That bit of badness, that bit of cutting.

While Paidí Ó Sé was adored by a younger generation for his colourful personality as a manager, his younger nephew Marc was often viewed as the most approachable of the three brothers who starred for Kerry.

Michael Murphy and Pat Spillane joined us on the RTÉ GAA Podcast this week to remind us all that both men were fearsome defenders, who relied on physicality as much as any out there.

The Ó Sés and Seamus Moynihan made up an all-Kerry full-back line on the team of the Sunday Game era, as voted for by RTÉ Online readers.

In Spillane's case, Paidí was his regular training rival, while Murphy recalls one particularly tough afternoon in the company of Marc in Killarney, when the scenery was not up for discussion.

"I went in 2011 or 2012 to Killarney for a league game with Donegal under JIm McGuinness. I went into the edge of the square and Marc Ó Sé picked me up.

"We had a lovely shake of the hand and I said 'beautiful scenery, beautiful setting, lovely day, we're getting close to Championship'.

"I thought it would be a really nice, clean game here with Marc Ó Sé, one of your heroes coming up.

"The first 10 minutes were interesting, let's put it that way. He took me to the absolute cleaners, both on the ground playing football but a real real strong physicality and mental toughness to take you out of  the game and get the better of you."

"God bless your innocence," was all an amused Spillane could muster. He could have warned Murphy that marking an Ó Sé is not for the fainthearted.

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"Paidí used to mark me in training every night, so for 10 years he marked me. If you could overcome Paidí you were on form.

"The only doomsday scenario was that if you did get the better of Paidí and rattle a score, oh Jesus, you could be certain the next time you were going to get it," said Spillane, who won eight All-Irelands alongside the late Ó Sé.

"We talk about intelligence, being versatile and being comfortable on the ball, but something Michael alluded to, you have to have a bit of, for want of a better word, badness or cutting. I used to like Ricey McMenamin and I like Jonny Cooper, there's a bit of cutting.

"That's not in the Kerry defenders at the moment, they're nice defenders."

During the discussion on the best football full-back line of the Sunday Game era, Murphy mentioned Rory O'Carroll as a unique and formidable opponent.

"Rory O'Carroll is a very interesting one, he is the same age as me and I would have played against him coming up through the age groups," said Donegal's All-Ireland winning captain from 2012.

"He presented a really, really different challenge to me. He took the marking from in front to a whole different level. You would be on the edge of the square with your team attacking and he would take up a position 5-10 yards in front of you, between the 13 and the 21 and you're thinking 'What's he doing?' Is your team-mate seeing where he is marking? 

"All of a sudden a ball drops short, he would take it and run up the field. Next, the second ball would come in and it would drop short and he would take it nicely on his chest and take it up the field and you're thinking, 'right, I have to stay here, because it is one ball over the top and we've a goal all day long'.

"He just knew the ability of the opposition and hedged his bets a lot. He was really smart, as the attackers came further up the field he would get closer to you, but he presented a really different challenge. It wasn't that stereotypical man-to-man approach.

"You're staying patient, but before you know it you're looking at your watch and there is 10 minutes left in the game and you might not have touched the ball."

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