Tyrone toppled as results tally to send Kerry into League final against Dublin

ALLIANZ NFL DIVISION 1 ROUND 7

IT’S doubtful a football match not involving Kerry ever held a GAA crowd in Killarney in such enthral as the one happening in Castlebar last Sunday afternoon. Mayo were hosting Donegal up there, and once Kerry had taken care of business and Tyrone in Fitzgerald Stadium, matters on MacHale Park become the centre of the universe for a few minutes. Finally it was confirmed: Mayo had won, and once the figures were totted up a realisation struck: Kerry would get a rematch with Dublin sooner than anyone imagined.

A decade ago a seven-point Kerry win over Tyrone would have been greeted with joy and relief; maybe even a little amazement. Last Sunday it seemed as perfunctory a victory over the Red Hand county as one could imagine. Indeed, the only sense of urgency Kerry had to display came in the final eight minutes when Peter Harte’s converted penalty cut Kerry’s leading margin to five points. With matters so tight above in Castlebar Kerry would have known that a couple of more scores might be necessary to overturn Donegal’s scoring differential and get that top two finish to book their place in Sunday’s final. In the end Donnchadh Walsh scored two additional time points to be sure, and Kerry’s win and the perfect storm of results and scores elsewhere - including Dublin’s come from behind win in Monaghan - means last year’s League finalists get to renew hostilities again sooner than anyone might have imagined after they slugged out a draw in Tralee just after Paddy’s Day.

Whatever sparks and spite might ensue in Croke Park next Sunday, there was little, if any, of the antagonism synonymous with recent Kerry and Tyrone meetings last Sunday. Whatever Mickey Harte is attempting to do with his latest Tyrone team in advance of the Championship there was none of it on show in Killarney. To put it bluntly, Tyrone were awful to the point they were almost to be pitied. This was a team that ran Dublin to a draw themselves in this League campaign and who were, coming into Sunday, better positioned than Kerry in the Division 2 standings.

That Tyrone offered nothing positive in this contest says plenty about their summer prospects in Ulster and beyond, but for all that Kerry were ruthless in their approach and execution, and did what they set out to do.

Once Mikey Geaney goaled for Kerry in the third minute there only ever looked like one winner, and when one considers that Tyrone didn’t score from play in the first half, and only managed two points from play from second half substitute David Mulgrew, it shows just how lop-sided this game was. And yet two Peter Harte goals in the second half had Kerry - again - under pressure in the final quarter of a game they had utterly dominated.

Walsh finished with six points from play, Paul Geaney posted the same total from free kicks, and Mikey Geaney capped a rare start with a goal and two points from play.

Barry John Keane mined two from play, Bryan Sheehan converted two frees and two more scores came from the defence courtesy of Tadhg Morley and Paul Murphy. All in all, then, plenty of positives for the Kerry management to mull over in anticipation of Dublin on Sunday.

Kerry led 1-2 to 0-0 after five minutes and it was 1-4 to 0-2 after 15 minutes with Sean Cavanagh posting two frees for Tyrone who were cleaned out in midfield by the imperious David Moran, ably assisted by Anthony Maher making his first start of the season.

Keane missed a good goal chance in the eighth minute and Darren McCurry drew a smart save from Brendan Kealy at the other end in the 16th minute, but Kerry kicked on regardless, with scored from the Geaneys and Walsh making it 1-8 to 0-3 after 22 minutes.

Sean Cavanagh and Peter Harte (two) converted late frees to leave it 1-12 to 0-6 at the interval.

Tyrone got a little boost early in the second half when Harte finished smartly past Kealy for his and Tyrone’s first goal, but it said more about Tyrone that half forwards Kieran McGeary (37 minutes) and Niall Sludden (45 minutes) were dismissed for black card offences and there absence actually imprived the Tyrone attack.

Keane and Morley found the target to push Kerry into a 1-15 to 1-7 lead by the 50th minute, and Kerry were still eight ahead, 1-18 to 1-10, when Harte converted from the penalty spot after Frank Burns was fouled by Ronan Shanahan. The Stacks man picked up a black card (and a red) for that foul leaving the hosts play out the final eight minutes with 14 men but they still had time, space and Donnchadh Walsh to eke out those couple of additional time points to boost their differential as the necessary trickled down from Castlebar. T never even occurred to us in the moment. To us it looked an opportunity missed. The goal was on. It wasn’t a deadcert, but it wasn’t far off it either.

Instead of passing across the face of goal to the man waiting inside – on his own – Donnchadh Walsh took the percentage chance and popped it over the bar with the fist to extend Kerry’s winning margin from six to seven points.

By then the game was won, there wasn’t enough time on the clock for Tyrone to engineer something to rain on the Kingdom’s parade, so why not go for it? Why not pass to a colleague in a goal-scoring position?

Nine times out of ten that would be the correct call and nine times out of ten that’s what the Cromane man would have done. On this occasion, however, he was thinking bigger than any of us watching on. He was playing chess and we were playing checkers.

Only after a conversation with a colleague did the wisdom of Walsh’s decision become apparent. It was, more likely as not, our colleague surmised the league table, points for and against, the swing between Kerry and Donegal and the potential ramifications for Kerry’s participation in the league final which had guided Walsh’s actions.

He’s such an intelligent player that you couldn’t rule it out. In that moment he was able to compute that an extra point for Kerry could be the difference between lining up against Dublin in Croke Park next weekend and watching the game on TV.

For sure his team mate could have – and more than likely would have – slammed it into the back of Mickey O’Neill’s net, but there was no guarantee. In that moment, in those particular set of circumstances, one point in the hand was worth three in the bush.

Remember Kerry won their place in the final by a scoring difference of just three points. Had Walsh not done what he did a late point from Donegal in Castlebar or another point or two in Killarney for Tyrone and Kerry were done.

It’s all about marginal gains, working out what’s best in the here and now and nobody is better at that than Walsh. He’s the type of player who makes the most of what he has, the type of player whose most dangerous weapon lies between his ears.

Last Sunday he gave one of his finest performances in the green and gold. He always found himself in the right place at the right time. That’s indicative of his intelligence and his unbelievable work-ethic.

If you ever get a chance watch him for five or six minutes of a game take it. What you’ll see is a man who just works and works,