Kerry 1-18; Mayo 1-12
To follow on the recent disrespect shown to this august competition, let’s start by asking what does this result mean to the likes of Dublin in Leinster, Donegal in Ulster and Galway in Connacht?
Answer - not a lot. Kerry are Kerry and with their manager Jack O’Connor backing the new rules, you can be sure they will only get better as the faster ground and quicker transition becomes a central part of their play.
As for Mayo. Well excuse me for using the term again but Mayo were once again Mayo. We came to Croke Park knowing what to expect and we got the expected - a flop on the big day.
They won the league in Kevin McStay’s first year in charge three years ago and then flopped badly in the Connacht championship before going out without much of a fight against Dublin in the quarter finals.
The manager doesn’t want that happening again and a few months down the line if they have done well in Connacht and look like having a genuine crack at the closing stages of the chase for Sam Maguire, then McStay might very well say he’d swap a flop like last Sunday in a heartbeat for a good late spring, early summer set of results.
Other than the fact that the Clifford boys are showing signs of being a real presence in this year’s campaign, the only other noteworthy aspect of this game was the performance of veteran Mayo forward Aidan O’Shea as a scoring threat, particularly in the first half when his three points from play kept his limp colleagues in the game.
He petered out somewhat in the second half as the outcome was cast in stone long before the final whistle in what was one of the most lackluster finals I’ve seen in years in front of a paltry crowd of 21,596 -- most of which came to support Offaly and Kildare in the curtain-raiser.
The one good thing from the game was the inauguration of a new cup for the Division 1 winners called the Corn Mhíchíl Uí Mhuircheartaigh, a trophy dedicated to the great Kerry broadcaster Mícheál Ó Muircheartaigh (1930-2024), who for many was the “voice of the Gaelic Games” over much of his long career.
He’d have watched Mayo enough down the years to know that they have a habit of disappointing - and you felt sorry for their boss McStay as he had to watch his charges chase shadows for most of the second half without laying a glove on the slicker, highly-charged Kingdom boys.
O’Connor, his counterpart won his first three senior titles in seasons after he collected the league title - no doubt he will feel he is in a good place to emulate those past achievements over the coming months.
For once it was the other Clifford, older brother Paudie, who was his talisman operating out of center-forward where he scored three points and gave a man of the match exhibition. That said, the younger sibling didn’t do half bad either, accounting for eight points, four from frees, while all the while appearing to be operating in third gear.
When Sean O’Shea returns, it will give O’Connor the option of deploying him as a wing man or maybe using him in a full forward line where Paul Geaney has again caught fire - as his 1-2 reflected on Sunday.
Not for the first time Mayo were the authors of their own downfall and it came as early as 12 minutes into the game.
An attempted short kick-out by their goalkeeper, Colm Reape, was never on and was quickly intercepted inside the 40m arc by Paudie Clifford who set up Geaney for the simplest of palmed goals. That was the incision the winners needed to come from a point down to lead by five at the break – 1-9 to 0-7.
In contrast, the goal deflated the losers who only scored three points in the remainder of the half from Ryan O’Donoghue (free), O’Shea and Jordan Flynn.
Hope springs eternal and for the crows at half time, there was the prospect that we might see a different Mayo on the changeover. Yes, they tried to get a foothold back in the game but Kerry are too adept at counter-attacking and taking scores to allow such an advantage to be fritted away.
Points by the impressive Joe O’Connor, David Clifford (two more from DC) and another from his brother had eased the Kerry side ahead by eight points 1-13 to 0-8 after 45 minutes.
The crowd were looking at the prospect of an early exit when Mayo came fighting back two minutes later as Eoghan McLaughlin raced onto Paul Towey telling pass to raise a green flag – much to the delight of the majority of the crowd. When Ryan O’Donoghue landed a two-point effort from a free to cut the lead to three points, we wondered was this one of the Mayo comeback days.
We got our answer immediately as David Clifford (2), Tony Brosnan, Paul Geaney (free) and Conor Geaney shut that gate of hope almost as soon as it was raised.
A tale of two counties sees Kerry jet off for warm-weather training in the coming week to prepare not so much for the Munster championship but for what lies ahead beyond that lesser challenge.
There is no rest for the men from the west who must get that galling defeat out of their system before welcoming an on the up Sligo team to Castlebar for the first salvo of the Connacht championship on home soil this Sunday.
Kerry: S Ryan; P Murphy, D Casey, J Foley; B Ó Beaglaoich, M Breen, G. White; J O’Connor (0-2), BD O’Sullivan (0-1); G O’Sullivan, P Clifford (0-3, 0-2‘45s), M Burns; D Clifford (0-8, 0-4fs), P Geaney (1-2, 0-1f), D Geaney Subs: T Brosnan (0-1) for D Geaney (46): S O’Brien for BD O’Sullivan (47); T O’Sullivan for Ó Beaglaoich (54); C Geaney (0-1) for Burns (54); K Spillane for G O’Sullivan (66); R Murphy for P Geaney (temp, 70, inj).
Mayo: C Reape; S Callinan, J Coyne, D McHugh; S Coen, D McBrien, E Hession; J Carney (0-1), M Ruane; J Flynn (0-1), E McLaughlin (1-0), C Reid; A O’Shea (0-3), F Irwin (0-1), R O’Donoghue (0-5, 1 tpf, 2fs) Subs: P Towey (0-1) for Irwin (41); D Neary for Flynn (45); A Philips for Reape (54, inj); D O’Connor for Coen (63);
Ref: D Coldrick (Meath).
