Same old story in Croker

A CURIOUS one this, it carried with it all the trappings of a big championship Sunday, more so even than that it carried with it the feel of an All Ireland final. Kerry travelled in expectation to Croke Park and once there found a full house, the red carpet, the president and most importantly of all, the Dubs.

Interestingly though, because of the later celebrations to celebrate the 1916 Rising, the game got underway with barely a whimper as the anthem was held in reserve until the Laochra event scheduled for directly after the game.

The lack of that focal point seemed to affect both fans and players alike as they played out a relatively sedate first half which saw Kerry trail Jim Gavin’s side by two points, eight points to ten, at the half-time break.

In the build up to the game there was a certain amount of expectation that neither side would be holding back, but the evidence at hand told a different story. Kerry did seem more up for the game than Dublin it’s true and that allowed them to remain more competitive in the game than they might otherwise have been.

Dublin dominated the possession stakes – in the second half they won all of their own kick-outs – and seemed poised to pounce on Kerry at any given moment. Still to give Kerry their dues it wasn’t until after Aidan O’Mahony was sent off on a straight red card for a foul on Jonny Cooper that the gulf between the sides became evident.

Before then there had been warning

lights flashing on the Kerry dashboard. Bernard Brogan had Marc Ó Sé in all sorts of bother in the full-back line. On the half-back line, meanwhile, Ciarán Kilkenny was leading Fionn Fitzgerald on a merry dance demonstrating impressive power and pace in the process.

On a day when Kerry were supposed to prove that the gap between them and the Dubs had narrowed or been eradicated their eleven point defeat – 2-18 to 0-13 – seemed to suggest the opposite.

The counterpoint to that was that Kerry played this game without Paul Geaney, without Anthony Maher and without James O’Donoghue. Players of that calibre would be missed by any side, Dublin included.

Nevertheless this defeat – a third in the space of about nine months – to the Dubs stung a lot in the Kingdom who were beginning to feel the balance of power had swung decisively in Dublin’s direction. Speaking after the game the Kerry manager acknowledged that a gap still existed but highlighted, in unusually blunt terms, the harsh treatment Kieran Donaghy is often subjected to.