LAST UPDATE | 30 Aug 2021
WHEN KERRY CAME up two points short in the 2016 All-Ireland semi-final, they were widely saluted for the part they had played in an epic.
It was a hollow consolation to receive some praise after losing but testing Dublin so vigorously was viewed as a feat in itself, as it was during Mayo’s series of battles with a team that under Jim Gavin’s watch became the greatest of all.
That defeat stung the Kerry camp, yet it had been a superior display to that they served up twelve months previously at the final stage. For the third time in four seasons, Dublin had pushed them to the exit door. Kerry’s problem at the time was one shared across the football landscape – how to overcome the sizeable Dublin challenge?
Five years on, Kerry lost another All-Ireland semi-final on Saturday. It was also pulsating and dramatic, the end losing margin was narrower at a single point.
But Kerry’s issue now is different. It is not one team they are struggling to get past, it is claiming wins in the games of consequence when the stakes are raised, that is proving problematic.
Since that 2016 semi-final, Kerry have played 23 senior championship games. They have won 14 games but nine of those have been within their province, primarily beating up Clare and Cork. Five losses have arrived with five different counties administering the pain – Mayo, Galway, Dublin, Cork and Tyrone. Monaghan and Donegal came close to clinching victories as well before settling for draws.
The pattern is clear. When an array of counties inflict defeats, it tends to mean a case of introspection is needed.
The current impoverished nature of the provincial championship is not Kerry’s fault but clearly swatting aside local opponents – they won their three games this summer by an aggregate of 50 points – is doing them no favours. They aren’t road-tested sufficiently by the time the heat is turned up in Croke Park, 2019 is the only season of late where they adjusted properly and nearly took down Dublin.
That lack of competition in Munster can be pointed to as contributing their downfall. The Super 8s format might have been more beneficial than the knockout system that was imposed on the last two year. The five-week break and the uncertainty over the fixture deferrals was an unwelcome occurrence. They lost their best player and star forward for extra-time due to injury on Saturday. They were only a point in arrears by the final whistle.
But the faultlines run deeper in explaining why Kerry’s wait for Sam Maguire has gone on for seven seasons. Their defeats in the past five campaigns have been by point margins of five, three, six, two and one. The two biggest came after replay where the failure to close out the drawn game when in the ascendancy proved costly. All were they type of losses that raised questions over Kerry’s game management and decision making when they entered the final straight. Shutting down a game is a recurring issue.
The goals they ship hit them hard as their defence gets exposed. Diarmuid O’Connor and Andy Moran in 2017, Eoin Murchan in 2019, Mark Keane in 2020, Conor McKenna twice and Cathal McShane in 2021, all availed.
The last goal on Saturday was telling. Kieran McGeary’s point attempt for Tyrone looped up into the air, hanging near goal and dropping short, just like a Luke Connolly booming kick for Cork did last November. Again there was a failure to deal with the ball when it fell, again an opposition attacker was the first to be alive to the ball remaining in play. Kerry responded impressively to the five-point deficit they faced at that juncture in extra-time but had given themselves too much to do.
It’s debatable whether it should ever have gone that far. When Sean O’Shea banged over a ‘45 in the 45th minute of the game, it nudged Kerry in front. They only conceded two points over the next 23 minutes yet only struck three themselves. That kept Tyrone within touching distance.
Granted the black cards to Niall Sludden and Darren McCurry did see the combined twenty minutes eaten up by about eight minutes of stoppages, but it was still an advantage that Kerry did not press home. Part of that was down to the ferocity of Tyrone’s outstanding defence, part of it down to manner in which Kerry tried to force attacks with their focus on adding to the 21-goal tally they had amassed this season. Tyrone’s scoring sources dried up until Cathal McShane caught fire but Kerry never moved out of sight.
David Clifford swept over some fantastic points, again underlining how he lives up to his exalted reputation. O’Shea’s superb free-taking can be relied upon to give Kerry another scoring dimension. But having two players scoring 0-16 out of 0-22 is not a positive sign. When Kerry came back to defeat Tyrone in 2019, Stephen O’Brien and Paul Geaney weighed in with 1-5 between them, while also combining for O’Brien’s game-breaking goal. Their excellent form that season, combined with Clifford and O’Shea, made Kerry’s attack a fearsome prospect.
But replicating those standards has proved a challenge, Geaney’s recasting to wing-forward from his best spot closer to goal has seemed off, while Tyrone were clearly alive to O’Brien’s hard running this time as he sought to punch holes in the rearguard. The majesty of Clifford cannot be relied solely to bail them out. Killian Spillane came off the bench to shine last year against Cork with 0-4 yet the Kerry bench only mustered a single point on Saturday, courtesy of Diarmuid O’Connor.
It all adds up to a glum winter in store for a county where the present is not matching up to the illustrious past. There will be a bunch of regrets in how the build-up to Saturday played out and how the game unfolded. There are doubts surrounding the managerial team staying on with Peter Keane’s three-year term having concluded. No obvious homegrown alternatives are jumping out as replacements. There will be uncertainty over whether older mainstays of the squad will keep leading the way – David Moran and Tommy Walsh both turned 34 in 2022, it will be 14 years since they made their senior bows, a sign of the length of road they have travelled.
A championship exit that generates questions for Kerry that are tricky to answer. It’s becoming a familiar setting.
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