Tom O'Sullivan has paid tribute to the role played by Mike McCarthy following Kerry's capture of another All-Ireland title on 20 September.
McCarthy came out of retirement and went on to play a big part as Jack O'Connor's men regained the trophy lost to Tyrone last year.
O'Sullivan, man-of-the-match in the final win over Cork, thinks his fellow defender is an example to all the elder statesmen in the Kingdom backline that they can all still have plenty left in the tank.
'You could see that Mike Mac came back in July and still had a fine championship,' O'Sullivan said after receiving his September Vodafone Footballer of the Month accolade in Dublin.
'A lot of it is hunger, freshness. That's what it's down to. If you're out of football for six months you're going to be hungry to come back. It's good to get the break. We always felt he was well able to come back.'
'If he'd come back last year there was a possibility we'd have won the All-Ireland. I spoke to him this year and when he saw the team was in trouble he just wanted to help. And that's what he did.'
