Hurlers see off Offaly to make it two wins from two

NATIONAL HURLING LEAGUE DIVISION 2A

AS Fintan O’Connor said after the match – half tongue-in-cheek, half seriously – they don’t make it easy on themselves do they?

Kerry’s victory over the Faithful in Stack Park should have been a lot more comfortable than it was. The Kingdom were well in control of the game for the last thirty or so minutes in the wake of Cillian Kiely’s dismissal on a second yellow card and, yet, it wasn’t until deep into injury time that Kerry actually wrapped up the two points.

Indeed it took O’Connor’s charges all of nineteen minutes to pull level with their guests as they squandered chance after chance after chance. Just to be clear it wasn’t complacency that led to this situation, if anything it was over-eagerness.

Kerry knew that a glorious opportunity had just presented itself to them. Back in the game in a major way following a brilliant goal by Jordan Conway (assist Colum Harty), bolstered by Kiely’s dismissal and with a substantial wind (more like a gale really) at their backs everything had fallen into place for the green and gold.

The trouble was things just weren’t clicking up front the way they would have liked. Over the next quarter of an hour the Kingdom had three goal chances and took none of them – two for Pádraig Boyle and one for Colum Harty.

To give Offaly their dues James Dempsey pulled off two very smart saves, but with the third of those chances Kerry really should have done better. Boyle shooting from a reasonable distance with Harty available for the pass inside him.

You could almost palpably feel the team’s frustration at that stage. Gradually though the sheer weight of possession and of chances that Kerry were creating would have to tell and a brilliant point from in and around halfway by Shane Conway (who else?) steadied the ship – 2-5 to 0-14 on 56 minutes.

With Conway’s point the nervous energy that defined the previous spell seemed to dissipate and two minutes later Brandon Barrett fetched an Offaly puck-out and carried it on before shooting over the bar. A signature point from the Causeway man.

Further points from Shane Conway (assist Seán Weir and well inside his own half) and Shane Nolan, who had a really fine game at centre field, finally brought the Kingdom level by the 62nd minute – 2-8 to 0-14.

A point from goal-scorer Jordan Conway on 63 minutes pushed Kerry into the lead for the first time since early in the first half, but even then a sense of nervousness persisted in the stand on the John Joe Sheehy Road.

This deal was far from done. It wouldn’t have taken much for Offaly to reassert themselves on the scoreboard. Even after a Shane Conway free on 70 minutes pushed Kerry two clear, there was real and present danger.

Defensively, however, the Kingdom were imperious in that second half, led brilliantly by Mikey Boyle ( pictured) from centre-back. The Ballyduff man picked up so much ball in the second half, always the right man, in the right place, at the right time. It’s no coincidence that Offaly didn’t score for the final twenty six minutes of play.

Kerry finally wrapped the game up with a second point of the afternoon from Barrett (what a boost to have him back playing league hurling again this year) for a victory that was fully deserved, but maybe one that didn’t look all that assured in a difficult first half. The Kingdom started really well – they were two points to one in front after seven minutes following a pair of points by an impressive Michael Slattery who unfortunately had to depart injured after half an hour – and after twenty five minutes were only two points in arrears in the teeth of the gale blowing into the Horan’s end.

Following a point by Offaly dangerman Eoghan Cahill on 26 minutes, however, Offaly finally began to hurl as they can hitting five points on the bounce to put Kerry seven points down and scrambling for a foothold in the game all of a sudden.

After thirty three minutes Kerry were 0-9 to 0-2 behind and needed a point from a free wide right on the railway side into Mitchel’s / shed end from Shane Conway to stem the bleeding. When they followed that up two minutes later with a goal from Harty – that man just loves scoring goals – that gave Kerry renewed hope heading into the second half. Taking an assist from Nolan, Harty contested with Offaly shot-stopper Dempsey and when it dropped beneath them the Causeway man was best placed to finish. A free from Offaly’s Cahill left it at 1-3 to 0-10 at the break.

All to play for and that was before Conway’s goal and Kiely’s second yellow. Unlike what may have been reported elsewhere this was no shock, hell it wasn’t even a surprise. Offaly will feel they didn’t do themselves any favours by getting a man sent off in Stack Park for the second time in as many visits, even so Kerry were the better team here in the end.

The Kingdom’s fate is now very much in their own hands in this group. Deservedly so.

KERRY: Martin Stackpoole, Conor O’Keeffe, Seán Weir, Eric Leen, Tomás O’Connor, Mikey Boyle, Fionán Mackessy, Shane Nolan (0-1), Shane Conway (0-5, 3f), Brandon Barrett (0-2), Pádraig Boyle, Michael Leane, Michael Slattery (0-2), Colum Harty (1-0), Jordan Conway (1-1) Subs: Michael O’Leary for M Slattery (inj), 28, Evan Murphy for E Leen, 65, Gavin Dooley for C Harty, 72

OFFALY: James Dempsey, Micheal Cleary, Damien Egan, Andy Flynn, David King, Ben Conneely, Dan Dougan, Cillian Kiely (0-1), Shane Kinsella, Thomas Geraghty, Peter Geraghty, Oisín Kelly, Seán Cleary (0-2), Liam Langton (0-2), Eoghan Cahill (0-8, 3f) Subs: Mark Egan for D Egan (inj), 31, Brian Duignan (0-1) for S Kinsella, half-time, Kevin Dunne for L Langton, 50, Leon Fox for S Cleary, 58, David Nally for T Geraghty, 65 REFEREE: Nathan Wall (Cork)