This time last year, flying Kerry half forward Sean O'Sullivan watched the All-Ireland football final from a bar in Perth. Now he's back in the thick of things, feeling totally refreshed and hoping to play his part in another Kerry All-Ireland success. It's a long way from Perth to Croke Park but that's the path Kerry forward Sean O'Sullivan has taken over the past 12 months. After being involved with the Kingdom seniors since 2002, the Cromane man decided to take a year out in Australia. Although he won an All-Ireland medal in 2004, he felt he needed a break from football and Australia was the perfect place to get away from it all. "A few lads from the club were going over, so I decided to go with them," he explains. "I'd been in and out of the Kerry team during the 2004 campaign and I wasn't enjoying my football as much as I should have been. I lost my appetite for the game and I needed to get it back. So it made sense for me to have the break. I've now got my hunger back and I'm enjoying my football again." The 26-year-old returned home last December after nine months away to attend the funeral of his uncle Patrick O'Sullivan, who was a great Kerry supporter. He returned to his job with the Bank of Ireland in Killarney on January 9 and within a matter of hours, Jack O'Connor was on the phone looking for him to rejoin the Kerry squad. "On my first day back in work, I got the call from Jack to come back. It all happened so fast. I was back training with the rest of the lads in Castleisland the following Wednesday night," he recalls. Sean's return to the Kerry fold didn't go as smoothly as he had hoped. He started the National League games against Monaghan and Offaly, but tore his hamstring while playing for Cromane against Fossa in a club game the day after the Offaly game. He made an appearance as a substitute in Kerry's final outing in Division 1A against Dublin, but it was clear to him that the hamstring still wasn't right. "The hamstring tear was a huge setback. It was a recurrence of an old injury and I was very down during that period. I suffered another setback in the Dublin game which meant that I missed out on our league win. But the physios got me back on track and I was back on the bench for the Munster championship." O'Sullivan's only appearance of the provincial campaign was as a substitute against Cork in the Munster final replay at Pairc Ui Chaoimh. He scored a point, but it wasn't enough to prevent the Kingdom from surrendering their Munster crown. The pacey half forward also scored after coming on in the All-Ireland qualifier win over Longford and impressed the management enough to earn a starting place for the All-Ireland quarter-final against Armagh. "I was delighted to be told on the Thursday night before we played Armagh that I was in the starting team. We were heading back to Croke Park and it was a massive game for both teams. Thankfully, we got the win and I held my place for the semi-final against Cork." Sean, who played in the hugely traumatic defeats to Armagh and Tyrone in 2002 and 2003, acknowledges that his place in the All-Ireland final team is far from certain and adds that competition for places is fierce. "I can't take anything for granted, especially with the likes of Darren O'Sullivan, Bryan Sheehan and Declan O'Sullivan breathing down my neck. Those guys are just as determined as me to play in the final. They're keeping me on my toes. "I thought I did alright against Armagh before I was taken off, but then Darren O'Sullivan came in and scored a goal with nearly his first touch. That's the sort of competition that's in the squad. The training sessions lately have been every bit as tough as National League matches," he says. Kerry's All-Ireland ambitions took a serious hit when they lost the Munster final replay to Cork, and there were rumours of discontent in the camp. But O'Sullivan reveals that Tyrone's achievement in winning last year's All-Ireland via the qualifier route was just the sort of motivation they needed. "Obviously, morale was very low after losing to our closest rivals, but all we had to do was look at Tyrone and what they achieved last year after losing the Ulster final after a replay. "That helped to gel us together and thankfully we haven't looked back since. The stories about disharmony in the squad weren't true. In fact, we used them to motivate us. "It was a big boost to draw to Longford at home in our first game after the Cork defeat. If we had to travel to Pearse Park, it would have been a much more difficult game for us. That was Kieran Donaghy's first game at full forward and it worked a treat for us. "Kieran has made a huge difference since he went in there. It's great to have a target man like him. Even if the ball going into him isn't the best, he has the ability to win it. He has given us a new dimension and what's also encouraging is that the likes of Seamus Moynihan and Darragh O Se are playing as well as they ever did. "People were saying after the Munster final that those lads were finished, yet they were our best players against Armagh and Cork (in the All-Ireland semi-final). We have a nice bit of momentum behind us going into the final, but it won't be easy against Mayo." Mayo's odds-defying victory over Dublin has set up a repeat of the 2004 All-Ireland final which the Kingdom won with surprising ease. However, O'Sullivan is expecting a much closer contest this time around. "Mayo are a fantastic team and will take some stopping. The important thing for us, though, is to concentrate on our own game. It's vital that we have tunnel vision and keep our feet on the ground. "There has been a lot of talk about Kieran Donaghy and the impact he's made, but it easy to forget that this is his first All-Ireland final. It's a huge game for him, but at least he doesn't have far to look for advice." The Cromane club is extremely proud to have Sean on the Kerry team. When he played for the Kerry minors in the late 1990s, he bridged a 44-year gap by becoming the first player from the club since Pat O'Shea to play for the Kingdom. In his debut season with the seniors, Armagh shocked Kerry in the All-Ireland final and he is obviously hoping that Mayo won't pull off a similar shock on September 17. "This year reminds a lot of 2002 when we lost the Munster final to Cork but came back in through the back-door and beat them in the All-Ireland semi-final before losing the final to Armagh. Hopefully we'll be able to finish the job this time around," he concludes. Tweet

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