Kerry depth gives Peter Keane nice headaches ahead of Munster final

Seán O'Shea of Kerry is tackled by Brian Fox of Tipperary. Picture: Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile

Not the avalanche anticipated, for which Tipperary deserve credit, but a game over as a contest by half-time.

The departure of David Clifford from the fray in the 54th minute was effectively the final whistle, although the die was all but cast once the hosts surrendered so much of their offensive play in an attempt to keep Kerry in check.

Peter Keane wasn’t upset that Kerry’s total score had dipped from their recent ransackings of Clare and Tyrone. Tipperary had presented them with a trickier puzzle but one they ultimately mastered. Up front, the lonely presence of Conor Sweeney and an out-of-sorts Michael Quinlivan wasn’t going to be enough to trouble Kerry.

The 11-point margin brought to +43 the difference between Kerry and their opponents in the last three games. “I’m running out of fingers!” laughed Keane, dismissing the figure. “Forty-three… look, it is what it is. You want scores. Twenty scores is generally in and around the numbers you want to be getting and obviously conceding less, which we’re happy with, the work-rate from the boys up front and the boys behind.

“There was some nice kicking, we put a lot of pressure on their kickouts and we got a bit of success out of it. They have very, very good fellas out around the middle of the field, they have a very good ’keeper, he’s very good kickouts and we did very well putting pressure on them.”

As Paudie Clifford continues to impress and David Moran enjoyed his evening’s work in midfield, Keane has also been handed a couple of welcome selection headaches for the July 25 date with Cork. Mike Breen has done little wrong since the Roscommon game but captain Paul Murphy has to be in with a strong shout of taking back a defensive berth, while Killian Spillane’s three points coming off the bench should push him into reckoning for a starting place in attack.

“You want a bit of depth,” agreed Keane. “That’s something that we’ve really been pushing for. Last year wasn’t any great opportunity to build on that because you have only the one game and the way the year just happened with nothing in the middle of it. That’s the same for every other team but if you want to try and build, it’s very difficult and we’re starting to build that.

“I left fellas behind me in Fitzgerald Stadium this morning training and they wanted to be on this bus and you have fellas sitting up behind me (in the stand) and they wanted to be out on the field and you want that competition but they’re all pushing and pushing and shoving each other to try and get on.”

David Power appeared to take umbrage at the suggestion Tipperary had come to play damage limitation football on Saturday. “Are you telling me Kerry… at times they had 15 players back as well.”

Operating Brian Fox and Pádraic Looram as sweepers early on, the clear objective was to deprive Kerry of their electric starts in recent matches.

It worked to an extent although David Clifford’s 15th-minute goal, executing a high-class shot after a driving Gavin White run, undid some of their early work and they trailed Kerry 1-4 to 0-1 at the first water break. A Sweeney penalty goal after Jack Kennedy had the gumption to drop his shoulder and gun for goal only to be pushed by White cut the deficit to four but Kerry bounced back to double that advantage by the half-time break, 1-11 to 1-3.

Five of Kerry’s scores at that stage came from frees, some of which Power believed were questionable.

“I thought the referee was tough on Tipp, a lot of key decisions went to Kerry. I thought at times David Clifford was going over… he’s a very good player, he doesn’t need soft frees.”

Stephen O’Brien and Seán O’Shea were both denied goals but Kerry led by nine when Quinlivan was sent to the line for reacting to a Gavin Crowley tackle with a strike in the 50th minute. It appeared Tipperary would cave, especially when they then lost Jason Lonergan to a black card. But they held their opponents to a point in the subsequent 10-minute period as Kerry switched attention to Cork.

Not that Keane did. “Our game was here. You know those little calendar things that would be up on the office desk, I remember reading one of them many, many years ago: ‘worry is like a rocking chair — it keeps you busy but gets you nowhere’. We could have been beaten here tonight and sure what am I worrying about?.”

On Keane’s calendar, July 25 was circled from the moment the final date was confirmed. In Thurles afterwards, he gathered his players and management in a circle. From November 9, they’ve plotted a straight line. They dare not deviate now.