A new day dawns as new look Kingdom see off below par Red Hand

BE honest... out of the box did you expect Kerry to be as good as they were? As composed? As organised? As strong? As fit?

It’s not that we didn’t have faith in the new management team or the set of players they had at their disposal, it’s just that we thought it would take time, certainly longer than a few months of pre-season training and a handful of challenge games.

Obviously we weren’t viewing anything like the finished product in Fitzgerald Stadium on Sunday afternoon – mistakes were made, it wasn’t a flawless performance, nor we hasten to add would anybody involved claim it to be – but for a first day out it was damned impressive stuff.

All of this has to be caveated against the poverty of what Tyrone brought to the table. There were times, watching the first half in particular, when you had to double-take and remind yourself that Tyrone were in an All Ireland final last September.

You had to remind yourself too that they had completed a much bigger schedule of pre-season games than the Kingdom. You had to remind yourself that they’d won the McKenna Cup just eight days beforehand.

If Mickey Harte’s men were poor – and they were – the Kingdom must take credit for that too. Right from the off there was an aggression to Kerry, a desire to get struck in and make life difficult for the Red Hand.

The first half was a bit of an arm wrestle truth be told. Defences on top, players funnelling back, space at a premium. Modern football, in other words. Not exactly easy on the eye, but compelling in its own way.

Especially so when what you want to see is how this new-look Kerry would stand up to a team of Tyrone’s calibre. Defensively Kerry were as strong as we’ve seen them in at least two or three seasons.

One word to describe it would be methodical. Even when players made the odd mistake – a misplaced pass, a turnover, all understandable under the conditions – there was no panic in the ranks. The result being that Kerry kept the Ulster champions and All Ireland finalists to just a single point in the first half.

As a matter of fact it wasn’t until the second half and the fiftieth minute before they registered a point from play through Peter Harte. A woeful return from Tyrone, hugely promising from a green and gold perspective.

Even if Tyrone had more possession the first half with the breeze at their backs, they did very little with it. Kerry, by contrast, made much better use of their possession and of the chances they created.

Seán O’Shea points kept the Kingdom ticking over and then to round out the half Peter Keane’s side finished with a flourish. Two points by the irrepressible Dara Moynihan – both following assists by Paul Geaney – sent Kerry in 0-5 to 0-1 clear (and it would have been more had Stephen O’Brien hit the back of the net on seventeen minutes).

By then it was hard enough to see how Tyrone could come back into this game. Perhaps Kerry – younger, less experienced, with (we assumed, probably incorrectly in hindsight) less work done – would fade in the final quarter. It didn’t really happen. Yes Tyrone were better in the second half than the first, they could hardly be worse, but they were still really rather poor, squandering a majority of the chances they created and relying to a very large degree on placed balls for scores.

Out of the seven they scored in the match just two were from play. Kerry were by far the more dynamic and instinctive side, with the ability to strike from deep, in short, sharp movements – Tom O’Sullivan’s point on forty five minutes proving just how dangerous the Kingdom could be.

Tyrone did close to within two points of their hosts on occasion – three times – and that briefly raised the possibility that they might rally to victory, but Kerry always had that capacity to get scores when they needed them.

When there was just two points in it going into time added on – 0-9 to 0-7 – there was a justifiable tension in the stands and on the terraces that Kerry might be vulnerable to a sucker-punch goal.

Tyrone wouldn’t have deserved it necessarily – and never really looked like troubling Shane Ryan – but there’s always that fear. It was a first test of this new-look Kerry side’s resolve and they answered that test emphatically.

Seán O’Shea fired over a sideline ball between the sticks at the Lewis Road end that Maurice Fitzgerald in his pomp would have been proud of and slotted over a final free on seventy three minutes to make certain of victory.

For a first day out the Kerry faithful couldn’t have asked for better. Up and running and with two points in the bag, the Kingdom can attack this league with confidence and gusto.

A new day has dawned.

KERRY: Shane Ryan, Peter Crowley, Jack Sherwood, Brian Ó Beaglaoich, Tadhg Morley, Paul Murphy, Tom O’Sullivan (0-1), Jack Barry (0-1), Adrian Spillane, Jonathan Lyne, Seán O’Shea (0-6, 4f, 1 sideline), Diarmuid O’Connor, Dara Moynihan (0-2), Paul Geaney, Stephen O’Brien Subs: Gavin Crowley for T Morley, 44, Gavin O’Brien for P Geaney, 57, Mikey Geaney (0-1) for J Lyne, 61, Killian Spillane for S O’Brien, 69

TYRONE: Niall Morgan (0-1f), Liam Rafferty, Ronan McNamee, Hugh Pat McGeary, Tiernan McCann, Rory Brennan, Michael McKiernan, Brian Kennedy, Declan McClure, Mattie Donnelly (0-1), Peter Harte (0-1), Niall Sludden, Darren McCurry (0-4f), David Mulgrew, Cathal McShane Subs: Kyle Coney for D Mulgrew, half-time, Kieran McGeary for L Rafferty, 38, Darragh Canavan for N Sludden, 52, Conor Meyler for HP McGeary, 64

REFEREE: David Gough (Meath)