Monaghan thieved as route one digs Kerry out of hole
WHEN Monaghan agonisingly lost to Kerry in the 2007 All-Ireland quarter-final, their manager Seamus McEnaney graphically described it as like his ‘heart being ripped out without an anaesthetic.’
Eleven years on, this time in their own back yard, they’ll feel a similar procedure has been performed on them.
Maybe the pain won’t be so severe. They are, after all, still in the championship, heading to Galway in two weeks’ time to play a team already in the All-Ireland semi-finals. But last night they’ll have ached for where they should be.
This may not be the strongest Kerry team but their tradition still carries significant weight. In 2007 they led until the 69th minute, here they were out in front until the 73rd minute when the cardiac team, led by Dr Donaghy and his young but very gifted locum Dr Clifford, donned their gloves and got to work.
Many times during a tense second half, Eamonn Fitzmaurice (right) must have pondered removing his oldest asset to spring fresh legs into a gripping contest that was ebbing away from them.
Kieran Donaghy had been a late introduction before throw-in as Kerry reverted to an old but generally reliable tactic – when in doubt pick the big man out. And while Donaghy provided a decent nuisance value around the Monaghan square his impact from general play was quite minimal.
Just as there were strong grounds to introduce him last Sunday, there were grounds for his removal here as route one didn’t yield what they might have expected. But Fitzmaurice was prepared to wait in the knowledge that there’s always a chance that something will stick or that something will come off him.
Kerry’s drawn 2014 All-Ireland semi-final against Mayo can’t have been too far away from his mind as the clock ticked perilously on into five minutes of added time.
And then it happened. James O’Donoghue’s inviting ball into the danger zone, Donaghy directing a touch he had to stretch hard to manufacture and a willing David Clifford reacting quickly and incisively past Rory Beggan from the tightest angle for parity.
At any stage of any game this was an exceptional finish. For a 19-year-old to do it with championship extinction just a couple of minutes away for his team and, quite probably, a management at the end of the line too, was something else completely. He really has, over the last couple of weekends, done everything it says on the tin.
What value will he be to the future of Kerry? What value has Donaghy delivered all these years? Even in the dying light he’s an indispensable commodity in these situations. It was only a touch but it was enough.
For Monaghan it’s gut-wrenching. No other words to describe it. Another late sucker punch catching them just as it had done against Fermanagh. Everything was in place for them to win it before a hugely partisan 17,000-strong crowd in St Tiernach’s Park.
They brought the right game plan, dominated most positions and got return from their big players, none more so than Conor McManus. But they left too much out there, especially in the first half when Kerry were fragile and so unsure of themselves.
“We could have been a bit more clinical and when you look at the stats, even though we would be happy with our performance and played really well, we were probably not half as clinical as we needed to be,” acknowledged manager Malachy O’Rourke.
The ‘Super 8’ structure has its flaws but this was a truly great occasion fashioned out of it. How else could the aristocrats of Gaelic football have found themselves fighting for their championship life like it in Clones of all places. The format may not be a means to an end but it’s a means to something else surely.
McManus delivered one of his greatest championship performances, getting an early goal when he got in behind his marker Mark Griffin in the second minute and having the nerve to draw Brian Kelly and round him.
Griffin on McManus was always going to be an uneasy match – Kerry switched Ronan Shanahan on to him for the second half – while Kelly’s restoration for Shane Murphy was always a gamble given his dearth of recent playing time.
Kelly struggled with his kick-outs as Kerry lost six in the opening half but he wasn’t helped by a middle third where they had no foothold.
Once again there was a leadership deficit. David Moran and Jack Barry were outplayed while Paul Murphy and Peter Crowley couldn’t get into the game. Paul Geaney didn’t score, three first-half wides the mark of a man whose confidence has remained in Munster.
He was whipped off in the 49th minute only to reappear in added time for defender Tom O’Sullivan. If ever a substitution smacked of Kerry desperation this was surely it.
O’Sullivan had been a driving Kerry force for much of the game, one of a cohort of younger players to fill the leadership vacuum in that first half. Gavin White drove relentlessly at pace, Sean O’Shea ferried ball across the half-forward line and nailed his frees while Clifford survived on scraps but produced gourmet fare each time. The long-term future is bright. In the short term, their defence just doesn’t looks secure enough for the bigger challenges.
At no stage did Monaghan not look to be in control. McManus had the early cut of a player who he knew he could exploit. Karl O’Connell, now one of the most penetrating runners in the game, made repeated raids to gain territory, Ryan McAnespie made the right wing his own while Ryan Wylie and Vinny Corey brought security around Geaney and Donaghy.
They also had Beggan in their formidable arsenal, four of his seven placed balls finding their target from ranges between 45 and 60 metres. It’s a phenomenal weapon for a team to have.
That McManus goal was the buffer between them for a long time. Kerry got to within two points at one stage but still trailed at the break by 1-11 to 0-10. The gap closed to one in the 45th minute when David Moran followed up O’Sullivan’s second point but Monaghan oozed composure and set off again to open a five-point advantage by the 60th minute, O’Connell and McManus combining for the former to finish with a score to shake the place.
There looked to be no way back at that stage but Clifford’s monster score in reply gave them a lifeline. Anthony Maher came off the bench to make an impact and land a point before that late intervention.
Naturally, Fitzmaurice was relieved afterwards to be still in the championship. “Every score we got, we really had to earn, we found it really hard to get breaks, frees, anything, but that’s an away game, that’s the way it is going to work. We were all very disappointed after our no-show last weekend and we wanted to right that,” he said.
Scorers - Monaghan: C McManus 1-9 (0-5fs), R Beggan 0-4 (4fs), S Carey, K O’Connell, N Kearns, D Hughes all 0-1 each. Kerry: S O’Shea 0-8 (6fs, 1 45), D Clifford 1-3, T O’Sullivan 0-2, D Moran, P Murphy, S O’Brien (f), A Maher all 0-1 each. MONAGHAN: R Beggan 8; R Wylie 7, V Corey 7, K Duffy 6; K O’Connell 8, D Wylie 7, C Walshe 6; N Kearns 7, D Hughes 7; R McAnespie 8, S Carey 6, F Kelly 6; C McCarthy 5, C McManus 9, D Malone 7. Subs: K Hughes 6 for McCarthy (43), O Duffy for Carey (62), D Mone for Kelly (67). KERRY: B Kelly 7; R Shanahan 7, M Griffin 6, T O’Sullivan 8; P Murphy7,PCrowley6,GWhite8;DMoran6,JBarry6;KMcCarthy 5, S O’Shea 7, S O’Brien 7; D Clifford 8, K Donaghy 6, P Geaney 5. Subs: M Burns 6 for McCarthy (h-t), J O’Donoghue 6 for Geaney (49),BO’Beaglaoich6forGriffin(51),DO’Sullivan5forO’Shea(55), A Maher 7 for Barry (64), P Geaney for O’Sullivan (71). REF – M Deegan (Laois)