- Mayo's Pat Harte scores a crucial penalty near the end of normal time against Kerry.
KERRY manager Jack O’Connor was remarkably philosophical following his team’s 2-15 to 1-17 National Football League semi-final extra-time defeat at the hands of Mayo at Croke Park on Sunday.
O’Connor had witnessed Kerry lose a four-point lead with three minutes remaining of normal time. Worse, Kieran Donaghy presented Mayo with the opportunity to secure a penalty by sending a misdirected pass across his own goal.
The pass, intended for Paul Galvin, dropped well short and fell perfectly for Mayo’s Alan Dillon. As Dillon made his way towards goal, Galvin brought him down for a penalty.
Up stepped substitute Pat Harte to calmly slot the ball home. Inevitably, Mayo then struck again to bring the game into extra-time with another substitute Cillian O’Connor getting a point from a free to make it 1-13 apiece.
All credit to Mayo for the way they stuck to their task but this sort of thing is not supposed to happen to Kerry. Unusually, it has now happened twice in the space of of a relatively short period as Kerry also blew a four point advantage in the All-Ireland final against Dublin.
O’Connor did his best to take a pragmatic approach. “Sure, there was a bit of déjà vu all over again but it will soon be forgotten about. Obviously, we are disappointed we didn’t close the game out.
“We’d like to get another game out of the league. But our main objective was to find a few more players and I believe we have done that.”
Unsurprisingly, O’Connor refused to blame Donaghy. “It was one of those things. He was trying to do the right thing but misdirected his pass.”
Let’s not forget Kerry still had the opportunity to win the game in extra-time, so nothing should be taken away from Mayo. It was their first victory over Kerry at Croke Park since 1996.
Once again, Kerry appeared to have the match won when they went three points clear with five minutes remining of extra-time. But Mayo wing-back Colm Boyle was to turn the game on its head for a second time by somehow managing to send a shot into the back of the net when surrounding by Kerry defenders.
It was a marvellous bit of opportunism and it gave Mayo the impetus to go on and win with a beautifully taken point from Richie Feeney. Even then, Kerry had an opportunity to level matters but Bryan Sheehan’s “45” drifted wide.
No doubt, Kerry will bounce back in the championship. Arguably they were a bit complacent and have learned an important lesson.
Mayo, quite clearly, are an improving team. Their victory over Dublin, a draw away to Kerry, and this semi-final victory proves as much.
They produced some great football, with Conor Mortimer playing a key role, to lead Kerry by 0-6 to 0-1 after 14 minutes. Although they still tend to drift out of games at times, they didn’t at any stage give up.
Mortimer finished their top scorer with 0-8 four from frees, while Boyle contributed 1-1. Sheehan was Kerry’s top scorer with 0-6, ahead of Colm Cooper (0-4).
Mayo manager James Horan was understandably pleased but he is looking for his side to improve again for the final. He said: “We hung in there, got a few breaks and took them.
“While we did make some mistakes, we keep going for the full 70 minutes of normal time and again in extra-time. We’re now looking forward to a week’s training in Portugal.”
At least the hugely disappointing crowd of 11,342 was provided with quite a bit of drama in the Mayo/Kerry match which is more than can be said for the other semi-final between Cork and Down. Defending champions Cork won by 2-17 to 1-11 to confirm their recent superiority over their Ulster rivals.
A penalty, struck home by Aidan Carr, reduced Cork’s lead to 1-13 to 1-11 with 15 minutes remaining. But, in truth, Cork were always in charge of this semi-final.
They were simply too strong and fast and could move up another gear when required. In Colm O’Neill they had the outstanding player on the pitch, he finished with 1-6, scoring a brilliantly taken goal.
Paul Kerrigan also featured, hitting three well taken points but really the game lacked the intensity expected from a semi-final. Down didn’t help their cause with some defensive errors, notably when goalkeeper Brendan McVeigh dropped a high ball and allowed Alan O’Connor score the simplest of goals.
