Kerry keep final pressure on Cork
O’Connor hailed the mental toughness his charges showed in Scotstown in 2006 and the game’s worth was highlighted further the following two summers when the Ulster team pushed Kerry close in successive championship tussles.
Yesterday’s appointment in Inniskeen is unlikely to be weighted with any such significance in the months and years to come, particularly in light of the hosts’ rapid decline, but Kerry once again found Monaghan’s stony grey soil to be fertile territory.
The two league points and Cork’s stumble in Castlebar have served to keep their faint final ambitions alive – while threatening their planned training camp in the Algarve — but the real worth of this trip north will become clearer closer to the season’s height.
Among the plus points were full season debuts for Paul Galvin and Declan O’Sullivan, Marc Ó Se’s return from his one-month ban, Kieran Donaghy’s continued brilliance, an impressive midfield display and a handful of younger bucks who again thrust their hands in the air.
Not a bad day’s work.
“There will be fair competition now to make the championship panel because remember that 26 is all it is going to be this year and that’s what we want,” agreed O’Connor. “There are lads mad for road and mad to wear the jersey and that is great for everyone.”
Galvin and Declan O’Sullivan impressed in an opening half in which Kerry, aided by a strong wind, built up an impregnable lead. Both faded after the interval but by then their mere presence on the pitch was of more import than their performances.
“That was good. They needed it. That was Galvin’s first full game for us in the bones of 12 months so it was great that he got that sort of mileage into his legs. From that point of view, it was a good game.
“We have another good game next week against Down, who gave a great account of themselves against Dublin on Saturday. We have found this league to be good in the sense that most of the games have been very competitive.”
Yesterday wasn’t one of them.
Kerry could afford to enter the weekend resting players of the calibre of Colm Cooper and Tomás Ó Se but there was nothing voluntary on Monaghan’s part about the absences of principles like Paul Finlay, Eoin Lennon or Vincent Corey.
The untimely injury crisis left Eamon McEnaney with little choice but to accelerate his policy of giving youth its fling and the result was that the requisite quality simply didn’t exist on the home side to ever put the visitors under any real pressure.
No Monaghan player scored more than a point from play and only one – full-forward Owen Duffy – managed a score at all in an opening half which went from encouraging to bad to worse.
Conor McManus and Christopher McGuinness were denied goals after three minutes thanks to a save from Tomas Mac A t’Saoir and the leg of a covering defender and their frustration grew through a first quarter in which they had plenty of possession.
Kerry took a bit to get going but bided their time behind a watertight defence and soon began to break up the field with profitable results. Four points in a five-minute spell got the ball rolling and then came their utterly dominant second quarter.
Midfield has been singled out as a concern this year but Anthony Maher and David Moran dominated the sector as the game progressed, aided in no small part by the likes of Galvin and Declan O’Sullivan and the paucity of the opposition.
Another quartet of points sent ominous groans around the ground before Duffy broke the home side’s duck to ironic acclaim. It proved to be a brief respite as Declan O’Sullivan followed it with a point and the game’s only goal.
The latter came from Aidan O’Mahony’s long ball and the Dromid Pearses man used all his strength to turn and hold off his marker before rounding goalkeeper Mark Keogh and sliding the ball into the empty net. With 35 minutes still to go, it was game over.
Kerry had varied their attack well but Donaghy – who took the throw-in at midfield before returning to his more familiar haunt – was still involved in half of their ten first-half scores and was well flanked by Kieran O’Leary and David Geaney.
Kerry rested in neutral for the rest of the afternoon however and Monaghan, battling for pride, outscored them by ten points to five after the break. They also finished with more men after Maher was sent to the line late on for a second yellow-card offence.
Of more concern for O’Connor was the sight of Moran being helped down the tunnel midway though the second period with what appeared a twisted knee but McEneaney’s concerns are undeniably more pressing.
Scorers for Monaghan: C McManus (0-4); O Duffy (0-1); C McGuinness (0-1); M Downey (0-1); C Walshe (0-1); T Freeman (0-1); B O’Brien (0-1); S Smyth (0-1).
Scorers for Kerry: Declan O’Sullivan (1-2); D Geaney (0-4, 2 frees); K O’Leary (0-3, 2 frees); N O’Mahony (0-2); P Galvin (0-1); D Moran (0-1); A Maher (0-1).
Subs for Monaghan: Darren Hughes for Malone (35); T Freeman for Turley (35); B O’Brien for Duffy (54); D Morgan for Brady (60); S Smyth for McGuinness (65).
Subs for Kerry: S Scanlon for Moran (53); B Maguire for Bohan (57); S Enright for O’Connell (57); G O’Driscoll for O’Leary (67); N O’Mahony for Darran O’Sullivan (67).
Referee: C Reilly (Meath).
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