CAUTION WAS KEY FOR JACK
which Kerry pulled out of the fire in the last 10 minutes to win 1-17 to 1-15.
O’connor felt Kerry stood off Derry too much at half time and outlined how they made a pact at half-time to go at Mickey Harte’s sidee more aggressively.
“I definitely felt we needed to bring more energy to the game and we spoke about that at halftime,” said O’connor.
“But, if you think you can play a kind of gung-ho open football against that type of structure then that’s not living in the real world.
“The last thing you need to be doing is kicking away loose ball to a team like that who can seriously hurt you on the counter attack because of their pace.
“So you can’t blame players for being a little bit cautious. But we spoke at half-time of players being a little bit braver, being more energetic. If that’s trying to open up the game then that’s the language you need to use.” When it was pointed out to O’connor (above right) that Kerry only kicked one ball inside in the first half and that David Clifford took a huge mark to score, he said: “David Clifford caught it between two Derry men.
“It wasn’t as if it was one-on-one. So like you can kick in the odd one of those balls, 100 per cent. But like, most of the time, if there’s two v one, the two are going to come out with it.
“It’s such an energysapping game to play. Giving away the ball kills you. So I can see why players are a bit cautious.
“But I agree, we needed to bring more energy which we did in the second half.
“And we needed to be braver and commit more players ahead of the ball to allow pivots develop and runners coming off. It’s a different game.
“There wasn’t a huge amount of space to kick ball inside. That’s credit to Derry. They blocked up those channels.”