The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
Winning ugly can be most beautiful thing
Kerry had to dig deep to win this All Ireland final and in doing so showed us what a special bunch they really are, writes Damian Stack
BLOCKED down, twice in short order. Dara Moynihan and then Cormac Linnane.
If there was an urgency to Kerry’s desire for a score to settle the game down, Galway brought an equal urgency to the task of keeping them out. The Tribesmen sensed something special was on the cards.
In this contest, which was presented before throw-in as some sort of David versus Goliath affair, Galway were in the process of pulling back their slingshot ready to strike a decisive blow.
A six point half-time deficit had been whittled down gradually, methodically to just two. With eight minutes to go (plus whatever injury time referee Ciarán Branagan opted to play), it was looking pretty good for Galway.
They were the ones making the running having abandoned, to a certain extent at least, their first half caution for a more orthodox approach. It was clear inside the opening thirty seconds of the half that Stephen Joyce wasn’t going to stick rigidly to the tactical approach which brought them this far.
What other choice did he have? A one-man inside forward line with men behind the ball wasn’t going to close down a deficit like that. Instead Galway pushed up, instead Galway took the type of risks their original game plan sought to reduce.
It all seemed to catch Kerry off guard. Despite winning the lion’s share of the primary possession, up until that point in the half the Kingdom had managed just two points. For a team of all the talents it wasn’t the type of return you’d expect.
Conditions clearly played a part – as the early autumn mist floated down upon Headquarters the ball assumed all the qualities of a bar of soap – not that we should underplay just how effective, just how doggedly determined Galway were.
Whatever scores Kerry got during that period were top drawer, out of necessity they had to be. Even when Kerry fashioned a goal chance for Dara Moynihan, Cormac Haslam was equal to it. Kerry were getting nothing easy.
Little mistakes that otherwise might be dismissed as inconsequential took on added significance. A double bounce by Mike Breen as he carried the fight to Galway halted Kerry momentum when it was needed most.
What Kerry needed then, more so than anything else, was somebody to stand up to take it upon himself to arrest the slide, to prove that this Kerry team were everything we thought them to be and more.
Less than sixty seconds after the second of those block downs, David Clifford revealed both the velvet glove and the
iron fist that nestles beneath it with a goal of outrageous quality.
It was a goal to light up any All Ireland final of any era, a goal to prove that this Kerry team has the stuff to cope with adversity. David Naughten, impressive throughout, forced a turn-over and carried before passing off to Clifford in front of the Cusack Stand.
Brushing off Adam Quirke the Fossa man went on a brilliant run towards the Galway goal. Closing in all the time, he eventually struck off his right high and hard and to the roof of the net.
The irresistible force met the immovable object. The irresistible force won.
That Kerry – and Clifford – had to dig so deep to win this game makes it all the more gratifying. What they did in this All Ireland final was worth ten easy victories over Kildare and Derry.
The players knew it too. The way they belted out Seven Nation Army (or what sounded a hello fa lot like it anyway) in their dressing room under the Cusack Stand told you all you needed to know.
These guys savoured that victory. Sometimes winning ugly is a beautiful thing, even to those who play the beautiful game better than most, or maybe even especially so given all that.
Galway held Kerry to just four scores in the first half and ten overall. Had anybody told you the morning of the match that Galway would score more points than Kerry did – nine points to seven – you’d have been both surprised and, if of a green and gold persuasion, worried.
It’s, perhaps, even a little surprising Kerry didn’t score more given how positively they approached the first half. With Galway playing at most two men inside, Desmond Conneely and full-forward Seán Raftery more often than not, and hoping to hit Kerry on the counter we readily admit we expected Peter Keane to be more cautious.
In short we expected something like what the seniors did in the 2014 All Ireland final against Donegal, leaving five or six defenders in position at all times. Instead the minors approached the Galway challenge a little more positively (just not recklessly).
Kerry covered the Galway players left inside, always having at least one spare man in defence at any given time, but they still got numbers into the attack. It made for a claustrophobic first half with Galway relishing the close combat. It took the opportunism of Diarmuid O’Connor and some brilliance on the part of Clifford, Dara Moynihan and David Shaw to break the deadlock.
Galway too found the going tough. Making it hard for Kerry to score made it equally hard for Galway to score. Galway simply didn’t have numbers sufficient to trouble a Kerry defence firing on all cylinders.
Daniel O’Brien was hugely impressive. Michael Potts and the aforementioned Naughten equally so. When called upon the others didn’t disappoint either – Graham O’Sullivan cleared off the line late in the contest; Niall Collins did his usual trick of ghosting up the other end of the pitch for a well taken score; Micheál Foley held the highly rated Finian Ó Laoi scoreless.
That’s the thing about this Kerry team, all the while we’ve been marvelling at the magicians up the other end, the guys at the back and in the engine room (both Mike Breen and Mark Ryan had excellent finals) have been making it all possible. Sunday proved this a better balanced Kerry side than many of us ever suspected.
They’ve got the guts and the character to go along with all the skills of the game. They’ve done themselves, their county and their management team proud.
A special bunch indeed.
What Kerry needed then, was somebody to stand up and take it upon himself to arrest the slide