The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
Hurlers strike back dramatically at Laois
After a disappointing first half performance, Fintan O’Connor’s side really turned it around the second, writes Damian Stack
ONE pass, one clever, teasing, dangerous ball was all it took. That was the spark which lit the fuse. Sparked Kerry back to life after a lifeless first half.
The breeze alone can’t have been the sole reason for Kerry’s first half lethargy. There was more to it than that. Laois certainly were game, Laois were hungry, Laois were hurling better and more fluidly than their hosts.
Frustratingly a lot of that was down to the Kingdom. It’s easier to look fluid and full of energy when the team you’re playing allows you to, when they make all the errors, unforced errors, handling errors, basic errors that they hardly ever would.
Each one of those mistakes saps confidence and, more importantly even than that, halts momentum dead in its tracks. In the first half Kerry couldn’t really get a grip on the game, couldn’t hurl their way into it.
It took until the twenty ninth minute of the game for them to get off the mark from play – a fine individual effort by Shane Nolan – and, while Jordan Conway forced a save from Laois keeper Eoin Fleming on fifteen minutes, the Kingdom didn’t much look like scoring from play, not on a regular basis at any rate.
Added to that Shane Nolan was uncharacteristically off form from the placed ball, even if we must admit that clearly the stiff breeze affected the Crotta O’Neills man. In the first half he dropped two frees short and hit a further two wide.
In a game where Kerry were struggling for scores, in a game where Laois’ Stephen Maher was snaffling every chance from a free which came his way, that could have proven fatal. Nine times out of ten it would have done. That’s what made what happened in the second half so remarkable.
A little over a minute into the half and Paudie O’Connor, who until then was relatively subdued, lofted a ball in towards Padraig Boyle, who claimed and put Laois keeper Eoin Fleming instantly into all sorts of bother.
It was no surprise, then, when Johnny Murphy’s whistle finally blew to award the penalty. Boyle’s strike was venomous, the keeper didn’t stand a chance. All of a sudden, with the breeze at the backs, a deficit of six points to Laois looked well within striking distance for the Kingdom.
On its own the goal wouldn’t have accomplished much unless and until it was accompanied by an uptick in performance from key players. The goal changed everything. It bred confidence in Kerry, sowed seeds of doubt in a young Laois side.
Suddenly a half-back line that looked in all sorts of bother in the first half thundered into the game in a major way. Patrick Kelly evolved into a command-
ing presence on the forty, Paud Costello powered into the game, Darren Dineen seemed to be first to any and every danger that threatened to emerge.
It was a powerful platform from which the Kingdom could press on. Confidence breeds confidence. Momentum breeds momentum and, while it took Kerry until sixty two minutes to snatch the lead for the first time, it was clear which team was finishing stronger.
In hindsight even the first half provided evidence for how Kerry might turn this game around. They created far more chances than the paltry return of just four points suggested – it was their scoring return of just twenty nine percent which was really killing them.
Fintan O’Connor’s charges more than doubled their scoring return for the second half to sixty five percent. There were points from play from Mikey Boyle, Daniel Collins, Colum Harty, Padraig Boyle and Paudie O’Connor (not even mentioning the two goals from play by Harty and Boyle).
Really that was more like it, that was more like what this team and these players are capable of. Take Daniel Collins’ performance as an indicator. He like the rest of the team was subdued in to the first half, in the second he was vibrant, eager and hungry and deadly accurate with everything he did.
He wasn’t the only one to up his game substantially in the second half. Mikey Boyle went from the fringes of this game to centre stage. His six puck-outs won – most of those won after the break – helped keep Kerry on the front foot throughout the second half.
Laois for their part were stuck in something of a vicious circle. In the second half, thanks in no small part to the efforts of Collins, Boyle and others, Kerry claimed nine of Laois’ seventeen puck-outs.
Eamonn Kelly’s men were pinned back and while they got numbers back at times to try and break the Kingdom siege it had the effort of limiting their effectiveness at the other end.
Laois went form creating eighteen first half chances to just eight in the second half – yes the breeze was a factor, but Kerry’s increasing confidence all over the pitch was the more critical competent we suspect.
At half-time it was difficult to see a way back into the game for Kerry and a defeat in the first round would have all but guaranteed their participation in the relegation play-off in April. This win gives them every chance of avoiding it, there’s even a chance that they could make the knock-out stages.
Last year scoring difference cost them a place in the quarter-finals against Kilkenny – a bullet dodged in many respects – this year, on the basis of that victory last weekend, that quarter-final spot should be their ambition.
Of course they’ll have to improve radically to be able to hold their own in that game against the top side in Division 1A – most likely Tipperary or Waterford – and, of course, they’ll have to improve from last weekend to beat Offaly when they come to town in a couple of weeks time.
The thing is though they should. Last weekend’s performance, even in the much improved second half, wasn’t this Kerry team at their absolute best. With the O’Leary brothers to return there’s more to come.
Alas John Egan won’t be returning as he confirmed his retirement last week. It’s no exaggeration to place him in the top bracket of hurlers to ever don the green and gold and certainly he was one of the finest ever finishers we’ve seen.
Mercurial and deadly Egan was often worth the admission fee alone. No doubt we’ve not seen the last of him on a hurling pitch. His beloved St Brendans stand to benefit most of all from his decision. Another tilt at the title beckons him and them.
Alas John Egan won’t be returning. It’s no exaggeration to place him in the top bracket of Kerry hurlers