[caption id="attachment_69589" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Kerry's Tomás Ó Sé was man of the match."]
IT hasn’t taken Dublin long to realize that they are going to have to work incredibly hard to repeat last season’s All-Ireland winning achievements.
Watched by a crowd of 45, 836 in their opening National League encounter against Kerry at Croke Park on Saturday night, they went down to a 0-11 to 1-14 defeat. Kerry’s determination to exact some small revenge for their All-Ireland defeat saw them gain what was a very comfortable victory.
It is, of course, only the start of the season and Dublin will improve but the match did serve to show the reigning All-Ireland champions that it can be very tough to deliver for a second successive year. There were some excuses in that they were missing the Brogan brothers Bernard and Alan, but manager Pat Gilroy was the first to admit that they weren’t good enough.
“Our effort in the second half wasn’t what it should have been,” he agreed. “Our use of the ball at times was terrible.
“There were unforced errors and that really knocked the stuffing out of us. Also, Kerry were completely on top in the middle of the field in the opening 20 minutes of the second half.
“There’s no question, they were the better team. We have got to make that ground up,” he added.
Kerry, by comparison, were much happier. Manager Jack O’Connor was entitled to feel pleased, particularly as the victory was achieved without Colm “Gouch” Cooper. He said: All of the young lads played well. They were not in any way overawed by the occasion ñ in fact, they relished it.”
The best player on the field, however, was Kerry’s veteran defender Tomas O Se. Bryan Sheehan also made a big impact in midfield, while the Daran O’Sullivan were well supported in attack by young corner forwards Barry John Keane and James O’Donoghue.
Dublin were only really in contention in the first half, at end of which they trailed 0-7 to 0-5. Kerry subsequently took complete control and would have had a much bigger winning margin had it not been for 17 wides.
As it was, Sheehan finished with 0-5, five from frees, while Darran O’Sullivan got their goal and Keane contributed 0-3. Tomas Quinn was the top scorer for a disappointing Dublin, scoring 0-4, three of which were from frees.
Elsewhere in Division One, Armagh secured a surprise 0-10 to 1-7 draw with the defending champions at the Athletic Grounds. But Cork didn’t help themselves by having Paul Kerrigan red carded and subsequently playing the second half with 14 men.
Cork manager Conor Counihan didn’t offer an opinion about the straight red card. What he did say was that he was “reasonably happy” given the situation his team found themselves in during the second half.
At the time of the sending off, Cork were 1-3 to 0-1 up and seemingly well in control. But Armagh gradually grew in confidence and, in the end, could have snatched it.
They relied on a point from Andy Mallon three minutes from the end to get the draw but top scorer Eugene McVerry (0-4) then saw a free drift wide.
Elsewhere, Down won an entertaining encounter by 1-10 to 1-9 against Ulster rivals Donegal at Newry. In a game which could have gone either way.
Liam Doyle’s accuracy proved the difference with the Down man getting an all-important goal and finishing with 1-4. Substitute Martin McElhinney gave Donegal a second half lead with a goal but a Doyle inspired Down did enough to hit back and secure victory.
Mayo started their campaign with a 1-11 to 0-8 away success over Laois. Conor Mortimer (0-5) and alan Freeman (1-2) were significant contributors.
The big game in Division Two saw Tyrone beat Kildare by 2-11 to 0-12 in the first match at Croke Park on Saturday night. It was an impressive effort which argues well for the prospects of Mickey Harte’s new-look outfit.
The difference was Tyrone’s ability to put away two goal chances through the impressive Peter Harte and Martin Penrose while Kildare wasted their goalscoring opportunities. “We owed ourselves a good league start. In recent years we’ve put ourselves under a lot of pressure by losing our first few games,” stressed Mickey Harte.
Mick Conway did well to contribute six points for Kildare but manager Kieran McGeeney was quite right in his assessment that they missed too many goalscoring chances.
Elsewhere in the Division, Stephen Bray spearheaded Meath’s 1-15 to 1-9 victory over Monaghan, scoring six points, while Galway’s young side got the better of Derry by 1-15 to 1-11 at Celtic Park. The final game saw Louth prove too good for Westmeath, winning by 0-12 to 1-6.
Wexford, Roscommon, Antrim and Longford all made winning starts in Division Three. Wexford beat Cavan (4-9 to 1-13), Roscommon defeated Tipperary (1-12 to 0-12), Antrim edged out Sligo (0-13 to 0-12), and Longford got the better of Offaly (2-15 to 0-8).
Division Four saw Clare, Wickow and Limerick start with victories. Clare beat Waterford (1-17 to 0-12), Wickow trounced Kilkenny (3-25 to 1-1) while Limerick got the better of Leitrim (1-9 to 0-9).
On the hurling front, Galway and Kilkenny qualified for the Walsh Cup final, beating Laoise and Westmeath respectively in the semi-finals. Galway succeeded by 2-19 to 0-11, with Kilkenny getting the better of Westmeath by 1-23 to 1-16.