It was Cork’s fifth successive win over Down and they will now be competing in their third final in a row. Still, Cork manager Conor Counihan isn’t about to get ahead of himself, arguing that for long periods of the semi-final there wasn’t much in it.
Down boss James McCartan also felt his side, with Benny Coulter contributing three well taken points, was in the game for a long time, but added: “We were bitterly disappointed with the human error which crept in during the last 20 minutes. That cost us two goals and once they went in the game was up.”
Dubs, Tribesmen
must try again
DUBLIN and Galway must meet again after extra-time failed to separate them in the National Hurling League Division One A relegation play-off at Tullamore last Sunday.
It finished Dublin 2-20 to Galway’s 0-26 and the replay will go ahead at Portlaoise on Saturday. Both teams will surely fancy their chances.
Initially, Dublin must have felt they had won it when leading by three points in the closing minutes of normal time. But up stepped Joe Canning to land two frees and then hit the equalizing point four minutes into injury time.
As if that wasn’t a sufficiently bad blow for Dublin, they subsequently had two players, Ryan O’Dwyer and Alan Crabbe controversially sent off in the first period of extra-time.
Two points clear against 13 men in the second period of extra-time, Galway looked to have the game in the bag.
But Daire Plunkett got one back before Niall McMorrow landed a late ‘65’ to earn Dublin a most unlikely replay. At the finish, both managers were a bit frustrated and somewhat relieved.
Unsurprisingly, Dublin boss Anthony Daly wasn’t too pleased with Westmeath referee Barry Kelly’s’s decisions to show O’Dwyer and McCrabbe straight red cards. He also felt that Kelly had allowed too much to go on.
“Some of the decisions were very hard to believe. Fellas with a hurley wrapped around them after catching a high ball and play was allowed to go on. Where’s your advantage?”
Galway manager Anthony Cunningham wasn’t about to get involved in criticising the referee, preferring to concentrate on the efforts of his own team.
He said: “We’re disappointed we didn’t close it out against 13 men but Dublin are a top class team. They are bringing a huge physicality to the game and that’s something we want to emulate.”
Something which must have pleased Cunningham enormously was the return of Joe Canning. After a quiet first half, Canning was switched to centre-forward and burst into life to contribute 0-12, six of which were from play.
He was a major candidate for man of the match, as was Dublin defender Niall Corcoran. Conor McCormack and Ross O’Carroll scored the Dublin goals.
Wexford are winners
WEXFORD won the National Hurling League Division One B relegation play-off, defeating Laois 5-12 to 0-19 at Nowlan Park.
Full-forward Jack Guiney was the hero with a personal tally of 3-4. Elsewhere, Carlow won the Divison Two A final, beating Westmeath 1-14 to 0-12.
On the football front, Wickow won promotion from Division Four after beating Clare 1-15 to 1-12 in their final game at Aughrim. A draw would have sufficed for Clare to get promoted.
It was close throughout with the difference being the accurate free-taking of Wicklow’s Tony Hannon. The corner-forward finished with 0-7, six of which came from frees.
Semis to move from Croker
THERE seems certain to be a move to switch next season’s National Football League semi-finals from Croke Park.
This follows the dismal attendance of 11,342 which turned up for last Sunday’s semi-finals. One option would be to give home advantage to the top two teams in the table for the semi-finals.
Another is to abandon the semi-finals and go back to go back to the system whereby the leading two teams qualify for the final.
Andrews resigns in Cavan
VAL ANDREWS has resigned from the post of Cavan football manager while the Meath country executive has recommended the dismissal of Seamus McEnaney.
McEnaney is being blamed for Meath’s relegation to Division Three of the National Football League. The plan is to replace him with Sean Boylan but McEnaney appears to be determined to stay in charge.
Meanwhile, Liam O’Neill became the first Laois man to become the president of the GAA. He took over the position at the association’s annual congress at the Heritage Hotel in Killenard.
Among the more interesting decisions to be taken was the one which will now allow footballers to be in the square before the ball arrives. The exception is when it is coming from a free or a sideline ball, in which case the old rule applies.
Mouthguards will be made compulsory for minor players from next year and for all football players from 2014.
