Seán O'Shea late winning free stuns Kerry manager Jack O'Connor: 'I didn't think it was kickable'

Eleven years after Stephen Cluxton's late free won the All-Ireland final for Dublin against Kerry, Seán O'Shea returned the favour at the penultimate stage in 2022.

In the 76th minute of the All-Ireland semi-final, the Kenmare man stood up to a late free from 50 metres into a stiff breeze. Having missed a penalty earlier in the contest, he had the bravery to tell his goalkeeper Shane Ryan to stand back. And he duly stuck it between the posts.

Sky Sports co-commentator and Kerry great Kieran Donaghy described it as 'a kick for the ages'.

"Talk about being able to step up. That is some kick into the breeze. A kick for the ages," said the 2006 Footballer of the Year.

"When you consider that he missed the penalty in the first-half, it was huge that he was able to bang that over the bar."

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Even Kerry's manager Jack O'Connor couldn't believe it.

"I didn't think it was kickable to be honest with you, straight up," he said.

"I didn't think a man could get the distance because Seanie Shea had emptied the tank. That was the 76th minute. He had given a ferocious performance up to then. To have the resilience and the strength and more importantly, the technique to kick that with the in-step and just glide it in from the right-hand past, into the breeze and into the Hill.

"So that has to be one of the best pressure kicks we've seen here (Croke Park), and we've seen a lot of kicks."

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But O'Connor had faith in his centre-forward's resilience, following the earlier penalty miss.

"I don't think the penalty affected him because he was playing very, very well," he said.

"He had a great start in that game. He had kicked 1-2 before he missed the penalty. Seanie is a resilient character, that was never going to affect him.

"But like that last kick, there's very few players in the country...you go back to the Maurice Fitzs and the Bryan Sheehans of this world to kick like that, but particularly the last kick and the amount that he had given in the game."

Both managers planning for extra-time

As O'Shea was lining up his kick, what was going through O'Connor's head?

"Well, extra-time basically," he said.

"We were mentally preparing for extra-time with two or three minutes to go because you know, we were even discussing on the line who we'd put back in because there were lads who were out on their feet, the likes of Jack Barry.

"Jack has missed a good bit of training, he was absolutely out on his feet but what a performance by him to match up against Brian Fenton and to last the 75 minutes, so hats off to all those lads."

Opposite number Dessie Farrell was in the same boat.

"So was I (planning for extra-time)," said the Dublin boss.

"I was starting to go into overdrive in terms of what we needed to do and we'd a plan in place for it anyway. But a plan is all well and good until you get punched in the nose, as Mike Tyson said.

"It was just an immense kick. That breeze was difficult to kick into. I don't know whether it died a little in the second-half, but it was a touch of class."

Sky Sports' live GAA coverage continues with the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship final between Limerick and Kilkenny next Sunday.