Kerry do the necessary in quarter-finals

Paul Brennan watched Kerry go through their usual motions at the All-Ireland quarter-final phase to book safe passage to a fifth successive semi-final

THE only trace of Bono and the boys in Croke Park, a week after U2 had done their Joshua Tree thing, was about 25 metres of off-colour turf at the Hill 16 end of the pitch. We’d be tempted to shoe-horn a few puns in here if we were so inclined - Galway made their ‘Exit’; Kerry still have quite found what they’re looking for; Roscommon and Mayo ‘Running To (a) Stand Still’ - but we won’t inflict that on you. Decent sorts that we are here, we wouldn’t inflict anything to do with Bono on you, but the question does linger: who got more value for their money over the last week, the U2 concert-goers or the GAA folk in Croke Park last Sunday?

We’d assume that anyone in the Big House last Saturday week was there because they really wanted to hear U2 belt out a classic album - and enjoyed the experience of that - Bono’s bleatings aside. We’d also assume that the vast majority of the 65,746 crowd there last Sunday were there to see Roscommon take on Mayo, rather than Kerry against Mayo. You only needed to open your eyes and ears to understand that.

The attendance last Sunday is within a thousand people the same as the population of county Roscommon and it wouldn’t be hard to convince yourself that there wasn’t too many left at home there at 4pm last Sunday. Roscommon were, despite being Connacht champions, the novel act in HQ on the day, rubbing shoulders with the more Croke Park familiar Kerry, Galway and Mayo.

If you told the Rossies they’d have another day out in Croker this summer they’d have assumed you meant an All-Ireland semi-final. Well, they will be back for another run around Bono’s garden but it will be for another backyard brawl with neighbours Mayo. Kerry in the semi-final will have to wait.

‘Kerry in the semi-final’. It has a familiar ring to it. Last Sunday was Kerry’s 18th All-Ireland quarter-final, and their 16th in Croke Park. They’ve lost just two, and not since 2012 have they not reached the last four of the Championship. Last Sunday was deja vu all over again.

We tried with hope against hope to convince ourselves Galway would give Kerry a game. If there’s a longer, more dispiriting journey than coming down from Dublin after losing an All-Ireland semi-final olr final, it’s heading up the road for an All-Ireland quarter-final. Clare last year, Kildare the year before. Galway and Cavan before that again. Come off it! Was any of them ever in doubt? No, just like last Sunday wasn’t, but all we wanted was a bloody contest, an aul’ battle from Galway, a few question marks thrown Kerry’s way.

Yeah, yeah, Galway cut through for a few goal chances and Brian Kelly (All Star potential greatly enhanced) saved smartly on a couple of occasions, but Galway never seemed at the races. Their manager, Kevin Walsh, stood impassively on the sideline for long tracts of the game and it seemed his players were happy enough to ape him. Kerry will, of course, tell us they have plenty to work on ahead of that semi-final against Mayo or Roscommon, and they surely do have work to do with a leaky defence, although we’d assume that’s in preparation for Dublin in the All-Ireland Final more so than what the Connacht team will (or won’t) throw at them in the next match.

Of course, none of it is Kerry’s fault that last Sunday’s game was so drab and dreary for so much of it. Kerry played within themselves as they generally to in these quarter-finals. Between a four to fiveweek lay off between Munster Final and All-Ireland quarter-final, and