Crisis averted but
Paul Brennan reflects on a dramatic Super 8 game in Clones but wonders if Kerry have the right stuff to beat Dublin...if it even comes to pass
WHEN the time comes for one of the local car dealers to drop a set of keys into David Clifford’s paw we’d respectfully suggest they turn the ignition of a Rolls Royce. As befitting the type of player the Fossa man will yet come to be, you see. Understandably, there are many in this county and beyond who see the still 19-year old as that already, but I think it was Chinese philosopher Confucius who said ‘walk aisey when the jug is full’. In other words, while Clifford’s first two senior goals for Kerry have both had a touch of Lionel Messi about them, it would be unwise and unfair to regard him as the absolute saviour of this Kerry team just yet.
That’s not to say that Clifford can’t almost single-handedly deliver the Sam Maguire Cup (what’s that’s you said about walking easy) back to the Kingdom in September but there’s a bit of road left ot travel before no.38 is born. For one, Kerry’s progress out of the All-Ireland Quarter-final Group Phase and into the All-Ireland semi-finals isn’t down to Kerry anymore. As appalling as the prospect of a dead-rubber game with Kildare in Killarney on the Bank Holiday weekend was, now Kerry have to not only beat Kildare by five points (that’s the easy part, we think) but hope and pray that Galway beat Monaghan in Salthill (not as easy as we think) in order for Kerry to set up a semi-final against Dublin (let’s not think about that yet).
If, as Clifford’s late, late goal last Sunday might suggest, there’s a certain sense of it being Kerry’s year building, then Saturday week will play out like this: Kerry will build up a comfortable lead against Kildare while matters will remain tight in Salthill. The second half in Galway will start two minutes later than the one in Killarney, so when the final whistle goes to signal a ten-point win for Kerry every ear in Fitzgerald Stadium will turn to Pearse Stadium where Monaghan will be leading by a point. Damien Comer will pop over an equalising point as the clock slips into the red with three minutes additional time to play, and as the conspiracy theorists do their thing Galway will earn a close-range free that Shane Walsh can only but convert to hand Galway the win and top spot in the group, send Monaghan out of the Championship and give Kerry seven days to plan the downfall of the Dubs.
Or Monaghan do what they couldn’t do last week and win a really tight game - or do what they did last week and draw - and Kerry are gone.
“We won the draw,” is how Fitzmaurice described last Sunday’s drama in Clones, but by tea-time on Saturday week the Kerry manager might well be drawing the ire of the Kerry supporters who pitch up in the Stadium as much in hope as expectation of the team making the last four of the Championship. For once the tension of Clones and the euphoria of Clifford’s goal seep away there’s a grim reality left in the puddles: Kerry are hanging on by a very thin thread and there remains much wrong and broken with this team.
Without question the energy and application and attitude of the team was ten-fold better than it was against Galway the previous week, but how could it have been any other way? Enforced changes in the full back line, along with the tactical decision to replace goalkeeper Shane Murphy with Brian Kelly resulted in a new starting ‘back four’ as it were in Clones, while Kieran Donaghy came in for James O’Donoghue in the full forward line. So far so courageous from the management, but thereafter you’d have to question a few things.
Why was Mark Griffin left to his own devices on Conor McManus for so long once it was abundantly obvious the Monaghan forward was beating Griffin all ends up in their duels?
Kelly was an improvement on Murphy with respect to the kickouts, but was there any discernible kickout strategy other than fire it out to the middle of the park and hope for the best?
While no one on the outside is privy to the strategising of the management team, it seemed baffling that Sean O’Shea (no apparent injury) was withdrawn from the game in the 56th minute, given that he was playing so well and was the only Kerry player really capable of converting long-range free kicks.
The substitution of Paul Geaney in the 50th minute also seemed a bit premature, as even if he was at his usual best there are few in the game - and fewer still in the Kerry team - who can engineer a goal out of little or nothing. To send Geaney back into the action in the 70th minute appeared to frank the very questionable merits of withdrawing him in the first place.
Needless to say there were several positives to take from Kerry’s adventure in Clones, and most of them came in the form of the younger players on the team.
Tom O’Sullivan was excellent in defence, but it was his direct involvement in four Kerry scores - two from play and two assists - that helped his team escape with their Championship still alive. Ditto Ronan Shanahan who handled McManus in the second half considerably better than Griffin had in the first.
Gavin White took up where he had left off in the Munster Championship, winning some brilliant primary possession around midfield and carrying the ball into the Monaghan defence with pace and purpose.
The aforementioned O’Shea was a ball of energy and industry between the two 21-metre lines and then there was Clifford. Through fair means and foul - and there were others in St Tiernach’s Park better positioned to witness the rough-house treatment regularly dished out to Clifford off the ball - Monaghan could have been pretty pleased with their handling of the teenager, who managed two points in the first half and won a free for another.
His point in the 62nd minute was as outrageous as anything McManus has pulled from his locker, but until the 74th minute