Though they would see defeat to Cork in the Munster final and also to Tyrone in the All-Ireland decider, complacency was not an issue in the Kerry panel early in 2008.
After becoming the first side to win consecutive titles since Cork in 1989 and 1990, Kerry manager Pat O'Shea felt there was a target on his team. There was also the glaring issue that though Kerry had won the two previous All-Ireland finals, they had defeated Cork and Mayo - not an Ulster team.
In the previous six years, whenever Kerry had not won the All-Ireland, they had been defeated by either Tyrone or Armagh. They lost to Armagh in the 2002 final, Tyrone in the 2003 semi-final, and Tyrone again in the 2005 final.
Writing in his autobiography 'Gooch', Colm Cooper says the attitude from management was that Kerry needed to be "right for war"'.
Pat O'Shea's whistle remained in his pocket during training matches. The level of physicality was increased with, perhaps, an encounter with Tyrone in mind.
The new approach led to rows breaking out during training. One such incident occurred between David Moran, then a callow member of the Kerry panel, and the veteran Darragh Ó Sé.
During a training drill "where accidental slaps in the face and bloodied noses could be fairly commonplace" Ó Sé became irritated with Moran.
Anyway, whatever way he caught Darragh, the big fella wasn’t having it. So he hit David a right clip and, I don’t know, it just seemed bang out of order. I suppose the feeling would have been ‘Fuck it Darragh, if you’re going to clip someone, don’t do it to a young fella!’
Cooper says that he always saw one of Ó Sé's great strengths as being an ability to just "brush off" incidents and forget about them as though they have never occurred. He's "sure" that Ó Sé apologised to Moran - though he doesn't appear absolutely certain.
"Now some lads might be racked with remorse in that kind of scenario, they might carry it like a cloud with them. ‘Fuck, was I well out of line there?’ Not Darragh. Not a hope. That man’s just cut from different metal. "
Cooper believes that Ó Sé taking umbrage with Moran may have been about more than just a clash in training. It may have also been about letting a young midfield rival know that he was still around.
He’d have had big time for David, but maybe this was partly his way of putting down a marker too to the new midfielder. Only one big buck in this town. I can say for certain he wouldn’t have felt any need to turn that apology into a ceremony. He’d have maybe mumbled a one-liner and kept on running.
Because Darragh didn’t toss out too many apologies.
