The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
Four-goal Clifford leads Derry on a merry dance
GONE after sixty seconds? Try twelve. From the moment David Clifford rattled the back of Oran Hartin’s net there was only ever going to be one winner to this All Ireland minor final.
That feeling was generated not merely by the three points the Fossa man had just bagged for his side, but by what the goal portended. The big man was in form and on song and, with an on song and in form David Clifford, Kerry were well on their way to victory.
Once Clifford fielded Barry Mahony’s pass, once he turned and shot, Derry knew they were in for a long afternoon of it. To give Damian McErlain’s men their dues their heads didn’t drop, they responded just about as well as you could hope for under the circumstances.
By the eleventh minute Derry had whittled down Kerry’s advantage to just a single point – 1-2 to 0-4 – giving the impression that the game was still afoot. In reality, however, it was little more then a brief respite.
While Derry were closing that gap, Kerry could well have bagged a second goal through Jack Griffin but for some excellent keeping by Hartin. The omens were good or bad depending on your point of view.
In the four minutes after Lorcan McWilliams’ point on eleven minutes Kerry crafted three goal-scoring opportunities and took two of them. The first from Jack Griffin was saved by Hartin.
The second was David Clifford’s remarkable individual goal and the third was finished expertly by Fiarchra Clifford following a sublime pass by his captain. All of a sudden Derry were trailing by seven points and, really, the Ulster men could have few complaints. They were in the process of being completely out-classed.
This time around Kerry didn’t give their opponents a chance to regain their equilibrium. The Kingdom followed up that twogoal rally with a further five points on the bounce.
One of those was from the boot of the excellent Jack Griffin. Three were courtesy of Clifford and the final score of 2-5 unanswered came from Dónal O’Sullivan, another man who didn’t put a foot wrong all afternoon.
Being honest it would be impossible to pick out any Kerry player who under- performed. From the keeper right through to the corner-forward all these players performed admirably.
In defence guys like Cian Gammell and Patrick Warren were really excellent, while up front it wasn’t just the David Clifford show. We’ve already mentioned Dónal O’Sullivan, Jack Griffin and Fiachra Clifford, but Adam Donoghue and Brian Friel also excelled.
Everywhere Derry turned there was a Kerry man causing problems. With a twelve point deficit – 3-8 to 0-5 – Derry were always likely to find the second half a chastening experience and, despite a bright enough start, that’s how it turned out.
Within five minutes of the restart Kerry had the ball in the back of the net for the fourth time in the game thanks to a second Fiachra Clifford goal (assist Michael Potts). A desperate situation for Derry became even worse and, yet, still they persisted.
McErlain turned to Callum Brown at half-time and the big midfielder went straight in at full-forward. Brown did cause problems for the Kerry full-back line and Kerry full-back Chris O’Donoghue.
Three minutes after Fiachra Clifford’s goal Brown was fouled in the box and Patrick Quigg stepped up to finish the penalty. It was less a turning point and more another brief respite for the Ulster champions.
Kerry struck back and struck back hard. To
Quigg’s penalty
Kerry responded with 2-7 unan- swered – two goals from who else but David Clifford, points from Friel, Donoghue and that man again, David Clifford.
That brought us to time added on. A couple of late swapped points – Eddie Horan responded to a Quigg point – rounded out the scoring for a more emphatic victory than any of us expected before hand.
Kerry were sublime, there was nothing Derry or any other team in this year’s championship could have done about it. The Kingdom were simply in a league of their own this season. As, indeed, they have been for the last four seasons.
Who better to round out the under 18 era for minor football than the blue-bloods from the Kingdom? And what better way from them to do it?
KERRY: Devidas Uosis (Dingle), Seán O’Leary (Kilcummin), Chris O’Donoghue (Glenflesk), Cian Gammell (Legion), Patrick Warren (Gneeveguilla), Michael Potts (Dr Crokes), Niall Donohue (Firies), Barry Mahony (St Senans), Diarmuid O’Connor (Na Gaeil), Adam Donoghue (0-1) (Castleisland Desmonds), Jack Griffin (0-2) (Dr Crokes), Dónal O’Sullivan (0-3) (Kilgarvan), Fiachra Clifford (2-0) (Laune Rangers), David Clifford (4-4) (Fossa), Brian Friel (0-5, 1f) (Rathmore) Subs: Eddie Horan (0-1) (Scartaglin) for J Griffin, 44, Donnchadh O’Sullivan (0-1) (Firies) for D O’Sullivan, 49, Ciarán O’Reilly (Austin Stacks) for F Clifford, 52, Michael O’Leary (Renard) for C Gammell, 56, Ryan O’Neill (Na Gaeil) for N Donoghue, 58, Michael Slattery (Austin Stacks) for A Donoghue, 59
DERRY: Oran Hartin, Oran McGill, Conor McCluskey, Seán McKeever, Simon McErlain, Pádraig McGrogan, Conleth McShane, Oisín McWilliams (0-2), Dara Rafferty, Patrick Quigg (1-1, 1 penalty), Richie Mullan (0-1), Martin Bradley, Ben McCarron, Lorcan McWilliams (0-1f), Mark McGrogan (0-2) Subs: Declan Cassidy for C McCluskey, half-time, Conor Quinn for B McCarron, half-time, Callum Brown for D Rafferty, half-time, Odhran Quinn for C McShane, 39, Tiaran McHugh for R Mullan, 42, Jon Paul Devlin for McGrogan, 42
REFEREE: Anthony Nolan (Wicklow)