East Kerry survive gut check, consider Clifford red card appeal

"Just because you’re champions doesn’t give you a God-given right to come out and win every game. It doesn’t happen like that.”

CLIFFORD CLASH: East Kerry's David Clifford grapples with Brian Leonard of St. Kieran's in an incident which saw the Kerry skipper red-carded.

THE injury-time sending-off of Kerry captain David Clifford was, predictably, the headline news, but the fact that East Kerry’s overwhelming reaction at the final whistle was one of immense relief at the end result, says it all about this epic Kerry SFC quarter-final Saturday night.

When Jerry O’Sullivan and his management sit down and prepare for a semi-final in a fortnight’s time, they will, almost certainly, be without their talisman, but the champions are fortunate to still be in the reckoning for a second successive Bishop Moynihan Cup after the ferocity of the challenge posed by underdogs St Kieran’s.