The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
Early goals set Kerry up for routine victory
MUNSTER SFC SEMI-FINAL Kerry 2-23 Clare 0-17
LAST week in these pages, looking ahead to the meeting of Kerry and Clare, we got more things wrong than we got right.
Just about the only thing we predicted with accuracy was a Kerry victory of the order of between seven and twelve points. The rest? Well, maybe we gave Clare too much credit.
We suggested that Kerry would start out scratchy and sluggish: they scored two goals in the first four minutes.
We believed there’d only be a score or two between the teams at half-time: Kerry led comfortably by seven at the interval.
We thought Kerry might have to look to the bench at the break for a fire-fighter: instead they called for the cavalry simply to compound their superiority.
We reckoned Gary Brennan had the ability to beat David Moran in midfield: maybe Eamonn Fitzmaurice did too, because he left Moran off the starting team.
In the end all we knew was that Kerry would win with plenty to spare and that we wouldn’t be a whole lot wiser ahead of a Munster Final meeting with Cork.
Oh yeah, we got that wrong too. There will be no Cork in the Munster Final, not after they were beaten by Tipperary to set up and first Munster Final meeting between Kerry and the Premier county since 1998.
It was an odd day indeed, both in Killarney and Thurles. The Kerry Juniors provided all the drama in Fitzgerald Stadium with their added time smash and grab win over Limerick; Clare never got themselves into a position for a similar raid, not after Colm Cooper and Stephen O’Brien found the net inside the opening four minutes.
The Clare team bus had stalled in Cratloe on the way down on Sunday morning – an unfortunate omen of things to come. The game wasn’t 90 second old when Colm Cooper kicked for a point, but saw his under-cooked shot catch goalkeeper Joe Hayes off his goal line and the ball nestled in the Clare net.
To concede that first goal was unfortunate, but the second was plain careless. David Tubridy and Stephen O’Brien had traded points before the latter was afforded far too much space and time to steal onto Paul Murphy’s measured pass and see his shot hit both posts before hitting the net.
Another O’Brien point made it 2-2 to 0-1 after seven minutes and embalming liquid rather than smelling salts seemed the only thing necessary. But credit to Clare who absorbed those early and catastrophic body blows and matched Kerry for the remainder of the first half.
The lively Podge Collins pointed. Eoin Cleary converted a sideline ball. Clare were off the slab at least.
Paul Geaney scored two points in quick succession for Kerry and the hosts continued to threaten more goals. In the 19th minute O’Brien’s shot skimmed the crossbar on the way over to put Kerry 2-7 to 0-4 ahead.
Gary Brennan clipped over the bar after and Cleary converted a free to keep the Banner in touch but then Clare lost their most dangerous forward, Podge Collins, to a black card for a harmless trip on debutant defender Tadhg Morley. The Templenoe man was the surprise inclusion in the Kerry team but justified his place with a mature and steady display at wingback. On the other flank Kerry had started Brian Ó Beaglaoich, who had his hands full with Collins for those first 28 minutes.
The last nine minutes of the half saw Geaney, Cooper and Killian Young swap points with Brennan, Cathal O’Connor and Pearse Lillis – Collins’ replacement – to leave it 2-10 to 0-9 at the break, which was about as good as Clare could have hoped for in the circumstances.
The second half went along expected lines, with Clare chasing the game and Kerry keeping them at arm’s length. Early points from Darran O’Sullivan (2), Bryan Sheehan and Cooper gave the hosts more breathing space, opening up a 10-point gap by the 47th minute that was only going to widen.
Marc Ó Sé and Moran - surprise omissions from the starting team – came in, followed by Jonathan Lyne, Barry John Keane, Mikey Geaney and then Anthony Maher, making his first Kerry appearance since the All-Ireland Final. All, in their own way, had points to prove, with Moran, Keane and Maher raising white flags as Clare surrendered completely.
Jamie Malone had, somewhere, along the line drew a smart save out of Brian Kelly, but as the game in Killarney fizzled to an inevitable conclusion, attentions all round switched to Thurles were Cork were trying desperately to reel in an eight-point deficit. They got it back level but Tipp found two late points to set up a first Kerry v Tipperary Munster Final in 18 years.
Whatever about getting the result right in Killarney, no one saw that coming. KERRY: Brian Kelly, Shane Enright, Mark Griffin, Killian Young (0-1), Brian Ó Beaglaoich, Peter Crowley, Tadhg Morley, Kieran Donaghy, Bryan Sheehan (0-2f), Paul Murphy (0-1), Colm Cooper (1-3), Donnchadh Walsh, Darran O’Sullivan (02), Paul Geaney (0-5, 1f), Stephen O’Brien (1-5). Subs: Marc Ó Sé for T Morley, 46, David Moran (0-1) for B Sheehan, 48, Jonathan Lyne for B Ó Beaghlaoich, 51, Barry John Keane (0-2) for D O’Sullivan, 53, Mikey Geaney for D Walsh, 56, Anthony Maher (0-1) for K Donaghy, 64, K Young (injured, 67 not replaced). Black cards :M Geaney (73, not replaced) CLARE: Joe Hayes, Dean Ryan, Kevin Harnett, Martin McMahon, Cian O’Dea, Gordon Kelly, Sean Collins, Gary Brennan (0-2), Cathal O’Connor (0-1), Jamie Malone, Keelan Sexton, Podge Collins (0-1), Eoin Cleary (0-3, 1 f, 1 sideline), David Tubridy (0-7, 4f, 2 ‘45s), Shane McGrath Subs: Pat Burke for S McGrath, 45, Shane Hickey for S Collins, 51, Sean Malone for C O’Dea, 61 Black cards: Pearse Lillis (0-3) for P Collins, 29, Declan McMahon for G Kelly, 65 REFEREE: Fergal Kelly (Longford)