Powerful second
Peter Keane earned his corn at half-time and sent his men out for the second half primed for victory
Marc Kelliher, Conor Flannery, Colm Moriarty, Owen Fitzgerald, Dan McCarthy (0-1), Dan Murphy, David Mangan, Paul O’Shea (0-2, 1f, 1 ‘45), Darragh Lyne, Darragh Rahilly (0-3), Patrick D’Arcy, Killian Falvey (0-4), Dylan Geaney (0-2), Paul Walsh (0-4, 1f), Michael Linnane (0-1) Ruaidhrí Ó Beaglaoich (0-3) for P D’Arcy, 41, Kieran O’Donoghue for D Mangan, 53, Jack Kennelly for M Lenihan, 54, Jack O’Connor (01f) for P Walsh, 62
IMAIN MAN
There were many contenders on the Kerry team. Killian Falvey gotthe official man of the match award and playedabrilliantrole. Owen Fitzgerald and Dan Murphyweregreat at the back.At midfield PaulO’Shea wassensationally good, he won nine kick-outs, but in the end we’vegotto go with Darragh Rahilly. He won eight kick outs, including fiveinthe first half when Kerry were struggling toget hold of ball and gotthree points from play. That’s just an immense contribution from the young Rathmore man.
TALKING POINT
The seeming endless composureofthis Kerry minorteam. Otherteamswould havebuckled underthe strain of being seven points downafter twenty five minutes of an All Ireland final. Instead theseguys rallied with a point from Killian Falvey on twenty five minutes and went in at half-time just four points down beforepushing on forthe second half
KEY MOMENT
It hastobeFalvey’s point just after Liam Judge sentthe Tribesmen seven points clear. Had Kerry notregained some momentumat thatstage of the game this one would havegotten away from them. Instead theyregrouped and dominated the rest of the game. SAW a clip on Twitter recently of the great Sir Alex Ferguson addressing his Manchester United side as part of a fly on the wall documentary that aired over a decade ago now.
His team were trailing at halftime of one particular game and although it wasn’t him giving the players his infamous hair dryer treatment he was delivering a fairly direct message that what he had witnessed in the first forty five minutes was not acceptable.
Commenting on the clip himself Ferguson claims that you cannot underestimate the importance of the half-time team talk. He admitted it’s where managers ‘earn their money’.
Whatever message Peter Keane and his management team got across to their history chasing Kerry minor side at half time last Sunday it certainly had the desired effect. When the players returned to the dressing room under the Cusack Stand things were far from rosy.
Galway had been the dominant force throughout the first period and had it not been for some erratic shooting by the westerners then Kerry’s hopes of a five in-a-row would have been extinguished.
Once again, however, they dug their heels in and although being out thought and out fought for much of the half they popped a few valuable points coming up to the break to trail by just four.
Galway had taken them for 1-7 without reply in a fifteen minute spell and looked in full control. They were playing the smarter football and were on top in most areas especially the middle third.
Under 17 football is a great spectacle to watch because of the pure innocence of it all. It was a superb game because it was void of defensive set ups and orchestrated kick out strategies.
That said Kerry’s strategy of hitting all their restarts in the direction of captain and talisman Paul O’Shea was just not working. Galway had done their homework and always had a couple of men jumping with O’Shea and another one or two primed to win the break.
Kerry can count their lucky stars that Galway didn’t make them pay more often and have goalkeeper Marc Kelliher to thank on more than one occasion.
As I got into Croke Park on Sunday word reached me that Marc had lost his grandmother the previous morning.
Getting news like that could throw the best of us out of sync in normal circumstances never mind having to play an All Ireland Final the next day. I had Marc on a development squad