Some days, you know there’s something going on. There had been indications from Kerry that they weren’t very happy with how they were being viewed going into last weekend’s All-Ireland quarter-final.
What struck me was David Clifford after the Cavan game, asking for the county to support them in Croke Park. This was for a quarter-final when some Kerry followers won’t even go there for semi-finals.
But I think they took on board the message from players and from the Kerry management – Jack O’Connor had also spoken about the pressure on his team – to get up to Croke Park, get the numbers out, get in there and support us.
Because one thing about Armagh is that they will travel en masse all the time. There was an enormous difference in support levels in the semi-final last year and you just felt that the longer that game went on, the less chance Kerry had of winning because the crowd was lifting Armagh.
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At the weekend, most people felt it was Armagh’s to lose. If you were watching the championship all year, particularly since the Ulster final, you were more than likely thinking this is the best team in the country based on form.
On the flip side of that, if we are being honest, there was nothing that happened in the past 12 months to suggest that second half was coming from Kerry either. There was a reason so many people didn’t fancy them.
What happened on Sunday was out of the blue. They played as well as any Kerry team in recent years, including when they won the All-Ireland three years ago.
Sunday’s 15-minute demolition – going from five down to nine ahead – in the second half came from Armagh not being fit to win primary possession on their own kick-out. It’s not something anyone could see coming. In the Ulster semi-final, Ethan Rafferty hit the target 23 times out of 24 kick-outs.
At the weekend, during the 14-point horror show, which completely reversed the momentum of the match, Armagh held only two of their 11 restarts and failed to score a single point.
Again, we didn’t see this coming in the first half. Rafferty did kick a couple of wayward ones, but there was no indication that a rout was coming.
Before you know it, the game has just gone away from you. It’s a hugely difficult thing to wrestle that momentum shift in the middle of a game, particularly when the crowd is on your back.
Kerry now have all the energy and they’re making all the noise, getting big scores, particularly from their big players. It’s a very difficult thing to resist and when everything is going against you, Croke Park can be a very unforgiving place.
Shane Ryan in the Kerry goal hardly had a kick-out to take in that period of time. It just needed someone to settle the thing down, even work a short kick-out, just get hands on the ball and try to take the sting out of the game.
Ryan had a very good game. I was watching his reaction after the Armagh goal because it started with his kick-out getting turned over. But there was no sitting there on the ground feeling sorry for himself.
The ball was on the tee and it was gone. Straight down the field. Seán O’Shea puts it over the bar within seconds and takes the sting out of the goal straight away.
Kerry were simply relentless in the second half and you could see them growing in stature, big players getting big scores and the reaction to their big scores. Seánie O’Shea kicked one in the second half and his first reaction is a fist pump.
David Clifford gets a couple of scores, so there’s a high five and a couple of fist pumps. Those reactions were telling. You could see they had poured a lot into this game.
Their big players really stood up. Paudie Clifford coming on at halftime made a huge difference to their play and settled them down. As soon as he gets the ball, everybody knows that the right thing is going to happen here. He’ll either drop the shoulder and take his man on or he’ll link a pass and find a teammate.
There was one instance in the second half where play had got a wee bit scrappy just on the 45-metre line or just outside it in the second half. In the thick of a ruck, Paudie just nonchalantly chips the ball up into his own hands while surrounded by three Armagh players.
That has some effect on the other players, who know he’ll win the ball and do the right thing with it. It’s a massive bonus for Kerry to have him back with two matches left.
Armagh just couldn’t slow it down and put a stop to the damage. They had chances just to get something up on the board, but both Niall Grimley and Ben Crealey missed. Last year those kicks were sailing over the bar.
I suppose there probably was an element of panic. How long has it been since Armagh were in the position where a game is just going away from them?
Although they had built a good lead in the early stages of the second half, there had been a slackness to some of Armagh’s play. I’m thinking of a breakaway attack early in the first half which looked like a goal was on.
A poor fisted pass hit the ground and slowed up the attack. Then it was shipped back out to Niall Grimley who ended up trailing the ball wide at the near post. It wasn’t like them and how they have been conducting their business to date. On those breaks, they had been launching counter-attacks and really hurting teams. Now they just weren’t clicking as freely.
A brilliant performance by Kerry who may end up having to beat Armagh, Tyrone and Donegal to win the All-Ireland. In trying to do so, they might struggle to replicate the quality of the quarter-final, but it will have sent their confidence sky high.
