Nearly a decade after Kerry debut, Barry Dan O'Sullivan finds game that suits him
Patience and Barry Dan O'Sullivan are long acquainted. Perseverance and Barry Dan are equally familiar bedfellows. But it is only in the past month where this pair of attributes, on display by the 29-year-old midfielder for almost a decade now, have finally begun to receive payment.
Mike Quirke, to give him his credit, was first to advocate for Kerry's current middle-third arrangement and how effective it could be. Quirke, a selector in recent campaigns, was a guest on the Irish Examiner Gaelic football podcast the Monday after the League's third round when he championed the approach first adopted by management in Round 6 and repeated for the first time in championship during the victory over Roscommon a fortnight ago.
Joe O'Connor made his first appearance of the year during Kerry's Round 3 League defeat to Dublin. There he partnered Diarmuid O'Connor. A reprisal of the county's 2024 midfield partnership. A partnership Quirke wanted broken up.
'I'd love a scenario where you'd Joe O'Connor wing-forward, I think he'd be unbelievable as a wing-forward,' said Quirke. 'But that second spot [at midfield], whether it is Barry Dan, there are question marks over him.'
Barry Dan had actually started the county's opening two games of the League. He then disappeared from the line-up. In the ensuing four games, he saw the last quarter of an hour against Tyrone and nothing else.
It was the Round 6 victory at home to Armagh when management plumped for Joe O'Connor at half-forward. Éamonn Fitzmaurice described his performance in the No.10 slot as 'immense'.
Partnering Diarmuid O'Connor at midfield that evening was Seán O'Brien. The latest piece of evidence that Barry Dan was again out of the first team picture. The story really of his broken Kerry existence.
'Seán has put himself to the top of the midfield queue,' former Kerry forward Seán O'Sullivan told the Examiner the week after the Armagh win.
'The other option is Barry Dan, but for whatever reason, he just doesn't seem to have the trust of management at the moment.'
Diarmuid's shoulder injury against Armagh stalled Joe O'Connor's stay in the half-forward line. Him and O'Brien were the midfield picks for their final outing of the League round-robin. O'Brien departed injured the Salthill field on 47 minutes. Barry Dan kicked two points upon replacing him and has not let go of the No.9 shirt since.
Knocks to others cleared his path, but when you've persevered as long as he has, you are due the odd domino being knocked in your direction.
His selection for the Munster semi-final against Cork represented his 10th championship appearance but first start. Nine years and two months after his 2016 League debut against Roscommon, where he replaced Johnny Buckley off the bench, and seven years after his first League start, he'd finally earned a first championship start at 29 years of age.
The Tralee-based vet was a two-year Kerry minor and three-year U21. He pocketed All-Ireland medals at minor and post-primary level, the latter with Pobalscoil Chorca Dhuibhne. Fitzmaurice, first his teacher and then Kerry manager, used him once in the 2016 League, twice in 2017, and on five occasions in 2018. Present, but not a presence felt.
The Peter Keane era and he were not acquainted. He was also on the outside looking in for Jack's 2022 all-conquering comeback. David Moran's subsequent retirement, Joe O'Connor's ruptured cruciate, and later injuries to Diarmuid O'Connor and Stefan Okunbor necessitated a Barry Dan recall for the attempted title defence. Then selector Diarmuid Murphy labelled him the form midfielder of the 2022 county championship.
His determination for this second chapter to be less peripheral than the first was underlined in June 2023 when he missed his brother's wedding in Rome, for which he was best man, to be part of the panel for the county's Sam Maguire group fixture away to Cork. It was a game he only saw the last five minutes of.
On his return to Páirc Uí Chaoimh in the middle of last month, for his full championship debut, he won two kickouts, was fouled underneath another two, successfully broke four more to a teammate, and also raised a white flag.
In the first half of the Munster final, he won the Kerry kickout that led to David Clifford's opening goal and was also central to Clifford's second. He won the ensuing kickout, tallied 1-1 himself, and won a further restart that concluded with a Paul Geaney point.
'The new game suits him,' said Jack O'Connor. 'The ball is being kicked out, and Barry Dan is very strong under the ball, hard to shift him, and good in the air. A man like that will always be a big asset in that situation.
'Before, when it was the old game, the midfielders were more link players and box-to-box, whereas now the kickouts are crucial. He's a very, very strong man under the ball so the new game is suiting him.'
The Dingle clubman was less prominent when operating either side of Joe and the returning Diarmuid O'Connor against Roscommon. That's his challenge going forward. Starting place cemented, perseverance and patience must now give way to impactful presence.
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