‘Fate was sealed in Croker’

BEFORE he made the announcement that seemed to overshadow the game itself, Eamonn Fitzmaurice reflected on a surreal feeling for the Kingdom in despite getting what they wanted out of last Saturday in terms of the match result, ultimately matters outside of their control in Salthill decided their fate.

“The main thing we had to do tonight was take care of our business here. It didn’t look like being the case at half-time when we were four points dow but in the second half we showed what we were all about and played well,” Fitzmaurice felt on the game itself.

He agreed that Neil Flynn’s sending off towards the end of the first period along with the introduction of Kevin McCarthy and James O’Donoghue after the break allowed Kerry to take control of proceedings.

“Kevin (McCarthy) coming in as our extra man really drove it on in the second-half and being a running game in the second-half really suited him. Although we made a nervous start to the match and tried to get the ball into both Kieran (Donaghy) and David (Clifford) we were just a couple of breaks away from getting really decent ball into them.

“David’s penalty probably settled us before half-time but James (O’Donoghue) gave us a different impetus in the second-half when we brought him on. The second half today was similar to the second half in Clones in that we were able to play with a bit more abandon and that definitely suited us,” he said.

The Finuge native admitted that the campaign overall boiled down to the first day against Galway.

“It’s not down to today, it’s still down to the performance in Croke Park against Galway, a performance that is still hard to figure out. Overall we took the view that if you do come through the ‘Super 8’ then you are in a great position heading into an All-Ireland Semi-final but if you don’t come through then you are not good enough. Even though I think we’re not far away from being there, we’re just not quite there yet.”