Young guns show true grit to dig out a famous victory

Kerry 3-7 Galway 0-9

COMPARED to what they faced along the way, this was easily the biggest test the Kerry Minors faced in their 2016 campaign.

Despite a few nervous moments throughout proceedings they secured a third consecutive Tommy Markham Cup for the Kingdom and bridged a gap of 83 years all the way back to the only other time the county recorded such a feat between 1931 and 1933.

Galway won’t lack for regrets about some of the opportunities they left after them. None more so, perhaps, than the chance for goal they had in the first half saved, last gasp, by Kerry shot-stopper Billy Courtney. Ultimately their desire to stop Kerry as opposed to committing more men in attack cost them when the game was in the balance.

Showery conditions made the ground difficult underfoot as could be seen from the amount of errors by both sides on the day as a free from Sean O’Shea two minutes in was the only score in the opening eighteen minutes of the game.

The second score owed much to Diarmuid O’Connor’s guile as he guided a probing ball from O’Shea past Galway goalkeeper Cormac Haslam and into the net for a 1-1 to 0-0 advantage.

Galway finally got on the scoreboard three minutes later through a Desmond Conneely free but when Dara Moynihan and David Clifford combined for David Shaw to score Kerry’s second goal in the 23rd minute and a 2-1 to 0-1 lead it looked Kerry would run riot again from there.

An exchange of points by Galway’s Céin D’Arcy and David Shaw were the only remaining first-half scores however as a difficult first-half on the eye came to an close with Kerry leading 2-2 to 0-2 at the break.

Galway showed a bit more ambition and endeavour after the restart and drew within three points of the Kingdom as it took Niall Collins to come forward in the 41st minute and score Kerry’s first point of the second-half.

Hawkeye ruled out a second second-half point soon after, but the back-to-back Minor winners looked to be in trouble with the game entering the final 10 minutes with frees from Robert Finnerty and Conneely along with a point from play by Ryan Forde trumping a Dara Moynihan point in bringing the Tribesmen within two at 2-4 to 0-8 in the 51st minute.

Then came probably the key moment of the match, Kerry looked rattled when Galway blocked them down twice in the search for a score, but the Galway move down field was countered and though he had a quiet game in comparison to some of his other performances this year, David Clifford rattled the ball into the net for Kerry’s third goal in the 53rd minute and a crucial five point lead.

It took a good piece of defending by Galway to stop Kerry scoring a fourth goal, just as Graham O’Sullivan had to be vigilant at the other end in preventing the concession of a green flag. It was a day when David Naughton excelled at the heart of the Kerry defence.

Substitute Cormac Linnane and the team captain O’Shea rounded off the scoring in securing a seven point win that wasn’t as comfortable as the final scoreline might suggest.

Kerry might not have set the scoreboard or social media alight like they have done on previous occasions in this campaign, but they did show a degree of grit and determination to get the job done when the occasion demanded it on Sunday.

This 14th All-Ireland minor title extends Kerry’s advantage over Dublin at the top of the Roll of Honour to three. This is the first time the three-in-a-row has been done since Cork did so between 1967 and 1969.

Kerry repeated their 1994 win over the Tribesmen, a day when they were also the sole Kerry interest on the third Sunday in September. Another empathic statement about the county’s revival at underage level has been made with this predominantly convincing campaign from the first match up until the conclusion. KERRY: Billy Courtney (Dr Crokes), David Naughen (Dr Crokes), Niall Collins (0-1) (Listowel Emmets), Graham O’Sullivan (Dromid Pearses), Michael Potts (Dr Crokes), Daniel O’Brien (Glenflesk), Micheál Foley (Ballydonoghue), Mike Breen (Beaufort), Mark Ryan (Rathmore), Dara Moynihan (0-2) (Spa), Seán O’Shea (0-2f) (Kenmare), Diarmuid O’Connor (1-0) (Na Gaeil), David Clifford (1-0) (Fossa), David Shaw (1-1) (Dr Crokes), Brian Friel (Rathmore) Subs: Cormac Linnane (0-1) for B Friel, 47, Caolim Teahan for N Collins, 53, Bryan Sweeney for D Shaw, 39, Kieran Dwyer for M Foley, 64, Stefan Okonbor for D O’Connor, 66 GALWAY: Cormac Haslam, Liam Boyle, Seán Mulkerrin, Eoin McFadden, Adam Quirke (0-1), Ernán McDonagh, Fionán Garvey, Céin D’Arcy (0-1), John Maher, Finian Ó Laoi, Evan Murphy, Ryan Forde (0-1), Robert Finnerty (0-3, 2f), Seán Raftery, Desmond Conneely (0-2f) Subs: Barry Goldrick for E Murphy, 37, Ross Murphy for S Raftery, 49, Rory Cunningham (0-1) for R Finnerty, 55, Eoghan Deely for F Garvey, 56 REFEREE: Ciarán Branagan (Down)