessions back in Gallarus with Gaeltacht than I should have been. But the inter-county fitness kept me relevant to them.

Without that now, it’s probably prudent to pack up the club too. And I wouldn’t have the stomach to fall in with a club in Cork at this stage, though there was a few offers over the years.

If I was to continue playing, I’d either have to train with a club in Cork, where I live, or do it on my own. Unlikely but whereas I know I won’t be reversing my decision on Kerry, maybe at some stage next season if I can help out the club in some way, I’d look at that — if I’m in the right shape.

The body creaks more now though, especially after losses. We’ve had a few sore ones and I’ve had a few cranky days but that’s all part of it. We lost some classics, but maybe they were classics because Kerry were involved, because the likes of Declan O’Sullivan and Gooch and these fellas lifted them to a higher plane.

It’s important too today to look at the county board in Kerry. Kerry players and the board work well together. There was always open lines of communication and when we asked for something that was reasonable, invariably we got it. That’s very important for harmony, and it transmitted itself onto the field.

And as John B Keane might say, it’s all about The Field. It’s where you saw the unvarnished character in a man, the truth of him. One scut on the field was Ryan McMenamin. Then I came across him on an International Rules tour and I was hoping I could hate him off the field too, but he was actually someone I got on very well with. I’ve never fallen out with any fella off the field because that’s where you leave it. Not that I’d be shy in saying if I didn’t like someone. But my experience has been, and perhaps there’s a thesis here, that players who have won All-Irelands tend to be more comfortable in their own skin. Those who have been there or thereabouts always seem to have an itch to scratch. Mine are scratched.

Mar focail scoir, I want to say how much I enjoyed every second I had playing and representing Kerry.

I love its history and traditions and am proud to say I was part of that Kerry jigsaw.

There are many people I need to thank which I will in my own time and in my own way but I want to thank the supporters of Kerry publicly for everything down the years. I was privileged to play with and alongside great, great players and made lifelong friends from it.

I went as hard as I could for as long as I could.

Not up to speed on that aspect silvergreaser . Have my suspicions reference who that might be though . But the post is  essentially about Tomas who deserves any accolades going .

a great player,one of the best that i have seen but i cant be having with this glorifying kerry football at all costs.......they and cork have a massive advantage every year over every team in the country,especially those in leinster and ulster,not doubting they have had talented players over the years but so did tyrone in the frank mc guigan era armagh in the kernan moriarty,difference being they had to play more and tougher games to progress when in truth kerry or cork more times than not had to play 3 games to get to an all ireland,this has indeed been made easier again by the back door system and now even easier again with the 2 teams being seeded in munster......so i cant have all this kerry glorification.......another interesting fact for the kerry bandwagoners is that they have failed to beat Down in a championship match.

Agree Kelly superb footballer who deserves all the accolades he's received.

Great retrieval there , newapproach  . Fits in with what I know about Kerry and that part of it  , and the attitude to football and life .

Reference the Tyrone player mentioned , fits in with local ( Fermanagh border) views I know about  , Tomas has it spot on . Aside from a few renegades , most of the gaels are dead on .  But I worry about the future supply as emigration hits rural communities harder than those living in conurbations .

Don't worry about us Kelly, we'll be grand We've won all-irelands in the 60's and 70's when emigration was a huge problem also and we'll continue to produce great players long into the future.
The economy seems to be starting to improve now and hopefully that can stop the flow of emigration.

Richters , as you know I am a Down man and rightly proud of our achievements over the years , particularly reference Kerry . In that we were a bit lucky in that we were not very good when the great Kerry team was about , otherwise the record would not have stood .  All football ( and most sport) goes in cycles , at present our ( Down ) footballers are pedestrian , and have been since 1994 when we were already on a downward spiral . On a parallell with Kerry , footballing families and dynasties are significant in most counties  , but not all sons are as good as their fathers and not all brothers are as good as a sibling star . And supply is not inexhaustible .

Kerry deserve any All-Irelands they have won , OK seeding helps the preparation and like horses each team / player has about 4 brilliant runs a year in them , rest of time its natural talent and grit which keeps the ship afloat . Trick is getting them to gell together on the day , in that Kerry have suceeded , year upon year . I dont begrudge them a thing , and have enjoyed their expertise and sporting input for manys a year now .  Still like to beat them though , but it does not diminish the sport if they win . The sport is what its all about in my book  , and record books dont lie too .

Heard decent reports about tourism from Kerry region while I was there for two weeks plus in July , newapproach .  Americans back essentially , but wondered how much of that was "gathering" .

My cousin has a property in Youghal , lets it out nowadays , but take up has been down this year as against previous couple of years .  Maybe its just Youghal , time warped in my book !

they got named team of the decade in the 2000s lads but yet failed to beat armagh and tyrone in 4 attempts and this was talked off as one of the greatest kerry teams,no doubting the great kerry teams jack o shea,john egan,mike sheehy,thomas o se,maurice fitz,seamus moynihan,gooch but when you look back at some of those all irelands they didnt half win some soft finals.....tyrone 85,mayo 97,04 and 06 and cork 07 and 09.......

Over praised a bit in last 15 years or so , richters , but partly because of the "style" content of their play as against the substance forever associated with Jacko's team / mates . Tyrone ( and more specifically Armagh ) were not always easy on the eye compared with a classical football team performance , so the public reacts accordingly . You cant get blood from a stone , Armagh and Tyrone were excellent teams , very well prepared and conditioned , and had lots of excellent players  , and effective systems . But the number of "greats " in their ranks is open to debate .

Waiting for paddletoe to surface , he will rightly have some valid positives about his Tyrone lads who kept the flag flying for us up here for a lot of recent times .

Kerry beat Armagh in 2000 and beat Tyrone in 86.    Kerry by far the best team of the 2000's.  Five All-Irelands, and finalists eight times.  Who was your choice Richters?
Nice tribute to Tomas O Shea Kelly.

a no brainer jolly...Tyrone......4 outa the 5 all irelands as i said above were soft 2 against mayo and 2 against cork,when they were asked the big questions gooch and co went missing,alrite running up cricket scores against a mentally unstable mayo and cork outfits were in truth be told the game was won before the teams even walked on to the pitch.....

Mentally unstable  over the top , richters . Mayo have lacked the cutting edge which once upon a time they had ( first good team I ever saw in Croker too many years ago to recount) . They suffered from being a bit "too nice" , which is not always a bad description , because at the end of the day its mainly about sport . Harder head this year though , couldn't fault them most of the year .

Cork do have a thing about "the jersey" , probably comes from proximity and defeats . But they have contributed hugely to football and hurling over the years , and duality does not further individual cause .

t o se is top class,what a player!he had it all,footballing ability,fearless,an inner toughness and brains.consistently did his primary job of defending and took care of his man.always kept it simple,its looks nothing but very effective.any opponent that thought ,mixing it was the best policy or even out of desperation was a big mistake and futile.and then when he attacked,it was with purpose,always knew what was on,no waste and punished the opposition.imo he is 1 of the best players of his generation not just the best wing back.

best number5 i ever seen.

Brilliant player and might be pound-for pound the best of his generation. Kerry should have beaten Armagh in 2002 an Dublin in 2011 so they should have 2 more. They will be remembered escpecially fondly for 3 reasons, they were around so long, they played with great style at times and they had 4 of the best players of all time in Gooch, O'Sullivan and the 2 older O'Se.

the two sullivans.tom and declan.they breed some stylish players in kerry.