A marvellously proud man, and, if I had to pick out one of my fellow football managers as a real, live hero, then it would certainly be him. Mickey Harte would be a close second. What a pity, however, that Jack's two All Ireland triumphs out of three fairly difficult years were recorded against Mayo.

That's the tragedy which overhangs O'Connor's victory march home. His Kerry won two of the most pathetic-looking All Ireland finals in living memory . . . and, most probably, two games which must be in grave danger of ranking 33rd and 34th in the Kingdom's amazing honours list of All Ireland titles. It's not Jack's fault that Mayo bottomed out in September 2004 and again in September 2006.

But it's not going to help him to be remembered as one of the great Kerry football managers. Similarly, even though he was doing 'laps of honour' during most of the 70 minutes last Sunday, Seamus Moynihan was also denied a fitting exit to his brilliant career.

As for me?

You fool, Hayes! For the second time in three years you told Tribune readers that Mayo would defeat Kerry in an All Ireland football final. How could I have ended up with that conclusion when, only one month earlier, I made it known that, footballwise, Mayo had descended into a 'land of dwarves'?

Me? I just thought, and still believe, that this Kerry team is very beatable.

And I thought that Mayo this time would be tough and courageous and, more than any other quality, I thought they would be manly.

They let everyone down . . . themselves, the country, you and me and, most regrettably, and unforgivably, they let down Jack O'Connor and his mighty proud football team.

Why?

How?

Bloody hell, where did it all go wrong? Let's start with Mickey Moran and John Morrison, and let's quickly absolve them of very much blame, okay? There was one thing, however!

Taking off two-goal hero Kevin O'Neill (who might also have had a hat-trick) and leaving Ciaran McDonald on the field was a colossal mistake. Actually, it was sad.

O'Neill did everything I predicted he would do (in this column seven days ago), and more . . . "If there is a sense of destiny . . . dangerous word, I know . . .

about this Mayo team then it illustrates itself convincingly through the dramatic, last-gasp return of Kevin O'Neill. You just feel things are going to go just right for him in the new time he has won, and the little time he has left, as a Mayo footballer."

McDonald did less than I feared he would manage, and less again. He should have been removed. He has no future with Mayo. He's a wonderful ball player, sure, but in years to come he'll be best accommodated in a travelling roadshow, a circus of sorts, keeping company with the likes of Wild Bill Hickok, Calamity Jane and men and women of such rare abilities.

I don't like saying this about any man but, y'know, All Irelands are days of cruel judgement and, y'know something else, I've been there myself and known McDonald's horror . . . marking Shea Fahy in a final which Meath lost by 0-11 to 0-9 to Cork, and having Shea score four points from play (from the middle of the field! ).

All Irelands are days of vastly hidden depths of humiliation.

And so too are football finals in every corner of Ireland. Not just in Croke Park but also on the biggest stage in County Meath. I've lived the life and times of a Mayo footballer . . . seven losing finals for my parish, Skryne, in 11 years (and not one single victory! ).

The final day of the season is the ultimate challenge to the manhood of the last two teams standing upright in the middle of the field. Of course, dozens of other football teams throughout the country had already failed this same test in 2006, long before Mayo's little girly performance.

Want me to name them? To be fair to Mayo, I should call them out . . . except, we'd be here all day!

I honestly believe that Moran and Morrison . . . even though they are two characters straight from Pixar Studios . . . did a ton of good work with this group of Mayo footballers over the last 12 months. And rather than tying up the pair of them, and dispatching them from the county, post haste, Moran and Morrison should be invited to take up the positions of 'resident' management. Let them fight and sift for the future of Mayo.

On the evidence of last Sunday . . .

and they must begin with this preposterously sad day . . . they must hack and chop, and leave the team which they only recently confessed to love, in a mangled, unrecognisable state.

It's good that David Brady is gone for starters. McDonald (right) should also go, as should Nallen. Heaney? Maybe a last chance, if he's lucky? But all of the whippersnappers and sun-worshippers elsewhere on this Mayo team should be put in cold storage for at least a year or. . . who knows, forever?

McGarritty might be made team captain and left in that role, also for as long as it takes. He was one of the very few Mayo footballers who did not, directly, fail last Sunday. In truth, it was like himself and O Se were removed from the field by aliens sometime between the national anthem ending and the ball being chucked into the air to start the game.

Mayo did not lose the midfield battle or war in this game, because there was no real action here of any consequence. This part of the field was actually over-run by Kerry defenders and Kerry forwards who were doubling as defenders. This is where McDonald and Dillon and Ger Brady and Mortimer actually betrayed their own team. They didn't tackle. They didn't even try to foul! Incredibly, they didn't even throw one punch, when one punch was needed on the nose of the nearest, unfortunate Kerry opponent in one of the handful of lightweight rows which occasionally marred the game.

This, their failure to foul even, was the most galling aspect of Mayo's entirely sterile performance. They had six forwards on the field, one midfielder (while McGarrity and O Se were away in outer space) and three halfbacks. Add them up!

Do the numbers!

There are, at least, 20 fouls which these Mayo footballers should have committed . . . and simply had to make . . . if they were to stop Kerry in their tracks and try to gain the slightest foothold in this game.

We're not supposed to expose the underbelly of this, our own 'beautiful game', I know, but fouling is part and parcel of real life and every outstanding team which has ever triumphed in Croke Park has mastered the act of high-percentage fouling.

It's perilously close to being one of the central ingredients of football. And, without any of it. . .

voila. . . have a look at Mayo in the 2006 All-Ireland final. . . shocked, spineless, and incapable of tokenism even!

God help them. And Kerry?

Hey, they did it. Kieran Donaghy, even with just one goal, gave a performance in his first season (and first final) which was on a par with the Bomber a generation ago. Eoin Liston hit the net three times, but Eoin did not have one quarter of the pressure on his shoulders as young Donaghy experienced last Sunday.

The entire country is in awe of his talents and his supreme composure, and I'm in the front row of the audience, applauding. The Kerry number 14 and the Kerry defence (including Moynihan and his old legs) looked like they might have produced a 10-outof-10 performance against any team in the country seven days ago. Unfortunately for them, Mayo had them looking 20 out of 10 . . . which is simply not believable.

The nice things which I promised would come Kerry's way in this particular piece of post-All Ireland final analysis, are almost over. Galvin was great. He's been the 15th and 16th man, and sometimes even the 17th man or Jack O'Connor this summer.

And that's it folks.

I don't really believe this is a great Kerry team, but it can still become one . . . if the Kerry County Board can somehow persuade O'Connor to do a Micko on it, or a Seanie Boylan, and stay on the sideline indefinitely.