Another step up the ladder for young pretenders

All-Ireland SFC quarter-final

If the measure of a team is an ability to win by different means then Kerry will be well pleased with their efforts in the first of the summer’s All-Ireland quarter-finals.

Spectacular against Cork in the Munster final, the Kingdom leaned towards solidity on this occasion. The effect was similar, a smooth passage through to the next hurdle, though Mayo will require them to jump their best yet.

All in all, it sets Kerry up nicely for that semi-final. Remember, the current Munster champions blew hot and then very cold against Cavan at this stage 12 months ago before unleashing hell on Dublin the next day.

And this was much better than Cavan.

That they lost to the ultimate All-Ireland champions last year couldn’t disguise the job that Eamonn Fitzmaurice was doing in the midst of what was said to be a transitional period and there was further encouragement on that front yesterday.

For Kerry to push on and better their showing in 2013 they were always going to need the younger members of their fraternity to the fore, and in James O’Donoghue and Fionn Fitzgerald they had a pair here who did just that.

O’Donoghue scored 10 points against Cork. He added a sparkling 1-5 to his CV here, a curled clipper that shaved the wrong side of the post in the second half costing him a second goal and an unblemished ratio of seven scores with seven efforts.

Fitzgerald was just as impressive. Wearing seven, but stationed more often than not at the heart of the half-back line, the Dr Crokes man played the sort of senior role that belied his relative inexperience.

Yet, it was up front that the gulf in quality between these two – and it was a gulf – was most apparent. Galway landed just 45% of their attempts on goal compared to Kerry’s 67%, with 1-18 of that latter’s percentage coming from play.

Their first wide didn’t drop until the 34th minute.

Kerry’s figures only blossomed when Fitzmaurice emptied his bench, Barry John Keane’s three points among five contributed by the clean-up squad in the final quarter or so and helping to keep Galway at arm’s length down the stretch.

They were, it must be acknowledged, building on the foundations laid much earlier when Kerry cantered into a commanding lead courtesy of a ten-minute volley that delivered 1-5 and to which Galway responded with a solitary white flag.

It was the Munster final all over again.

Bryan Sheehan, who started amid rumours that he was carrying a hamstring problem, had been lost to what turned out to be a hip flexor injury after just five minutes, but it was his replacement, David Moran, who kicked off the feeding frenzy with a point.

O’Donoghue was central to it, burning his marker Donal O’Neill before rifling to the corner of the net after 13 minutes and adding a point besides. Amidst it all, Galway were shooting themselves in the foot. Repeatedly.

Their shooting was atrocious in the first half, one they ended having chalked up ten wides, and it was all compounded by a barrage of aimless balls into an outnumbered and isolated two-man forward line when their defence needed some space.

The abiding image of that spell was of Galway players cantering forward, checking abruptly, bouncing the ball and awaiting the arrival of some belated support. That’s why their first goal came as a shock.

Midfielder Thomas Flynn collected possession just inside his own half and ran untouched, with only Aidan O’Mahony behind him for company, through to the Kerry area from where he let loose a finish that beat Brian Kelly.

It was pace that did it and Michael Lundy clearly took note, the dynamic wing-forward blazing through to collect a Sean Armstrong pass seven minutes after the interval before rounding Kelly and claiming his side’s second goal.

That was the score that breathed some life into things. Galway had taken the interval at five points adrift and having scored just 1-3, but Lundy’s effort and two subsequent Galway points brought them back to within two.

Which was as close as they got.

Galway never did get a handle on O’Donoghue or Paul Geaney, who chipped in with four points on a day when he, too, made a mark for Kerry’s younger generation. That said, it wasn’t for the Connacht county’s want of trying.

They tried the 15-on-15 approach and they had a go at the extra men behind the ball tactic, too. John O’Brien – who replaced the injured James Kavanagh in the starting 15 – dropped back from wing-forward time and again.

In the end, it didn’t matter.

Galway did what we thought they would do: they pushed a few of Kerry’s buttons without looking like they would trip a switch and even a last-ditch Damien Comer effort that was saved and a blocked rebound from Gareth Bradshaw couldn’t add more gloss.

Job done for Kerry, but the real work begins here.

Scorers for Kerry: J O’Donoghue (1-5), P Geaney (0-4, 1f), BJ Keane (0-3), D Walsh, J Buckley (1f) (0-2 each); M Geaney, D Moran, K O’Leary, Declan O’Sullivan (0-1 each).

Scorers for Galway: S Walsh (0-5, 3fs), M Lundy (1-1), T Flynn (1-0); G Bradshaw (0-2), P Conroy, D Comer (0-1 each).

KERRY: B Kelly; S Enright, P Murphy, M O Se; A O’Mahony, F Fitzgerald, K Young; A Maher, B Sheehan; M Geaney, J Buckley, D Walsh; P Geaney, Declan O’Sullivan, J O’Donoghue.

Subs for Kerry: D Moran for Sheehan (5), Darran O’Sullivan for Declan O’Sullivan (52), BJ Keane for Buckley (55), K O’Leary for Walsh (59), M Griffin for M Ó Sé (60).

GALWAY: T Healy; D O’Neill, F Hanley, J Moore; G Bradshaw, G O’Donnell, P Varley; F O Curraoin, T Flynn; M Lundy, P Conroy, J O’Brien; M Martin, S Walsh, D Cummins.

Subs for Galway: D Comer for O’Brien, S Armstrong for Cummins (both ht), K Kelly for Moore (48), E Hoare for Martin (55), C Mulryan for Varley (67).

Referee: E Kinsella (Laois).