A masterclass of green and gold

OBITUARY writers can still their pens a while longer.

Kerry handed Armagh a footballing lesson on Saturday in their All-Ireland quarter-final clash, winning by eight points to set up a rematch with Cork. They started with a bang and ended with a flourish, sending tremors through those counties with designs still on Sam Maguire.

Three minutes in, having conceded two points, veterans Darragh Ó Sé and Seamus Moynihan placed Eoin Brosnan close to goal. His handling wasn’t great but his improvised finish beat Paul Hearty and Kerry were alive.

Ó Sé and Moynihan had laid down a marker: the former gave one of his greatest displays in green and gold, while Moynihan recaptured his galloping virtuosity of old.

After that it was tit for tat until Armagh re-enacted Peter Canavan’s goal in last year’s decider on 23 minutes: a high ball was broken by Ronan Clarke to Steven McDonnell, who rounded Diarmuid Murphy to score.

Kieran Donaghy’s much-touted battle with Francie Bellew was going Armagh’s way — the rhinoceros throttling the giraffe — until a sign of things to come late on: Donaghy broke the ball to Colm Cooper, whose shot was beaten away by Hearty. The Armagh stopper then tipped Russell’s rising drive over for a point and Kerry trailed by two at half-time, 1-7 to 1-5.

Afterwards Kerry boss Jack O’Connor said they were positive at the break: “Armagh certainly had us on the run for a while, but we were starting to come at the end of the first half. At half-time, instead of being four down we were two down, and Kieran Donaghy had a hand in those too. We were going to leave him in there as long as we could.”

On the resumption Darragh Ó Sé fed Sean O’Sullivan for a point, Mike Frank Russell pointed a free, then route one worked out. Donaghy outfielded Bellew and showed a basketballer’s footwork to step around the defender and bury a goal. It turned the tide in their battle, and in the game.

“We conceded (goals),” said Armagh boss Joe Kernan after the game.

“The Kerry forward line over this past few years have been lethal, and we know that. They had a big man in there today who had a great tussle with Francie. There’s nobody unmarkable, I’m not going to build somebody up just like that. He’s a good player, but he was also on a good player too in Francie.”

Donaghy was generous about his opponent also: “He was okay, there was nothing malicious really, the goalie was worse to be honest with you. Francie was fair but hard. He’s an old school full-back and I told him after the game it was a pleasure to mark him, and I wished him the best whether he hangs up the boots or he doesn’t.”

As the waves of Kerry attackers rolled forward, you’d have forgiven Bellew for fast-tracking his transfer to quieter pastures. Clarke and McDonnell threatened up front, troubling the Kerry full-back line throughout, but they were outshone by Tomás and Marc Ó Sé, who rattled off three fine points between them. Then, with ten minutes left, Paul Galvin got sent off, tussling with the Armagh water-carrier in just the kind of rush of blood to the head that, well, a bottle of cold water might have doused.

“At that stage they had a spare man,” said Seamus Moynihan.

“There was only two points in it, so to come back with a goal showed great workrate and team effort. Armagh never threw in the towel and they might have got a goal towards the end to make a game of it — they’re a quality team.”

By defending from the front Kerry also made it safe: Darren O’Sullivan cut out an Enda McNulty pass six minutes from time and hared through to seal the win.

Their remaining possessions were played out to relieved olés. As Jack O’Connor said, it was “as good a second-half performance as we have put in in the last three years”.

“We felt Armagh were under that bit more pressure,” added the Kerry boss. “The whole thing was that Tyrone had won two All-Irelands, and Armagh were fated to win two, but it doesn’t always work like that. We felt they were under a bit of heat coming in, and we were coming in under the radar, which suited us.”

Leave it to Seamus Moynihan to sound the sober note: “Armagh were hot favourites and our form was hot and cold, but the last two games, the Cork replay and the Longford match, you can’t get that in training. It worked out for us, but we’re still only in a semi-final after all of that!”

Armagh would have settled for that semi-final, with or without the only. Joe Kernan heard the inevitable question about Orchard legends hanging up the boots and threw back an equally inevitable response.

“Common sense will prevail, they’ll go away for a few weeks, they’ll drown their sorrows, and lick their wounds, and in a few weeks’ time, if any decisions have to be made, they will be made.

“The effort that these boys have put in is immense, and it’s so disappointing that you don’t achieve what sometimes you should achieve. That’s life, but the one thing I can guarantee you is that Armagh football is not finished.”

Neither are Kerry. We should have known.

ARMAGH: P Hearty; A Mallon, F Bellew, E McNulty; P Duffy, A Kernan (0-1, 1f)), C McKeever; K McGeeney, P McGrane; M O’Rourke, J McEntee (0-1), M Mackin, S McDonnell (1-5), R Clarke (0-3), O McConville (0-3, 3f)).

Subs: P Loughran for Mackin (47), B Mallon for McEntee (49), P McKeever for O’Rourke (61).

KERRY: D Murphy; M Ó Sé (0-2), M McCarthy, T O’Sullivan; T Ó Sé (0-1), S Moynihan, A O’Mahony; D Ó Sé, T Griffin; S O’Sullivan (0-2), E Brosnan (1-0), P Galvin (0-1); C Cooper (0-3 (1f)), K Donaghy (1-0), MF Russell (0-2 (1f)).

Subs: Darren O’Sullivan (1-0) for S O’Sullivan (53), Declan O’Sullivan (0-1) for Griffin (56), B Sheehan (0-2, 2f) for Russell (63), E Fitzmaurice (0-1) for Brosnan (69).

Referee: D Coldrick (Meath).