Kerry brush aside Galway in fine style
AS the opening game of a major competition goes – not to mind the first game of football after a six-month pandemic-induced lockdown – this was as underwhelming as the GAA and sponsors Allianz could have feared it might be.
Kerry walloped Galway to the tune of 22 points in Tralee and the mercy was that no one was allowed in to watch it.
It wasn’t that Kerry were not absolutely brilliant in almost everything they did, but Galway were so abject that to call this a contest would be a stretch.
No one should or will hammer Galway for this result: the circumstances of the delayed start to this National League means no one should be reading between any lines too much this week or next.
Galway boss Padraic Joyce has lots of chins to lift off the floor this week but he will surely have learned as much, if not more, than his counterpart Peter Keane from this exercise.
Keane’s troubles, as it were, will be to quieten rising expectations after such a heady and impressive win.
The Kerry natives are getting restless for the ultimate prize, and while a successful defence of the League title they won last October won’t carry much currency in the Kingdom this year, this performance will already have tongues wagging around Tralee and Killarney.
A David Clifford hat-trick – and a fourth goal from his brother Paudie on his first senior start – would have been enough on their own to beat Galway in a criminally one-sided game that was effectively over by the first water break.
Keane had said at the start of the week that he and his players would be ‘poking in the dark’ against Galway after coming out of that six-month hiatus but this was as illuminating a performance as any in Kerry could have hoped for.
Kerry were as devastating from the start as Galway were atrocious.
It took the older Clifford brother, Paudie, just 37 seconds to score from play, and when Damien Comer equalised within a minute it seemed that Galway were up to speed also.
By the time Shane Walsh converted a free in the 14th minute for Galway’s second score, Kerry led 0-6 to 0-1 and the game was tilting one way only.
Sean O’Shea teed up David Clifford for a palmed goal just before the water break, a score that made it 1-6 from play for the Kerry full forward in that first quarter.
Moments after the drinks were downed Paudie Clifford took Dara Moynihan’s pass and slipped the ball past Bernard Power to make it 2-7 to 0-3.
The visitors had so little to offer that Joyce cut a forlorn figure on the sideline, frustrated that so many of his players looked out of gas and inspiration so early in the game.
Galway were laboured in everything they tried, and it will take serious work to get them up to speed for Roscommon next weekend.
Kerry kept piling on the pressure with slick movement, incisive running and crisp finishing from the Cliffords and Killian Spillane, whose four from play helped Kerry to a 2-10 to 0-6 half time lead.
Any small hope of a Galway come-back in the second half was quickly extinguished with David Clifford’s second goal – less than two minutes into the half.
Five minutes later the Fossa man conjured another moment of magic for the highlights reel with a cheeky drag-back and neat finish to the net to help make it 4-13 to 0-7 at the second water break.
After that both teams simply emptied their benches.
In Galway’s case it seemed more an act of compassion for those coming off.
While Kerry got a few familiar faces on to the field as well as the Cliffords’ cousin, Paul O’Shea, who came in for a debut and a score.
KERRY: Kieran Fitzgibbon, Brian O Beaglaoich (Adrian Spillane 56), Tadhg Morley, Jason Foley, Paul Murphy (Mike Breen 66), Gavin Crowley, Gavin White (Graham O’Sullivan 56), David Moran (Diarmuid O’Connor 41), Jack Barry, Dara Moynihan (Micheal Burns 61), Sean O’Shea, Paul Geaney (Paul O’Shea 41), David Clifford (Tommy Walsh 51), Killian Spillane, Paudie Clifford. YELLOW CARD: P Clifford.
BLACK CARD: B O Beagaloich.
SCORERS: D Clifford 3-6 (0-1f, 0-1m), S O’Shea 0-7 (4f, 1m, 2 ‘45’), P Clifford 1-2, K Spillane 0-4, P O’Shea 0-1, T Walsh 0-1 (m).
GALWAY: Bernard Power, Jack Glynn, Seán Ó Maoilchiaráin, Liam Silke, Gary O’Donnell (Sean Kelly h-t), Dylan McHugh, Johnny Heaney (Cathal Sweeney 27), Peter Cooke (Ronan Steede 27), Paul Conroy (Finnian O Laoi 49, inj), Paul Kelly (Robert Finnerty ht), Matthew Tierney, Eamonn Brannigan (Kieran Molloy 60), Dessie Conneely (Tomo Culhane 58), Damien Comer, Shane Walsh.
YELLOW CARD: S Kelly.
SCORERS: P Conroy 0-2 (1f), D Comer 0-2, S Walsh 0-2 (1f), M Tierney 0-1, D Conneely 0-1, S Kelly 0-1, K Molloy 0-1, R Finnerty 0-1 (f).
REFEREE: Conor Lane (Cork).