IT IS TWO decades since Kieran O’Leary first joined the Dr Crokes senior football squad, a teenager who fresh off his first season with the Kerry minors.

It is 19 years since he first contested a Kerry senior decider, pitched into the full-forward line with Colm Cooper in the other corner, and Maurice Fitzgerald pulling the strings in opposition to inspire South Kerry on success.

On Sunday afternoon at a rain-lashed Austin Stack Park, O’Leary’s endurance was on show. Introduced off the bench in the 36th minute, he departed the game with 1-1 after playing a key role in swinging the game in the direction of Dr Crokes.

The defeat of Dingle delivered an eighth medal for O’Leary on the 12th occasion that he had sampled Kerry county final day.

After a six-year absence from the winners’ enclosure, the Killarney club will savour this one.

“Absolutely the sweetest yet, especially at this hour of my life playing football. It’s special.

“It’s days like this you’ll remember maybe in the coming years. At this stage, (with) two kids, obviously it’s tough for my wife at home as well.

“Pat (O’Shea) would go eight days in the week if he could. But it’s really special,

“I will enjoy this one, I can assure you. There’s friends for life and again, the cherished memories.

“Always in the back of my mind, I want to win championships and the last couple of years, probably they got away from us.

“Obviously, East Kerry the powerhouse they were in, Dingle (have) been very unlucky not to win one. I suppose it’s about mental toughness, too.”

O’Leary lifted the Sam Maguire with club-mate Fionn Fitzgerald a decade ago after Kerry had held off Donegal.

A lengthy Kerry career gave him plenty experience of different coaching abilities, but Pat O’Shea’s mastery of these victories in Dr Crokes colours continues to impress the forward.

In 2007, O’Leary played in an All-Ireland club final replay loss to Crossmaglen Rangers when O’Shea was manager. Then in 2017 he featured in a victory over Slaughtneil as they claimed that national prize.

In O’Shea’s third spell with the club, a triumph in Kerry has been instant in his opening campaign.

“We have a messiah in Pat O’Shea, who is just one of the greatest coaches of all time. His football brain, his knowledge, but what he instils in us as people is incredible.

“And you know what he deserves all the plaudits in the world. This is for him, more so than everything else.

He’s just one of the good guys. I suppose he just instils this confidence, I don’t know what it is with him.

Dr Crokes players celebrate their victory. Ken Sutton / INPHO Ken Sutton / INPHO / INPHO

“He’s just a football man, he’s a Crokes man, he’s passionate, emotional, just (a) genius to be honest.

“Credit to the management team and to past management teams as well. We have a good young squad and hopefully this is the start of something like special.”

The goal-scoring spree that Dr Crokes embarked on changed the course of Sunday’s game, rattling the net on three occasions between the 42nd and 48th minutes, as they dismnatled the supremacy Dingle had been enjoying.

O’Leary’s opportunism was displayed for the second one as he showed the instincts to nudge a loose ball to the net.

“Fortune favours the brave in the saying on our team and you have to go for everything, I had a couple of loose balls myself. I suppose goal was on the mind because we were trailing and I felt if we got ahead, then who knows what could happen?

“But yeah, we were fortunate enough to get on the end of those balls and my one trickled over the line.

“If it didn’t go in, I would have been absolutely lynched. Thankfully it did go in, we’ll take them all day long.”