Kerry 1-15 Dublin 0-11
The South Wind Blows, alright.
The latest chapter in the most celebrated rivalry in Irish sport continued on a wild Saturday night in Tralee in front of a raucous full house.
As early league game go, it contained lightning flashes of brilliant Kerry football in truly appalling weather. And it didn’t tell the punters too much they didn’t already know about either team.
It is clear that in the perpetual power struggle for supremacy, Kerry hold the better light sabres now. Fielding a championship-calibre team, they threatened to maul an inexperienced Dublin side here.
Their kick-pass and free-shooting game flowed. Playing with the Atlantic gale and rain in the first half, they gave an exhibition of the fundamentals of the kicking game.
David Clifford was outrageous, shrugging off a penalty miss to fire four breathtaking points while his brother,Paudie, set the tone for Kerry’s bright, energetic forward movement.
It took Diarmuid O’Connor about 20 minutes to get to grips and then entirely dominate the midfield sector along with Jack Barry. Their back division held Dublin to just 0-1 during the first ten minutes of the second half when they faced the elements and an intense press from the visitors with Barry on the sideline on a black card.
But you can bet that when Jack O’Connor reviews the video tape of the game, he will pay closest attention to the first 20 minutes, when Dublin cut through Kerry’s defensive cover with surprising ease.
It’s not a stretch to suggest that Dublin, playing into a gale, could have opened Kerry for three goals in 25 minutes. Sean Bugler drew a brilliant save from Shane Murphy, they were one simple handpass away from a tap-in goal for Dean Rock and then had a goal disallowed in the 23rd minute.
The game hinged on that decision; Niall Scully was mistakenly black-carded for an off-the-ball block by Sean McMahon and Kerry went on the rampage, hitting 1-9 without reply.
It was 1-14 to 0-4 on the neon scoreboard at half-time and if the visiting Dubs fans hadn’t grasped that they were in a new era before this, they knew it at that moment.
A storm
But what can you trust from a game that takes place in a storm? This Dublin team was so inexperienced that it qualifies as experimental. James McCarthy, Ryan Basquel and Con O’Callaghan were listed to start but did not. It meant that senior stars like Brian Howard, Ciarán Kilkenny, Brian Fenton, Niall Scully and John Small had an awful lot of tuition to give their younger team-mates.
The weight of responsibility falling on this generation of Dublin serial winners has suddenly become stark. Fenton was always graceful enough to acknowledge the charmed existence of going through his first six seasons unbeaten. The happiness of the story disguised the fact that the older players around him – Bastick and O’Sullivan and Brogan and Cluxton – had endured many painful hours of hurt and scrutiny before they became champions.
Fenton is 28-years-old. But he has six All-Ireland medals. Obtaining a seventh seems at best an uncertain proposition for his generation. Their main task now is to get the group beside them up to speed.
Dessie Farrell’s calm logic that Dublin’s younger group need time to reach that point is undeniable. The problem is that, in the short term, other Division One teams are going to be merciless given the opportunity to kill the beast again and again.
It’s true they stuck to the grim task in Tralee, scoring 0-7 in the second half and refusing to allow Kerry to run riot. But the game was over as a contest by half -time and, even though the crowd was up for it, Kerry weren’t all that interested in making any bold February proclamations.
Maybe some of the Kerry crowd were disappointed that it was so easy. The sky-blue beast had grown into something mythical in their imagination. There will be much alarmist talk about the ‘decline’ of the Dubs throughout the league. But they are still a strong bet to retain the Leinster championship and have plenty of time to re-emerge as some version of their former selves when the evenings are long and bright.
Still, it was odd to see Dublin thumping long, hopeful balls into their full-forward line, situations with Tadhg Morley and company were only too happy to clean up. The industry and ball-carrying facility of Kerry’s defensive six shone through the rain.
But those early chances will rankle because if they were presented to the Dublin they know, the Dublin of old and perhaps the Dublin of mid-summer, it would be lights out.
KERRY: 1 S Murphy; 2 D O'Donoghue, 3 J Foley, 4 T O'Sullivan; 5 P Murphy, 6 T Morley, 7 B O'Beaglaoich; 8 D O'Connor (0-1), 9 J Barry; 10 B Spillane, 11 S O'Shea (0-5, 3 frees), 12 D Moynihan (1-1); 13 P Clifford (0-1), 14 D Clifford (0-4), 15 P Geaney (0-3, 1 mark).
Substitutes: 20 T Brosnan for 15 P Geaney (63 mins), 18 M Burns for 12 D Moynihan (64 mins), 19 G Crowley for 6 T Morley (71 mins) 23 D Casey for 2 D O'Donoghue (71 mins).
DUBLIN: 1 E Comerford (0-1 free), 2 L Gannon, 3 D Byrne, 4 S McMahon; 17 D Conlon, 6 B Howard (0-1), 7 J Small; 8 B Fenton (0-1), 9 T Lahiff; 10 S Bugler (0-1), 11 C Kilkenny (0-1), 12 N Scully; 24 L O'Dell, 20 C McCormack, 15 D Rock (0-5, 4 frees).
Substitutes: 14 C Archer for C O'Dell (51 mins), 13 R Basquel (0-1) for 20 C McCormack (51 mins), 15 R McGarry for 12 N Scully (65 mins), 21 K McGinnis for 7 J Small (68 mins), 5 CJ Smith for 17 D Conlon (71 mins).
Referee: N Lane (Cork).
