Burns coming good on early promise

Seán O’Sullivan

KERRY huffed and puffed their way to an unconvincing win over a gallant Meath side on Sunday. The home side played in fits and starts, never really pulling completely out of sight when they had the chances, allowing the visitors to cling on to the very end. Indeed, had it not been for a point blank save with his legs by Brian Kelly going down the stretch, then it could have made for a very difficult last five minutes, which would have been unthinkable considering how Kerry had started.

Without setting the place alight, Peter Keane’s men got about their business impressively from the throw-in. Playing against a slight breeze, they allowed Meath possession from Marcus Brennan’s short kick outs but worked hard to nullify any avenues for the Royals to get out. Our forward movement was excellent with David Clifford and debutant David Shaw operating in tandem, while Paul Geaney dropped deep to create space. Paul is yet to hit the form we know he is capable of. Again,

I’m not sure if the role suits him but time will tell.

Clifford and Shaw, of course, would have played on school (St Brendan’s) and minor (Kerry) sides together so would have a good understanding of each other, which was typified in Clifford’s 14th minute goal. After a decent delivery played in Shaw’s direction, the young Dr Crokes man conjured a delightful flick into the path of Clifford giving his mate a one on one opportunity with Brennan. David obliged with a superb finish low into the right hand corner with his usual aplomb. It had all the mark of what’s to come in Kerry’s future. These are the names that will carry the hopes and dreams of us Kerry fans through the next decade and more.

Shaw kicked a superb point, his first in senior competitive football, and followed up with a decent outing overall. He also showed maturity beyond his years during a period when Kerry were struggling to get their hands on the ball. Whether he was instructed to by management or not, he drifted out from his corner forward berth and claimed a Kelly kick-out impressively to get Kerry up the field and on the attack. For me that showed real self-confidence for a guy who was making his first start. Shaw certainly did enough to warrant more game time in the final three league fixtures.

Another impressive performer for me was Shaw’s club mate Micheal Burns. I’ve never been quite sure if Micheal could make that jump from consistent club performer to inter-county starter. When he first broke on to the scene with Jack O’Connor’s successful minor side of 2014 he struck me as a ready made replacement for Paul Galvin. But as he came up through the ranks he never quite hit the levels that we had seen previously.

Now, maybe he didn’t get a consistent run of games to get embedded into the set-up, but for whatever reason it just never seemed to happen for him. After he was withdrawn in the first half during last summer’s Super 8 game against Sunday’s opposition he drifted off the panel completely and some wondered would he return at all. Well he has, and in the past few games he looks like a guy who is ready to give it a good shot this time round.

Burns was excellent on Sunday, not only putting in a massive shift off the ball but also doing what any forward should be aiming to do and that is score. He notched three good points from play, his third a superb long-range effort, and he is developing a nice habit of finding himself in space around the scoring zone. I wrote last week of our other forwards stepping up when the likes of Clifford, Geaney and Sean O’Shea might be having a quiet day, and Burns certainly did that.

Kerry’s substitutes also played their part with Dara Moynihan and Tommy Walsh adding much needed urgency to proceedings. Moynihan, like Burns, works extremely hard for the side but he needs to add scoring more frequently to his game. He contributed two good points when introduced. Dara was moving well this time last year before sustaining a foot injury which has held him back somewhat since. Hopefully now injury free he can push on to better things.

Tommy Walsh gave the home crowd plenty to cheer about and it wasn’t all about his football ability. He obviously gives us a different dynamic up front and is proving much more than just an old-fashioned target man. He has certainly perfected the ‘lead’ as they call it in the AFL and has a brilliant burst of pace over the five or ten meters to be an ‘out ball’ for us. He used possession intelligently and also kicked a fine score.

Of course, he also showed his brute strength at one stage when, whilst being fouled, he lifted a Meath player over his shoulders in a move that any WWE wrestler would have been proud of! It says a lot about the game itself, possibly, that the incident got one of the loudest cheers of the day.

Kerry just never got into their rhythm for sustained periods bar that first fifteen minutes. Our defence put in an improved performance, superbly marshaled by Shane Enright at centre back. Again, though, they will be disappointed with the ease at which they were opened up for Meath’s first goal. It wasn’t anything special. Meath won a break off a Kerry kick out and carved an opening for wing back Donal Keogan to fire past Brian Kelly. It was alarming at how easy he found his way into our danger zone and how easily he was found with the assist.

Bryan McMahon’s goal with eight minutes remaining was one that could have been avoided. A long, hopeful ball in around the Kerry square could have been dealt with if there had been better communication between backs and goalkeeper before it fell to McMahon to finish. It set up a nervy finish that should never have been the case.

It was a game that Kerry were always going to win and maybe that attitude crept into the players’ psyche. Bar the guys I’ve mentioned, we had too many six-out-of-ten performances that won’t be good enough against better opponents. Mayo are next up in Castlebar on Saturday evening and they need a win badly. Kerry will have to produce a vastly better performance than we saw against Meath. The League has been patchy so far to say the least but away to Mayo might be the best place to start upping the ante.

It was a game that Kerry were always going to win and maybe that attitude crept into the players’ psyche...we had too many six-out-of-ten performances that won’t be good enough against better opponents