Kerry must step up on shambles
Marc O Se comes under pressure from Nigel Crawford at Croke Park
Related Articles
Was this really an All-Ireland senior football semi-final we were watching in Croke Park yesterday?
Everything about it seemed to say otherwise: a one-sided game, a low-scoring match, well over 30 wides, numerous balls kicked into the respective goalkeepers' hands and overall there was enough to drive neutrals in the 50,770 crowd to sleep.
Throw in a second half during which Meath failed to score for a staggering 22-minute period while Kerry nearly matched them with a scoring famine lasting 17 minutes and you get the general idea.
Of course, we are always told that semi-finals in any sport are strictly for getting the ticket into the final and the manner of that achievement is irrelevant.
No doubt that will be Kerry's attitude this morning, the realisation they they are in the final against Cork and have achieved the remarkable distinction of qualifying for six successive All-Ireland finals, something never achieved by Kerry teams in the past. Gaelic football is a most unpredictable science at the highest level and the last two Kerry results illustrate this perfectly.
Against Dublin, Kerry scored 1-24 and won by 17 points with flair, panache and a dazzling array of skills. Yesterday they managed just 2-8, only 1-6 from play and laboured badly in many positions for long periods.
But Kerry are past masters at getting their act together no matter how difficult the circumstances and that saved them in this game. Meath played exactly as people had expected with one notable exception -- they lacked real scoring power.
In other ways, it was your everyday Meath performance, lots of hard graft, numerous scoring chances, never-say-die spirit and playing the game right to the finish.
And even though they were overwhelmed for long parts of the game, amazingly they were only four points behind at the end and remember they hit 16 wides, often from fairly easy positions. But this time there was no Trevor Giles, Ollie Murphy, Colm O'Rourke or Bernard Flynn to get the scores and that is why Meath lost.
It is quite easy to pinpoint the turning point of this game -- Jack O'Connor springing Tommy Walsh in the 28th minute. He unsettled a previously steady Meath full-back line and rattled in a goal and two points after half-time, which was a point more than the winning margin.
It was surprising that Walsh did not appear even earlier after his recent demotion because for some reason -- planned or unplanned -- Kerry adopted a policy from the start of kicking long high balls into their full-forward line. It did not work with the result that Kerry only managed a miserly two points from play in the entire first half.
Little wonder that the busiest Kerryman in the second quarter was the runner Eamon Fitzmaurice as he darted in and out of the playing area non-stop with instructions from manager O'Connor to the Kerry forwards.
Thankfully for the mentors, half-time arrived just in time to allow some sort of re-alignment of duties for those forwards and the midfielders. This seemed to settle down the team, compared to what was a very weak attacking set-up in the first half.
Tadhg Kennelly got more involved at centre-forward, often by moving out towards the right-wing to receive good ball from further back the field. He started the play that brought a wonderful 'old-style' goal for Walsh in the first minute of the second-half. Walsh made a high catch over Anthony Moyles, turned smartly and shot into the nearby net.
Kennelly, after a messed-up free by a Meath back, also scored a fine point from play a few minutes later -- after another point from Walsh -- and Kerry were ahead by seven points and away in a hack.
Too many Kerry players were not in tune for a game of this importance in that first half. There was a tendency for a bit of showboating at times, which is something that has often proved fatal. Indeed this exhibitionist tendency also showed up in Kerry at times in the second half, possibly because of Meath's pathetic scoring attempts which left them with only two points in the opening 25 minutes of the second half.
A good example came about 15 minutes from the finish when several Kerry defenders engaged in an orgy of short passing to and fro and ended up with a poor kick over the sideline. That did not display the killer streak that is the hallmark of Kerry in Croke Park, but I have no doubt that will not be a problem in their next game!
Kerry goalkeeper Diarmuid Murphy can be excused from any defensive messing as he showed why he is one of the best and most underrated goalkeepers of the past decade.
The biggest discussion point after this game will be the make-up of the Kerry attack. If Kieran Donaghy is declared fit and with Walsh practically sure to start next time, then there are a few options.
Yesterday Declan O'Sullivan had a modest game by his own standards, as had Colm Cooper, so that must be factored in to Kerry's final-day considerations.
O'Connor certainly has as talented a forward line on the field, and on the bench, as Conor Counihan has with Cork, so the game may well be decided on the performances further back. Darragh O Se and Seamus Scanlon survived in the first half and improved a lot in the second half.
Kerry will certainly not have the luxury of 16 wides against Cork, nor can they afford to kick several score attempts short, into the goalkeeper's hands. It will be a fairly frenetic few weeks in Kerry and not just for the players and mentors. As was the case two years ago, Kerry people can think of nothing worse in football than losing an All-Ireland final to Cork. Even losing to Tyrone would not be as bad as that!
- Eugene McGee
