Tomas O’Sé, one of the greatest wing-backs Gaelic Football has ever seen and the man with the most distinctive toe-tap in the game, has confirmed his decision to retire from inter-county football.
O’Sé confirmed his decision in an interview with his former Kerry and An Gaeltacht teammate Dara O’Cinnéide on the Saol O Dheas programme on Raidió na Gaeltachta today, bringing the curtain down on an inter-county career that began 15 years ago in 1998.
In the time since, O’Sé has won five All-Ireland titles, eight Munster titles and five All-Stars and earned a reputation as one of the greatest wing-backs ever to play the game, following in the footsteps of his late uncle Páidi, who excelled in the position in the great Kerry teams of the 70s and 80s.
As well as regularly getting the better of his man, O’Sé was nearly always guaranteed to pop over a point or two at the other end, traditionally coming at the end of a solo run featuring the most distinctive toe-tap in Gaelic Football. He was always a good man for a post-match interview too… nahhhht!
Despite the fact that he turned 35 in the summer, O’Sé was still going strong right until the end of Kerry’s current championship campaign and he delivered a typically excellent performance in the epic All-Ireland semi-final defeat to Dublin last month.
That performance suggested that there was plenty left in the tank but O’Sé was never going to go on for ever and while he’d prefer to slip quietly into the sunset, he deserves to be celebrated as one of the all-time greats.
All the best in your retirement Tomás.
