NFL Division One A/Tyrone 1-14 Kerry 1-12: Although the championship is still in the distance, this Allianz NFL re-run of the All-Ireland final was an entertaining update on how the teams are shaping up at the sharp end of the league.
Tyrone's Mickey Harte was the happier of the two managers afterwards, being able to reflect on two points that keep alive the county's chances of making the play-offs with one match left in the regulation schedules. There was also the heartening sight of captain Brian Dooher returning for 10 minutes of action and kicking a fine point in the process.
It was a peculiar match in that each team did better against the wind and Kerry manager Jack O'Connor was frustrated at how easily his side surrendered the half-time initiative by conceding 1-5 without reply in the third quarter. "What can I say? It was in the 15 minutes after half-time the damage was done. Our heads seemed to be still in the dressingroom."
By the time Kerry recovered they were fatally on the back foot and, despite a fighting response, couldn't bridge the gap.
"We couldn't just get that levelling point. I thought maybe on balance we might have deserved a point. But they're a hard nut to crack and anything going they're going to get it up here."
More worryingly for O'Connor was the reliance on Colm Cooper. As he did in last year's fixture, Cooper terrorised the Tyrone defence with 1-5, all but one point from play. Unfortunately, none of his colleagues inspired the same trepidation and only Declan O'Sullivan of the other listed forwards scored from play.
"We lost one or two balls inside. Colm was fantastic again today, but we're going to have to get more players playing to something approaching his standard. We need to take a bit of heat of him scoring-wise. That's the big thing."
In the first half the corner forward won nearly everything that came his way and flashed a couple of early points off Ryan McMenamin. Other markers fared little better.
In the 17th minute he won a ball from Darragh Ó Sé and passed to Ronan O'Connor whose point shot came back of the woodwork for Cooper to side step the cover and kick the ball into the net.
Leading 1-7 to 0-6 at half-time, Kerry looked good with the wind to follow. But Tyrone re-grouped well at the interval.
"They were definitely the better team in the first half," according to Harte. "We created a few things, didn't take our chances and had the elements at our back. I was disappointed and Kerry must have thought they were on the way to victory.
"But at half-time we had a look at ourselves and asked exactly what energy and effort we were prepared to put into it. I think everybody in that room decided they had a lot more energy left.
"We brought in the Peter Canavan factor that I'm sure some of you scribes will be writing about: 'Tyrone can't live without Peter Canavan'. We said 'right, if he's not here let's use the experience he has left in this room'.
There were more technical reasons for the recovery. Joe McMahon came in for Gavin Devlin at centre back and put a stop to Eamonn Fitzmaurice's muscular progress on the 40.
Seán Cavanagh's switch to centrefield also reversed fortunes in an area where Darragh Ó Sé and Kieran Donaghy - eventually sent off for two yellow cards in the 71st minute - had been on top.
Points from Cavanagh and Brian McGuigan cut the deficit in half and a great solo and finish from Stephen O'Neill after a move started deep in defence pushed Tyrone to the front 10 minutes into the second half.
It was the 56th minute before Kerry resumed scoring, but three unanswered points in five minutes cut the margin to a minimum.
Tyrone might be reluctant to win these matches by a distance, but they are past masters at protecting narrow leads and managed to keep Kerry at bay.
Dooher came on to the accompaniment of raising rafters and in the 66th minute curved over one of his speciality points from the right wing to stretch the lead to three, 1-13 to 1-10, and that was beyond Kerry and their various forward replacements.
"It was nice for Brian to come back with an exceptional score," Harte remarked afterwards before concluding: "Maybe we made a little bit more of our period on top."
TYRONE: F McConnell; R McMenamin, C Gormley, M McGee; D Harte, G Devlin, P Jordan; K Hughes (0-1), C Holmes; G Cavlan (0-2), B McGuigan (0-2), S Cavanagh (0-4, two frees); M Penrose, S O'Neill (1-4, three points frees), R Mellon. Subs: J McMahon for Devlin (half-time), B Dooher (0-1) for Mellon (58 mins), P Donnelly for Cavlan (69 mins).
KERRY: K Cremin; M Ó Sé, M McCarthy, T O'Sullivan; T Ó Sé (0-1), A O'Mahony, M Lyons; D Ó Sé (0-1), K Donaghy; E Brosnan, E Fitzmaurice, P Galvin; C Cooper (1-5, one free), D O'Sullivan (0-2), R O'Connor (0-2, frees). Subs: Darren O'Sullivan for Galvin (53 mins), A Mac Gearailt for O'Connor (57 mins), P Kelly (0-1) for Brosnan (65 mins).
Referee: D Coldrick (Meath).
