THE KICK AND THE DEAD
Sun truly Sean on Kingdom with a last gasp free taking out old enemy
FOR Kerry, it was the ultimate escape to victory in the end.
You couldn’t say they didn’t deserve it over the course of the 70-plus minutes. But having seen such a commanding position whittled away as their old failings manifested in the last 25 minutes or so, a defeat in the circumstances would have been beyond devastating.
Having led by 1-8 to 0-6 at half-time after largely dictating things, they were six ahead and comfortable early in the second half. Every time they crossed the Dublin 45 a score was on.
They had only one wide up to then. Sean O’shea had missed a penalty before half-time. Stephen O’brien fluffed a chance for a goal just after half-time following a sublime pass from David Clifford, who was by now up to 0-6 for the day and causing Mick Fitzsimons endless grief.
The pattern of play suggested a second Kerry goal, to add to O’shea’s fourth minute effort, was most likely and that if and when it came they might just run away with it and bring a glorious era for Dublin football to a rather shoddy end.
But while Dublin may not pack the same punch as in their pomp, and it probably did for them in the end, their spirit remains pretty well intact. Once Kerry gave them a sniff, they seized on it.
It was pretty innocuous when it arose as David Moran fumbled a ball in the Dublin half, with the ball being swept upfield and the otherwise ineffective Cormac Costello sliding the ball through the eye of a needle and inside Shane Ryan’s right-hand post. Kerry’s lead was halved and the Dublin crowd found their voice.
“It was the one thing that we were afraid of,” said Kerry boss
Jack O’connor. “You give Dublin possession, turnover possession, in the middle third of the pitch and you’re looking for trouble.
“It was a great finish by Costello to be fair and it took a great finish to beat Shane Ryan.”
From the next attack, Clifford was released and pulled back on his left foot, just as he had done minutes earlier before pointing. Only this time he dragged his shot wide, to Dublin roars.
Ciaran Kilkenny fisted a point after a goalmouth scramble that could easily have resulted in a second Dublin goal.
Kilkenny and James Mccarthy in particular rose to the challenge as Dublin sensed Kerry weakness that has manifested itself repeatedly coming down the stretch in season-defining knockout games in recent years.
Luckily for Kerry, they had some to pick up the slack too, Paudie Clifford for one. Having been relatively quiet in the first half, he came up with two points when the need was greatest and pushed the lead out to three.
But Dublin, and Mccarthy especially, refused to yield. The captain hit a brilliant point and broke the next kickout which ended in another Kilkenny point.
Kilkenny then levelled the match in the 69th minute and when O’shea and Dean Rock swapped frees in injury time, extra time seemed inevitable.
To their credit, Shane Ryan and Kerry overcame the intense Dublin press to get the subsequent kickout away but when David Clifford drew a foul from Davy Byrne with the allotted five minutes of injury time just up, there didn’t appear to be any immediate danger for Dublin. Even for as sweet a kicker as O’shea.
But he made light of the distance of some 53 metres, the elements in his face, the jeers from Hill 16, fatigue, the pressure, his county’s recent history in this fixture and even Comerford comically shaking the goalpost to arc a shot that easily cleared the crossbar.
The worry for Kerry is this team’s flaws in clutch moments were so apparent elsewhere, but the hope will be that O’shea’s intervention rids them of those doubts going forward.