Ó Sé dismissal sours Kingdom success

SUMMER may have begunpositively on the scoreboard forthe Kerry footballers yesterday, yet another disciplinary storm diminished their enjoyment of this Munster SFC quarter-final success.

Swatting aside the challenge of Tipperary was a pleasing start to the championship for Jack O’Connor’s men. Kerry withstood feisty resistance from their opponents and upped their performance considerably in the second-half to triumph. But the victory came at a cost.

The sight of Tomás Ó Sé trooping off in the 33rd minute when referee Maurice Condon brandished a red card after an off-the-ball incident which left Tipperary’s Hugh Coghlan on the ground, was not what the Kingdom faithful wanted to witness on their opening day out.

Ó Sé found himself in hot water against Limerick after last July’s provincial decider in Fitzgerald Stadium. After his first championship outing at the venue since that game, the Gaeltacht man is again facing the prospect of a spell on the sidelines as this was his second offence within a 48-week timeframe. Being robbed of the services of such a proficient defender until July 16th was not what O’Connor wanted to be contemplating as he plots an assault on provincial and national crowns.

The loss of O’Sé left Kerry with plenty to mull over at the interval as they sought to protect a 0-9 to 0-5 lead. O’Connor conceded afterwards there were deficiencies in their first-half play but the heartening aspect for Kerry was how they rectified those shortcomings after the break. Their midfield play had been a source of discontent in the opening period. Flu victim Anthony Maher was unable to line out from the start and his replacement Seamus Scanlon was forced off with a head wound in the 26th minute.

Scanlon’s replacement Micheal Quirke brought assurance to a sector where Tipperary duo George Hannigan and Brian Jones had been enjoying prosperous afternoons. Kieran Donaghy shuttled successfully between the edge of the square and the middle of the pitch in the second-half, and that enabled Kerry to gain a grip on the game.

Kerry’s second-half superiority resulted in Tipperary experiencing that familiar sensation of an early season provincial exit. This was the fourth successive season the Premier were defeated in a Munster quarter-final but there was evidence that they continue to make progress. The 11-point margin separating the teams at the final whistle flattered Kerry and concealed how hard Tipperary had pushed them.

Midfielders Hannigan and Jones provided plenty of vim and vigour while Brian Fox and Philip Austin made a plethora of surging runs from the half-forward line. In defence Paddy Codd managed to keep Kieran Donaghy scoreless from play, even if the Stacks’ man was grounded for the penalty which Bryan Sheehan converted in the 38th minute, while Matthew O’Donnell impressed in goal and with his kick-out strategy.

However, in attack, Tipp came up short. Marc Ó Sé was dispatched to follow Barry Grogan and the Aherlow danger man only managed to escape from his tight clutches for a single point from play, a classy effort in the 16th minute. In the second-half as Kerry pulled clear, Tipperary required a goal to revive their efforts. Grogan thought he had delivered when fisting home in the 60th minute but was adjudged to have encroached into the square. 60 seconds later Austin flashed the ball past Brendan Kealy yet saw it strike the butt of the upright. It kind of summed up their afternoon.

For the Kingdom, Eoin Brosnan returned to intercounty championship action with the minimum of fuss while Declan and Darran O’Sullivan rampaged from their half-forward positions. Kerry pieced together moves in the first-half that cut open the Tipperary rearguard, but the opportunities went abegging. Tipp keeper O’Donnell blocked two efforts from Declan O’Sullivan in quick succession, while the same player saw a chipped effort just drop over the bar. Darran O’Sullivan crashed two shots over the bar while Brosnan powered forward for another point that just missed the top corner of the net.

In the second-half, 14-man Kerry displayed a more clinical edge. Colm Cooper kept the scoreboard ticking over with points while it fell to Sheehan to supply the goal-scoring touch. In the corresponding fixture last year in Thurles, the St Mary’s man grabbed his first two senior championship goals for Kerry with a converted penalty and a strike from play. He replicated that haul here as he fired a left-foot shot home in injury-time after wonderful play by Cooper and O’Sullivan.

Scorers for Kerry: B Sheehan 2-1 (1-0 pen, 0-1f); C Cooper 0-5 (0-2f); Declan O’Sullivan, Darran O’Sullivan 0-3 each; E Brosnan, A O’Mahony, D Walsh, K O’Leary 0-1 each.

Scorers for Tipperary: B Grogan 0-3 (0-2f); P Austin, C Sweeney (0-1f) 0-2 each; B Fox, G Hannigan, B Mulvihill, P Acheson 0-1 each.

Subs for Kerry: M Quirke for Scanlon (blood) (26); P Galvin for O’Leary (54); Scanlon for Quirke (60); BJ Keane for Darran O’Sullivan (60); D Bohane for O’Mahony (63); S Enright for O’Mahony (63); A O’Connell for Brosnan (68).

Subs for Tipperary: B Mulvihill for S Grogan (43); P Acheson for Sweeney (56); J Cagney for Jones (inj) (65); S Hahessy for Austin (70).

Referee: Maurice Condon (Waterford).