Munster SFC Kerry 2-22, Tipperary 0-13: It was billed as the championship but did not feel like it. In the most low-key manner imaginable, Kerry began the defence of an All-Ireland title with an hour of almost total domination in Thurles yesterday.
What has begun with a pleasant afternoon of exhibition football in front of 4,851 in the home of hurling will ideally end in front of 80,000 on an epic Sunday in September. If the Kingdom are still racking up 2-22 - and remember they posted 1-20 in collecting their last Sam Maguire - the crowd might as well give up.
"Yeah, there's a gulf between Kerry and Tipperary," local manager Séamus McCarthy said later as the kids sought out photo opportunities with a Colm Cooper clad in the blue and gold of the Premier county. "But I would suggest there is a huge gap between Kerry and a lot of teams on that form. What can I say except we did as well as we possibly could? - 13 points was a fair score out of us given the limited possession and the way they pushed us back.
"But we are back playing football and that is important to Tipperary. We played the All-Ireland champions on the best field in Ireland to allow them to display those skills."
And in truth, some of the Kerry ball movement was a joy to behold. Manager Jack O'Connor used his options of all five substitutes and in a way, it was a tough day for the fringe contenders (if footballers of the calibre of Declan Quill, Dara Ó Cinnéide and Paddy Kelly can be termed such) to make an impression given the extravagant feast of score-taking laid on by the starting players.
Mike Frank Russell, a spectator for the first half of last year's All-Ireland final against Mayo, has made a strong claim for the left-corner berth. Apart from a couple of wasteful frees, Russell was in vintage form.
With captain Declan O'Sullivan dropping deep - and conspicuously absent from the target shooting - Cooper and Russell used the wide spaces of Thurles to haunt their markers and displayed a promising line in communication, happy to make dummy runs for each other.
Cooper fired an easy 1-4 from play and also laid on a couple of passes that drew oohs of appreciation from the travelling Kerry cognoscenti. Most memorable was a chip pass from a dead-still position in the 24th minute that caught the Tipperary defence cold; Eoin Brosnan sprinted onto it, forcing a brave block-down from Niall Curran.
Kerry led 0-8 to 0-1, and three minutes later Cooper made a great leap on the edge of the Tipperary square to tap over another point that deepened the sense of inevitability.
Eye-catching as Kerry's front pair were, the sight of Tomás Ó Sé repeatedly bursting out of defence and the effortless, clever and consistent involvement of Brosnan (who contributed an economic 1-4) suggest they will be key components in the Kerry machine later this summer.
Séamus Moynihan was ruled out before the game with a calf injury but the redoubtable Eamonn Fitzmaurice returned and hardly put a foot wrong.
It is hard to buy a break against Kerry and Jack O'Connor later admitted it had not been a day of epiphany for him: "Ah, not really, no. But it was a game, it was was championship and it will help to tune us in."
Tipperary were understandably tentative at the start and could not deliver possession for Declan Browne to work with in the first half.
They trailed 0-12 to 0-3 at the break, and their day was completely blackened when the Kerry full-forward line broke clean with a series of tidy passes, Brosnan following up to bat the ball into Paul Fitzgerald's net.
Then Tipperary relaxed and played some football, midfielders Kevin Mulryan and Fergal O'Callaghan booting a couple of points and Browne finally able to pit his illustrious skills against Michael McCarthy. He drew a yellow card from the Kerry full back on his way to nine points but those scores just interrupted the green and gold traffic piling forward remorselessly.
One characteristic of Kerry under O'Connor is that they do not slacken off, regardless of the opposition or the scoreline. With the midfield fading in the second half, William Kirby was promptly withdrawn and Cooper kept kicking points until he was retired on the hour to give other contenders an opportunity.
"The thing is they are enjoying it, both training and playing matches," said O'Connor. "It was a hard team to pick and some of them were very close and if someone loses desire, then another player will come in."
They face Limerick next.
"A horse of a different colour," O'Connor predicted.
With Kerry though, it stays green, gold and intimidating.
KERRY: D Murphy; A O'Mahony, M McCarthy, T O'Sullivan; T Ó Sé, E Fitzmaurice, M Ó Sé (0-1); D Ó Sé, W Kirby; P Galvin, E Brosnan (1-4), L Hassett (0-3); C Cooper (1-5), D O'Sullivan, MF Russell (0-8, 4 frees, 1 50). Subs: P Kelly for Kirby (51 mins), B Sheehan (0-1) for Galvin (54 mins), D Ó Cinnéide for D O'Sullivan (54 mins), B Guiney for T Ó Sé (62 mins), D Quill for Cooper (63 mins).
TIPPERARY: P Fitzgerald; D Byrne, N Curran, P King; P Morrissey (0-1), B Lacey, R Costigan; K Mulryan (0-1), F O'Callaghan (0-1); G Burke, L English, P Cahill; B Hickey (0-1), D Browne (0-9, 6 frees), B Mulvihill. Subs: N Fitzgerald for Burke (57 mins), D O'Brien for Cahill (61 mins), E Hanrahan for English (67 mins).
Referee: D Fahy (Longford).
Attendance: 4,851.
