Does Kerry defence
KILLIAN Spillane is fast gaining a reputation for mining crucial scores at crucial times in a Kerry jersey, and his latest contribution saw him kick the winning point as Kerry staged a come-from-behind win that Kerry scarcely deserved, and inflict a defeat on Galway that they hardly deserved. Neither team could have had any complaints had they gone home with a point apiece, but Peter Keane was hardly apologetic for his team securing their first win of the campaign, as much as Padraic Joyce was openly annoyed at his team missing out on their second victory.
Spillane’s 74th minute score would have been pointless were it preceded by Paul Geaney’s 71st minute goal, which drew Kerry level, 1-14 to 2-11, after Shane Walsh’s 58th minute goal looked as if it might have scuppered Kerry’s chances of victory, having let a two-point half-time lead evaporate.
When half-time substitute Tommy Walsh kicked Kerry into a 0-12 to 1-7 lead in the 45th minute, few in the 11,117 crowd in Austin Stack Park could have envisaged it would be another 26 minutes before the home side scored again from play, but apart from two converted David Clifford frees, Kerry drew a blank until Stephen O’Brien set up his team mate for a quintessential Geaney goal from close range. At that stage Galway wing-back Cillian McDaid was still in the sin-bin - sent there in the 64th minute for pulling down Dara Moynihan - but just when it looked as if Galway had held Kerry scorless for that 10-minute period Geaney struck for Kerry’s only goal.
With no break in the play to get McDaid back on the field as his 10 minutes elapsed Kerry went hunting the lead point, and when Clifford’s shot came back off the left-hand post, Walsh reacted quickest to tee up Spillane for the game’s 29th and final score.
The late withdrawal of Tadhg Morley and Seán O’Shea from the named Kerry starting deprived the hosts of something crucial in defence and attack, and O’Shea’s absence in particular robbed the home side of a dynamic presence along the ‘forty’. Nonetheless, his replacement at no.11, Micheal Burns did a fine job in his stead and was one of Kerry’s best performers, finishing with two points from play.
It’s a bit of a cliché to say Kerry and Galway always play some sort of ‘total football’ whenever they meet, and anyone witness to the Tribesmen under Joyce’s predecessor, Kevin Walsh, would be only too aware how dreadful Galway were to watch - and play against - under Walsh. Joyce, it seems, even at this very early stage of his management term, seems intent on getting his native county back to some sort of traditional Galway way, and in Shane Walsh, Damien Comer and Michael Daly they have great super ball playing forwards. Walsh, in particular, tormented the Kerry defence throughout this game, and with a little more composure from their attack, they might have been out of site well before Geaney and Spillane’s late scores.
Clifford opened the scoring after just 18 seconds, and when he clipped over a 20-metre free seven minutes later Kerry were 0-4 to 0-1 to the good, with Galway’s point from Comer, whose shot rose just over the bar.
Eamonn Brannigan cut the gap to two points in the 11th minute but Kerry extended their lead with excellent scores from Geaney (2) and Clifford to lead to 0-7 to 0-3.
Galway carried a strong scoring threat through that first half, though some poor execution - and a couple of really smart saves from Shane Ryan - saw them squander four very decent goal chances in the opening 36 minute.
Corner back Johnny Heaney did find the net in the 18th minute, but Galway trailed 0-10 to 1-5 at the interval, when they were somewhat the better side in that first period.
It was Kerry’s turn to waste a couple of goal chances after the break, Burns denied by Connor Gleeson at his near post, and then Tommy had a great goal chance saved, with his namesake Shane scoring a brilliant solo goal mere seconds later at the othe end. That goal put Galway two ahead after 58 minutes, and when the Galway captain pointed his team into a three-point lead on the hour mark, it looked like they might hold on for the win.
Kerry had other ideas. McDaid went to the sin-bin, which freed up a bit of space for Geaney to snatch that equalising goal, and then Spillane spirited in to raise a white flag. One last chance fell to Comer at the Mitchels end but his shot reeked of panic and drifted wide; Kerry breathed a huge sigh of relief.
MAIN MAN
By any metric Galway captain SHANE WALSH wasthe best performer overall, scoring 1-2 from play and generally tormenting the Kerry defence. Kerry can be most grateful to Shane Ryan, Liam Keaney, Micheal Burns and Paul Geaney for earning the Kingdom the win
KEY MOMENT
Undoubtedly Paul Geaney’s additional-time goalthat hauled Kerry back from the brink of defeat and allowed Killian Spillane pop overthe winning point in the 74th minute
TALKING POINT
Just the one pointscored from an advanced markinthis game, though there wereacoupleof more won and awarded, but the general disquiet overthis new rule remains. Players and spectators are still - understandably - unsure about the workings and nuance of the advanced mark(AM) but ‘offensivemark’ might be a more appropriate terms atthisstage
WHEN a team pulls off a ‘smash and grab’ victory as Kerry did on Saturday evening it can leave a management with more questions than answers.
Of course, the big positive for Peter Keane is that it once again confirmed that his group have plenty of character and pride by never waving the white flag and accepting defeat. It also showed that we are not lacking quality in the squad with some of the replacements making good contributions when introduced especially up front.
However, the performance overall was patchy to say the least and some deficiencies in our defensive set up were highlighted yet again. Of course, to get the win and two vital home points was great and sets us up nicely heading to Omagh at the weekend. However, there is obvious work to be done particularly when we don’t have possession of the football.
Galway are certainly a more exciting outfit under Pádraic Joyce and look to be playing a more expansive attacking style of game. Kerry’s rearguard, without Tadhg Morley, just found it very difficult to curtail a lively tribesmen forward unit.
They created at least three decent goal scoring opportunities in the first half and had it not been for some poor finishing and decent Shane Ryan saves Kerry could have found themselves in real trouble.
Ironically, it was a corner-back, in the shape of Johnny Heaney, who eventually found the net for Galway, but it was only a matter of when and not if they scored a three pointer. My concern once again is the clear lack of leadership in our defence.
The aforementioned Morley has in my opinion taken on that mantle well in recent years and his absence was certainly evident. Peter Crowley who is on the road to recovery from a cruciate ligament injury is another guy that comes to mind when you think of an organiser and stopper at the centre of defence.
When the Kerry forward line is spoken of we lose count of the ‘go to guys’ we have in almost every position. Kerry don’t just have one focal point of their attack, they have many. They work as a unit to get scores with unselfish movement and hard work both on and off the ball, but where is the focal point of our defence?
I have written about this before in these pages, but it seems to me that there is a very selfish element to our defending at times. How often do we see Kerry players doubling up, gobbling up their opponents and turning ball over?
There needs to be more. Galway’s movement pulled us out of position time and time again and when that happens it requires cool heads back there to be able to acknowledge what’s going on, communicate and try to rectify the problem to some degree. Of course we are a young side with the world of development and