GAELIC GAMES/Tyrone 1-16 Kerry 2-10: In terms of the historical parallels that defined the build-up to this riveting match, the outcome most matches the 1961 semi-final between Down and Kerry. That was the Ulster county's second successive win over football's greatest power. There were no excuses, no element of surprise and no doubting who was boss.
Yesterday's Bank of Ireland All-Ireland football final - witnessed by 82,112 in Croke Park - provided the stage for Tyrone to establish a similar ascendancy. This was the first time in 15 years that the winners of the previous two All-Irelands had met in the final but it was the wider conflict between the emerging power and an apparently revived ancien regime that had caught the public imagination.
The stakes were high and the options simple. Either Tyrone's marathon struggle through 10 matches, including the hard yards against Armagh, had tempered them in circumstances beyond Kerry's experience or the defending champions had learned all they needed to know from the humiliating defeat against the same opposition two years previously.
In the end there was, despite the almost bizarrely narrow margin, no doubt.
Stories from Kerry about the lengths to which they were preparing for Tyrone's pressure game were confirmed by the opening quarter's football, a dazzling spell of maximum-energy, high-impact play with the play switching nearly as quickly as in a hurling match.
Kerry off-loaded ball and transferred possession slickly and at speed. They covered back, worked their chops off and closed down Tyrone. Séamus Moynihan hurtled back in the opening minutes to clatter into Brian McGuigan and give early notice that Kerry would not be left standing and bewildered this time. Ironically that was ultimately exactly what happened.
The champions had learned the new tricks quite well but they couldn't sustain the pressure and with Tyrone stretching into their comfortable stride, Kerry simply couldn't keep up. Even in that opening quarter, which was full of promise for Kerry, there were ominous indicators but let's start with the good stuff. Their high-tempo game into its stride, Kerry had other reasons to be optimistic. Colm Cooper had a point with his first ball, Darragh Ó Sé and William Kirby were well on top at centrefield and the team was effectively contesting the breaking ball.
Cooper's fetch from Paul Galvin's ball and quick flick to Dara Ó Cinnéide was well taken by last year's captain and his finish was perfect for a three-point lead, 1-3 to 0-3 in the seventh minute. The problem was that Kerry's defence was also under pressure and by the end of their barnstorming first quarter the champions hadn't extended this three-point lead. Tyrone were tucked in behind them and just beginning to establish their own rhythm.
Kerry's inability to do more damage hadn't been helped by an off-the-ball incident that saw Cooper receiving extensive treatment after which he was slow to recover. Eoin Brosnan was in on the square with Declan O'Sullivan foraging more deeply and despite all the hard work - Galvin in particular was outstanding - the gain was in terms of possession rather than scores.
From a Kerry perspective there was a worrying dynamism about Tyrone, breaking out of defence and surging up the field, their big guns up front not badly marked but still able to snap scores - the unheralded figure of Ryan Mellon to the fore in the early stages. Suddenly - and it felt like the abruptness of a switch being flicked - Kerry found their new game plan careering off the tracks. It was as if the focus necessary to keep moving and passing had flickered and players found themselves struggling to off-load, surrounded like two years ago and Tyrone, sensing the crisis, drove harder.
By the 31st minute the lead had changed hands. Ironically the panic attack looked to have subsided with Cooper equalising immediately but the hammer blow still fell before half-time.
Philip Jordan placed a high ball in on Mulligan, who had only Galvin for company. The deep-lying Kerry wing forward did well to stall his man - although Mulligan's marker Michael McCarthy would probably have hoped to disrupt the possession - but the quick transfer to an unmarked Canavan resulted in the concession of Kerry's first goal of the championship.
It could hardly have been more damaging: the timing, the boost to Mulligan's confidence and the emphatic finish of Tyrone's most totemic personality.
As in the final two years ago, Canavan was withdrawn for a period after half-time before being sent back on for the closing 15 minutes. The damage was done by the interval. So inexorably did the pendulum swing away from the champions in the second half that it was almost praeternatural to see Kerry still hanging on. Ten minutes after the break there was hardly any comfort for them.
Ryan McMenamin and Conor Gormley were firmly controlling the approaches and Cooper was fighting a lone battle on hopeless rations. At centrefield Colin Holmes brought greater presence to Tyrone's challenge and Seán Cavanagh began to motor. By the end of the third quarter, Stephen O'Neill had caught fire and swung over two typically sweet points and Tyrone were five clear, 1-12 to 1-7.
Kerry were now in desperate straits and close to losing all coherence. Players were dispossessed and ball turned over while Tyrone remorselessly swept forward. Kerry's tendency to fall back too deep created the equivalent of a runway for Tyrone players, half backs, centrefielders or captain Brian Dooher, breaking from the back.
Attacks weren't effectively structured and despite urgings from the line to keep the ball low, hopeful high deliveries were about all there was on the menu.
Chris Lawn, a replacement for the injured Joe McMahon, isn't usually associated with aerial domination but he had an excellent match, reading the admittedly uninspired play well and cutting out a number of attacks.
Straws in the wind - a couple of loose wides by Mulligan and Davy Harte - suggested that Mickey Harte's team were stalling a little and then an unlikely escape beckoned. With the margin at four Tomás Ó Sé's rampaging run and some frenzied passing ended with the Kerry wing back cracking in a goal for 2-8 to 1-12. It should have been game on but Darragh Ó Sé was wide with a possible equaliser. Canavan crafted a brilliant response and Kerry were back chasing the match.
Darren O'Sullivan came in for his senior debut with 10 minutes to go and left the nagging impression that he should have been on earlier, his pace winning a free that Cooper kicked to reduce the margin to one.
Points from McGuigan and Jordan had reduced Kerry to chasing a goal when another replacement Bryan Sheehan lost the ball after a promising break in injury time.
Referee Michael Monahan played nearly 60 seconds less than the announced four minutes of additional time but you felt that Kerry would have needed more time than that to break down a by now massed defence.
The unpalatable truth for the outgoing champions was that they could have lost by much more.
TYRONE: 1 P McConnell; 4 M McGee, 3. J McMahon, 2 R McMenamin; 5 D Harte, 6 C Gormley, 7 P Jordan (0-1); 8 E McGinley, 9 S Cavanagh; 10. B Dooher (0-1), 11 B McGuigan (0-3), 12 R Mellon (0-2); 13 P Canavan (1-1), 14 S O'Neill (0-4, two frees), 15 O Mulligan (0-4, two frees). Subs: 24 C Holmes for P Canavan (half-time), 21 C Lawn for McMahon (48 mins), 13 P Canavan for McGinley (55 mins). Yellow cards: Dooher (19 mins), McMahon (42 mins), McGuigan (67 mins), O'Neill (70), Cavanagh (72).
KERRY: 1 D Murphy; 3 M McCarthy, 7 A O'Mahony, 4 T O'Sullivan; 5 T Ó Sé, 2 M Ó Sé, 6 S Moynihan; 8 D Ó Sé, 9 W Kirby; 12 L Hassett, 11 E Brosnan, 10 P Galvin; 13 C Cooper, 14 D O'Sullivan (capt.), 15 D Ó Cinnéide. Subs: 17 MF Russell for Hassett (44 mins), 21 Darren O'Sullivan for Ó Cinnéide (61 mins), 19 B Sheehan for Galvin (68 mins), 18 E Fitzmaurice for Moynihan (68 mins). Yellow cards: Hassett (11 mins), T O'Sullivan (29 mins), Moynihan (31 mins), Galvin
(40 mins).
Referee: M Monahan (Kildare).
