Three out of six for Tyrone minors

Tyrone 0-12 Kerry 0-10

The showdown might have come two hours earlier than they would have expected at Croke Park yesterday, but it didn’t change the result.

Sam Maguire may be heading to the south-west again but Tyrone’s annexation of a third All-Ireland minor crown in six years only serves as a timely reminder of the battles still to come between north and south.

Yesterday’s was a deserved win for Tyrone. Led by an inspirational Raymie Mulgrew at midfield, they stormed out of the traps in each half, hitting Kerry for three points in the opening quarter and four in the third.

Add in a clear superiority in the centre thanks to Mulgrew and his chief lieutenant Shane O’Hagan and the foundations were promising.

“We had been preaching to the fellas all along that the first 15 minutes after half-time of a close game is the crucial part,” said joint Tyrone manager Liam Donnelly afterwards. “We got four fantastic scores after the break and any time after that when Kerry scored we seemed to have an answer at the far end. It was a fantastic second half.”

Gutted as Kerry undoubtedly are they can hold their chins high after inching their way back towards the pre-match favourites on both occasions. Paul O’Connor had already seen a thumping shot smack off the Tyrone bar after six minutes before Daniel Doyle got the ball rolling for the Munster side, skipping up from half-back to tap over his side’s opener.

Nerves settled somewhat, Kerry got down to business and no-one more than O’Connor playing at the top of the right. By the break he had three points to his name and he repeated the dosage after the change of ends.

In truth, Kerry needed O’Connor to grab centre stage because their other chief threats, Mark Evans and Darren O’Sullivan, were being watched closer than a kleptomaniac in a jewellery store. Despite their travails, Kerry stuck manfully at the task in hand with half backs Ciaran Kelliher and Danny O’Connor in particular growing into the task at hand.

By the break they were only a point in arrears at 0-6 to 0-5. O’Connor levelled it within a minute of the restart but then came Tyrone’s staccato burst of points that left the Kingdom with a real job on their hands.

Here was the seminal moment of the game, indeed of the entire championship. Needing a quick reply, or preferably two or three, Kerry began to misfire. O’Sullivan saw a sideline bounce back off the post while the wides - eight in total in the second half - mounted up.

And yet they kept plugging away. O’Connor, Brian Moran and sub Eddie Mangan all pitched in with points, but responses from Mulgrew and John Kelly kept the gap to three - 0-12 to 0-9.

The final chance fell to O’Connor from a 20-metre free when Tyrone were penalised for another foul on O’Sullivan, but the sight of 14 Tyrone men in their own area, eight of them on the line, forced him to skew it over the bar.

A symbolic ending to what was a frustrating afternoon for Kerry and manager Sean Geaney.

“That seemed to be the way it went. One or two more hit the post for points but maybe up to this game we had the rub of the green.

“What’s disappointing is we held some of their main men, like Colm Cavanagh and Martin Murray, at wing back. They weren’t as threatening as they had been there today.”

KERRY: B Kelly; P Reidy, L Quinn, K Young; D Doyle (0-1), C Kelliher, D O’Connor; B Moran (0-1), A Kennelly; D O’Sullivan, S Murphy, M O’Donoghue; M Evans, R Keating (0-1), P O’Connor (0-6, 3f). SUBS: P Curran for R Keating, E Mangan (0-1) for M O’Donoghue, both 45, D Culloty for C Kelliher 51, B Looney for S Murphy 57.

TYRONE: J Curran; N McGinn, P Marlow, D Burke; J Gilmore, N Kerr, M Murray; R Mulgrew (0-3, 1f), S O’Hagan (0-1); C O’Neill (0-1), M Cunningham, R McRory (0-3); G Devlin (0-1), C Cavanagh (0-1), A Cassidy (0-1). Subs C McCarron for C Cavanagh 50, J Kelly (0-1) for C O’Neill 55, S O’Neill for D Burke 59, S Donaghy for S O’Hagan 61.

Referee: T Quigley (Wexford).