Quiet man Tomas does his talking on the pitch
If you linger outside Kerry dressing-rooms after matches for long enough you'll get to know some of their common rituals.
One of them concerns Tomas O Se. Invariably, if one of his brothers doesn't beat him to the draw, he'll be the first man out of the dressing-room, win or lose.
And he'll always wear a baseball cap pulled so far down you'll rarely see the whites of his eyes.
He likes a quick getaway. And he likes the bit of anonymity. He can always do without the inspection that goes with this territory.
Tomas O Se likens the life of a Kerry footballer to that of a public representative. You're there merely to serve a local institution, nothing more. If there are shortcomings in that service the calls at the door of your constituency office are frequent and often loud.
He knows this from first-hand experience garnered from a decade in one of the chamber seats.
He knows it best though from his maiden contribution to public office, the 1998 Munster semi-final against Cork in Killarney.
His rise was steeper than his wings could carry him in many respects.
After a couple of years with the Kerry minors he completed his Leaving Cert in 1997 and was whisked straight away into Killarney for senior training by his uncle. For the rest of the summer he "sat on his arse" and learned.
By the start of the following year's championship Paidi thought he was ready. He had missed the league campaign with a broken ankle but in the weeks leading up to Cork and Killarney he was flying, holding Maurice Fitzgerald scoreless in a couple of training matches.
So Paidi thrust him into the action convinced of his readiness. Aidan Dorgan dismantled him though and by half-time he was gone with Paidi being barracked with accusations of nepotism as they headed for the dressing-room.
He realised there and then he would always have to work that bit harder to prove himself. Being a Kerry footballer was one thing, being a member of one of the first families on such a harsh political landscape was something different altogether.
That day he wanted to throttle Paidi's verbal assailant behind the wire.
"I had got a dusting from Dorgan. It was a real Hail Mary start and then there was the reception coming off the field," he said.
"It did make me wonder at the time if I was being picked for the right reasons. But you get on with it."
In terms of medal collections the O Ses (uncle and nephews combined) are still behind the Spillane/Lyne axis that accumulated some 24 All-Irelands between 1946 and 1986.
But the gap is closing. By Sunday evening the Ventry brothers and uncle could bring their haul to an impressive 20 in a 32-year span.
Sunday could also be the last time Darragh, Tomas and Marc pull on a green and gold shirt together for a competitive game.
The same instincts that told Darragh to stay on 12 months ago may now be tugging at him to go. Tomas admits it will have to happen some day and so far they haven't given it any special thought or mention.
By nature he is quiet. In the past he has taken a summer job as a greenkeeper in the picturesque Ceann Sibeal course in Ballyferriter where solitude is a virtue.
Those who have travelled with him to training swear he could go an hour in the front seat without saying a word. The quality of the company wasn't an issue.
Of the three brothers he strikes the greatest resemblance to Paidi, in looks, in character and in playing style.
"The fact that we had the same build and played the same position on the football field is something to do with that, I'd feel. Paidi was a hard footballer, I wouldn't be known for holding back I'd have to admit, that's the way it is."
This year has been about recovery for Tomas after an indifferent 2006.
He won on an All-Ireland level but on a personal level he won't remember the football for too much more. He struggled.
The low point came against Longford in Fitzgerald Stadium when Jack O'Connor hauled him off and he shot straight for the dressing room with 15 minutes to go.
Kerry themselves were taking the first steps in their mid season rehabilitation, and Kieran Donaghy was unveiled as the primary and perhaps only outlet. Everything had to revolve around him.
That wouldn't necessarily have suited Tomas's 'pick and go' game. For the two previous years he had been the best defender in the game and his rampaging runs forward were a strong feature.
In the 2005 Munster final in Cork he swung over a magnificent point that broke home momentum at a critical time.
In the All-Ireland final his goal gave Kerry a late crack at redemption. He likes to get forward but now O'Connor was preaching a different route, his game suffered and some friction with the manager ensued.
Once substituted that day Tomas invoked his old habit of a quick clearance.
As O'Connor put it in his recently published autobiography he "headed out for the dressing-room like a madman. He was gone out the gate before we even got back in. We needed that like a hole in the head".
O'Connor would later admit that he hadn't handled a confrontation a training the week before well, for his part O Se conceded that he hadn't handled his substitution well and would hold up his hand on that at training later.
But O Se never hit the heights of 2004 and 2005. He was a father now and the drive west from the Cork suburb of Douglas where he lives, the base for his occupation in a Fermoy Gaeilscoil, was a little less painless than it once was.
At the end of last year he took stock of where he was. "Last year I didn't have a good year and maybe I wanted to prove to myself that I was well able for it still. There was a lot of mileage up on the clock. But I was keen to see could I rediscover something."
So far the report sheet has been encouraging. When the quarter-final with Monaghan needed steering Tomas was one of those whose hands were to the wheel providing a shift of direction.
Under Pat O'Shea there has been more liberty than there was in '06 and O Se has been prominent pushing forward again.
His point against Monaghan, his assist for Darren O'Sullivan's late point after that and against Dublin another drive that yielded one of the game's landmark scores all point to a more settled player.
"I suppose that freshness of the set-up has helped us this year but we haven't changed much. There are still most of the same players, most of the same routines. Why change something if it's not broken."
