By a great one
in large part because Mayo are still an excellent team and in part because the Kerry players simply weren’t able to execute the plan.
Six days previous Stephen Rochford was heavily criticised for what was a courageous decision to play Aidan O’Shea at full-back. In the shadow of the back-firing decision to drop goalkeeper David Clarke for the All-Ireland Final replay with Dublin, it was a doubly brave move by the Mayo management to try such a left-field thing.
Rochford’s reputation as maybe being the man to guide Mayo to that long-awaited All-Ireland title and the crazy guy who played O’Shea at full back hung, momentarily on a Bryan Sheehan free kick than he would convert eight times out of ten. One such razor egdes big Championship games rest.
People would well remember that, too, when they convert their disappointment into anger and aim it at the referee. David Gough didn’t have a good game insofar as he made a couple of wrong calls that were – or had the potential to be – game-changers. Darran O’Sullivan should not have been black-carded for his collision with Cillian O’Connor, but neither should O’Connor have been meted the same punishment, as some in the Kingdom have suggested. Watch it again: O’Connor receives the ball from a team mate and lays it off back to him just as O’Sullivan crashes into him, taking the Mayo man’s legs from under him. O’Connor never moved off his line, but O’Sullivan, tracking back at pace, could hardly veer off course either. At worst either man might have picked up a yellow card, but on several viewings it should have been passed off what what it was – a collision without malice.
Peter Crowley’s second yellow card seemed a harsh sanction also, but the reality is that had Mayo lost either match they too would have found fault in Maurice Deegan and David Gough’s officiating. It’s not palatable and it’s not what you’d want from your match officials, but what you lose on the swings you gain on the roundabouts. Players miss tackles and managers miss things too.
The bottom line is that it’s another winter with the All-Ireland title in Kerry, and while it might have escaped a few more casual supporters, most people will realised that just one All-Ireland title has come to Kerry since September 2009. That’s one outright victory across eight summers, and in a county steeped in All-Ireland success that’s turning the corner into gorta mór territory.
With the minors facing into a fourth All-Ireland final next month and looking to make history with a fourth successive title it would seem that the future is secure, but obviously success at minor level is no guarantee for senior titles. We’ll make no pronouncements on what players, if any, decide to call time on their inter-county careers but the simple reality is that Kieran Donaghy, Donnchadh Walsh and Bryan Sheehan will surely think long and hard about continuing on next year. Darran O’Sullivan might also assess where his Kerry futures lie.
A colder reality lies in the fact that in, say, three years time (2020) the Kerry panel probably won’t have any of the aforementioned quartet, while Shane Enright and David Moran will be 32 and Anthony Maher and Killian Young both 33. By then the Kerry team is likely to contain names such as Sean O’Shea, Gavin White, Brian Ó Beaglaoich, Jason Foley, Conor Geaney, Shane Ryan and maybe even Mark O’Connor.
On paper the future looks bright for Kerry football, but as John Giles would say, it’s out on the pitch where you have to do your stuff. Or as Dunphy might add, last Saturday a good Kerry team was beaten by a great Mayo team.