Numbers Game

In a way it’s quite easy to analyse last Saturday evening’s game.

Why did Kerry win? They won because they were more accurate. They won because they were more disciplined. They won because they won the lion’s share of the primary possession.

And yet, we’re left to wonder a little bit about how much store we can set by any of it. When the game was in the melting pot in the first half the Kingdom struggled to make an impact. The route one approach to Donaghy wasn’t working and Éamonn Fitzmaurice’s men were porous at the back (Paul Cribben in par ticular made hay).

Kerry were doing well on their own kick-outs in the first half – winning a healthy 73% – while claiming half of Kildare’s restar ts.

That being the case it was curious to see the team struggle as they did to make an impact in the game outside of the odd burst – David Clifford doing his thing, David Moran grabbing the game by the scruff of the neck and winning a penalty.

Then in the second half the Kingdom turned it around completely. They not only maintained their dominance at kick-out time, it became even more pronounced. Kerry won all of their own kick-outs and claimed eight from nineteen of Kildare’s restar ts.

The difference now was that this dominance of primary possession was accompanied by dominance on the scoreboard. Kerry created twenty one scoring chances in the second half, up on four teen in the first half, and scored a remarkable nineteen of those for a 90% return on chances created (80% overall).

This of course has to be set against the red card picked up by Kevin Flynn just before the half-time break. Given that Kildare really had nothing to play for in this game besides pride is it any surprise the fight went out of them in the second half?

Kerry were playing a beaten docket down to four teen men, who compounded their situation with a poor turnover on their very first kick-out of the second half, which resulted in a goal for Das Wunderkind (aka David Clifford).

So as impressive as that second half was (and the stats are impressive), you do have to ask what did it all mean? Not a huge pile unfor tunately. The fight went out of Kildare following Clifford’s second goal.

Yes Kerry played lovely stuff – Stephen O’Brien came to life, James O’Donoghue scored a screamer – but what team wouldn’t under a similar set of circumstances.