The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
Semi-final will be whole other ball game Whole other ball game
While Kerry were simply devastating against Kildare, the All-Ireland semi-final will be a totally different proposition, writes Paul Brennan
BY any yardstick, Kerry’s victory over Kildare last Sunday was barely believeable. With every passing minute of a GUBU-esque second half the records tumbled. Biggest winning margin in an All-Ireland quarter-final? Check. Most goals scored by a Kerry team in a Championship match in Croke Park? Check. Most goals scored by one team in one half of a Championship match? We believe so.
Kildare, we reckon, also wrote themselves into the history books. Biggest losing margin / most goals conceded / etc, etc.
In time this All-Ireland quarter-final will provide answers to several table quiz questions, but when the disbelief ebbs away, what we are left with, in essence, is how the Kerry management will view matter this week: a quarter-final won and a semi-final to prepare for.
At one stage deep in the second half, when the result was well and truly sown up, Eamonn Fitzmaurice dropped his guard and allowed himself a barely perceptible smile before the final whistle sounded. It was out of character for the Kerry manager, but quite understandable in the circumstances. Without wanting to dance on Kildare’s grave, if Fitzmaurice couldn’t allow himself a moment to enjoy what we all witnessed on Sunday then why would he be in the job at all.
Nonetheless, it will be straight faces all round in Fitzgerald Stadium this week as Kerry start to knuckle down to the real business in hand.
By and large All-Ireland quarter-finals have troubled Kerry too much. All-Ireland semi-finals are a different matter altogether and duly Monaghan or Tyrone will certainly focus the minds of the Kerry players and management.
Whatever else we think we might know about the challenge either Ulster county will present to Kerry we know this: neither Tyrone nor Monaghan will roll over and let Kerry tickle their bellies the way Kildare did. Come what may on August 23 we can assure ourselves that there will be plenty of bite in Kerry’s semi-final underdog opponent.
Perhaps the most damning statistic that Kildare will mull over in their post-mortem (an apt phrase in this instance) is that not one of their players picked up a yellow card. Now, we’re not advocating rough play for the sake of it, but you’d have thought that at least one Kildare player would have been sufficiently stung by the humiliation that he’d have left a foot in late or swung a Kerry man to the ground. That they couldn’t even muster a little petulance near the end – or, indeed, show more physicality in the first half – speaks volumes of just how off it Jason Ryan’s team was from start to finish.
There is little that can be said for Kildare’s ‘performance’ other than it was tragic. We believed going to Croke Park on Sunday that unquestionably the second quarter-final would be the one to throw up the mauling. That the biggest winning margin of the day
would be the Dubs. That Fermanagh would be the whipping boys.
Here’s the funny thing. In their heart of hearts the Fermanagh players surely knew they weren’t going to beat Dublin, but they went out and showed that they weren’t going to be anyone’s punch bag either. Kildare, possibly, believed they could topple Kerry, as they had Cork the previous week, but once the squeeze came on they crumpled like wet tissue.
Kildare quit. Kildare quit early and they quit completely, and some of the best parts of Kerry’s performance has to be set in that context. Of course, Kerry had to be good enough and clinical enough to put Kildare away, but for the last 25 minutes – during which Kerry took the Lilywhites for 6-6 – Cooper and O’Sullivan and Keane and O’Brien might as well have been playing against training cones.
That doesn’t nor shouldn’t detract from what was a thoroughly professional and clinical Kerry performance, something they haven’t produced in an All-Ireland quarter-final in quite some time, but neither will Fitzmaurice and his players be congratulating themselves too much on the last handful goals, save for the crisp finishing for all four.
Fitzmaurice assured us afterwards that the game never stopped being useful to him and the players, but one wonders about, for example, Tommy Walsh. The match was well won before Walsh was sent on, and while the four kick-outs he won were hugely impressive we have to be honest and suggest the Kildare midfield were a totally beaten docket by then. The other question is this: why was Walsh deemed unnecessary in the two Munster finals, especially the first when Kerry desperately needed to get their hands on the ball in midfield after David Moran’s black card?
Paul Galvin, too, looked impressive against Kildare’s training cones when brought on with 16 minutes to go and Kerry 20 points in front, but how coveted will Galvin’s contribution be when Monaghan or Tyrone are, perhaps, breathing down Kerry’s necks in two and half weeks with 16 minutes to go?
Maybe Walsh and Galvin have plenty to offer Kerry in the Championship yet, and who are we to second guess Fitzmaurice and his selectors when Kerry have just cruised into an All-Ireland semi-final by 27 points?
Nonetheless, by close of play last Sunday 25 of the 26 players on the match day squad had seen Championship action this summer (goalkeeper Brian Kelly the exception). Throw in Mark Griffin from the Tipperary match and that’s 26 players who have played some part in the Championship thus far. It’s doubtful any of the other remaining five teams can match that. And it’s surely a statistic that has to benefit the defending champions going into August.
Despite the paucity of the Kildare challenge and the general absence of competitiveness for most of Sunday’s semi-final a few clear positives for Kerry stood out.
As we flagged here in our Championship preview a couple of months ago, Darran O’Sullivan has shown himself that he could well be Kerry’s no so secret ‘secret weapon’ this year. Scoring 2-1 off the bench and generally terrorising the Kildare defence bodes well for Kerry and not so well for opposing backs for the rest of the year.
Stephen O’Brien responded to being dropped for the Munster Final replay by scoring four points when the game was still somewhat of a contest.
Barry John Keane also came off the bench to score 1-3 from play, albeit when the Kildare defence was feeling considerably more generous.
And on a day when the forwards got all the glory, it should be noted that the Kerry defence was excellent in their marking, discipline and unity.
Remarkable, too, that Bryan Sheehan should play 55 minutes and not convert one free kick. (Not that he had many opportunities given that Kildare couldn’t even get close to Kerry to foul them.)
Fitzmaurice’s next assignment is back in Croke Park on Saturday to see Monaghan and Tyrone duke it out for the right to play Kerry two weeks later. It’s a tough quarter-final to call and they’re both opposition that will concern Fitzmaurice but not frighten him.
Monaghan, at this juncture, is the team that could cause Kerry more problems but it’s quite possible that Micket Harte’s men could turn the Ulster champions over next weekend. Kerry, we suggest, are going to the All-Ireland Final anyway; beating Tyrone on the way would just make the penultimate step that bit sweeter.