Tony Leen: Kerry survive the ultimate test of the ticker

That Kerry outlasted their greatest rivals, surviving a late tempest that saw them take on water fore and aft, is easily the most significant element of their win over the Big Blue

TOUGH TASK: David Clifford of Kerry in action against Michael Fitzsimons of Dublin during the GAA Football All-Ireland Senior Championship Semi-Final match between Dublin and Kerry at Croke Park in Dublin. Pic: Ray McManus/Sportsfile

As he began re-configuring mayhem into something linear and coherent, Jack O’Connor de-coiled himself into a long stretch like a stress ball rising from a yoga mat. Emptying the sideline toxins.

“That sort of stuff wouldn’t be great for the heart,” the Kerry manager smiled. “The old ticker was going fairly fast there at the end. Dublin threw everything at us like the great team they are but I am delighted with the resilience our guys showed. That game was going away from us there.” 

Too true. That Kerry outlasted their greatest rivals in Sunday’s All-Ireland semi-final, surviving a late tempest that saw them take on water fore and aft, on port and starboard, is easily the most significant element of their 1-14 to 1-13 squeaker over the Big Blue.

Anyone requiring a reliable metric of same need only have observed O’Connor in the media auditorium, eager for feedback on the game’s standing in the pantheon of epic engagements between the two counties. 

“It felt like two heavyweights, trading blows, pounding away at each other. That was the sense on the sideline, not that you should be getting those kind of notions on the sideline…”, he mused.

What was actually happening was a gushing release of Kerry’s managerial pressure valve into the atmosphere. Losing another All-Ireland semi-final would have been unpalatable. Losing one that Kerry controlled for vast swathes of the game - they were never headed after the first minute - would have been considerably worse. But to a county they hadn’t beaten in Championship in 13 seasons, their nemesis, and all the pertinent questions regarding Kerry’s poise in the pinch moments would have resurfaced.

Important as it was for Kerry to convince the world they can close the deal, it was far more significant that they convinced themselves.

In the heel of the hunt, the Clifford siblings book-ended the victory in front of 73,609 rapt watchers with substantial phases of class and poise, but it would be impossible to thread the narrative through anyone other than Sean O’Shea.

A moment of rare poise and power for the opening goal in the third minute, then an unconvincing penalty that might have put Kerry in the box seat, before an absurdly theatrical 55-metre free into the wind, and into the Hill to win it all in the sixth minute of injury time.

All so very Kerry.

“I think it was a free alright, but looking at it, into that wind and from that distance, I figured we were heading for extra tine,” mused a downbeat but gracious Dessie Farrell afterwards.

His Kerry counterpart luxuriates more than most in watching O’Shea do his stuff, and reckoned that in ordinary circumstances, the free was within the Kenmare man’s compass. 

But into that breeze, and more relevant, after 76 leg-sapping minutes?

Hardly.

Any considered analysis of the Jones’ Road bearpit would accept that a late Dublin thunder roll would have been harsh on Kerry, but serious questions remain about the Kingdom’s tendency to give rivals a helping hand up from the dirt.

O’Connor winced when he saw David Moran drop a simple pass on 44 minutes, because he know that in an open field, nothing spells bother like Dublin in transition. Ten seconds later and Cormac Costello had drilled a 44th minute goal past Shane Ryan to make it a 1-10 to 1-8 game.

Kerry’s five-point half-time lead should have been greater. Now they were on the back foot and beginning to make the crass errors a dazed boxer makes as he fumbles around the canvass for his mouthpiece.

Ciaran Kilkenny fisted a point to reduce the leeway to one and on three occasions Kerry went up the pitch and came away with nothing but frustration. Adrian Spillane came in with a point to prove, but was too wound up, while others put up low percentage shots that were in sharp contrast to the cold terror Dublin were now whipping up at the Davin End.

Then Paudie Clifford stepped in and up. Bated with the Lee Keegan stick after a quiet quarter-final, the Fossa man kicked a crucial 50th minute point, but also brought simple order to raging seas when Kerry were desperate for anyone to do so. Even his celebrated brother, unmarkable in the first period, began to force some efforts into the breeze.

On the hour Paudie Clifford slipped inside the cover again to make it 1-12 to 1-9. Momentarily there was a sense that Dublin had run out of gas. Fat chance. James McCarthy kicked a sublime point, Ciarán Kilkenny turned a failed Kerry restart into a fisted point, and in the 68th minute the Castleknock man had it all aboard for the first time since the second minute of the game.

In that moment, the Kerry keeper, Shane Ryan reverted to the simplest form of possession retention, cognisant that one more turnover to the surging Dubs would have spelt curtains. Kerry were utterly unconvincing in repelling the storm blowing down from the Hill end, but at the very moment it looked like going up in flames, they found a way.

Sean O’Shea won and converted a free, but Dublin responded within seconds. Then a through ball from Paul Murphy invited a Dublin defender into a nibble at David Clifford.

Davy Byrne bit.

Early doors, the route to the final seemed to go through David Clifford’s front door. Since he burst on the scene in 2018, Dublin have made little progress is quietening the Fossa wunderkind, and his six points on Sunday – four from play – indicates how he continues to befuddle the Dubs.

Where Kerry’s attack in the first half was crisp and sharp, Dublin’s looked less patient than laboured. Around Monday’s coffee docks, one might give credit to how efficient Kerry were without the ball for long stages. Even in their bad moments in the second half, they succeeded in running a Con O’Callaghan-less Dublin attack down a lot of Hogan Sand blind alleys.

“We’ve had a lot of knocks, a lot of setbacks, a lot of things going against us but we have a good bit of work done,” revealed Jack O’Conner with regard to the addition of sports psychology in the group. “Tony Griffin has worked an awful lot with the boys on the mental side of the game. Staying resilient, when you get setbacks, just driving on to the next ball or whatever and it took all that focus and resilience to keep going out there today.” 

When the Kerry GAA executive studied the candidates to replace Peter Keane, one factor was pre-eminent – Jack O’Connor’s experience in these clutch moments, his record of getting the job done, his nous for the importance of every percentile in these situations. He declined to feed the media machine before the game because he feared it might provide the smallest assist to the Metropolitans. The grain of rice, as the man he once selected for, would say.

As important as negotiating this hurdle is, O’Connor’s facility to reach into similar situations in the past will be fundamental as Kerry turn to the prospect of a free-wheeling Galway in the final on July 24. He was quick to name-check Mayo’s victory over the Dubs last year, and what happened subsequently. This Dublin drama won’t light the fire over the winter if the Kingdom does not annex its 38th Sam Maguire. He knows that.

“It’s an ecstatic dressing-room at the moment, but we'll have to get the boys down to level ground again. You can imagine the Galway dressing-room a couple of weeks ago when they beat Armagh in an epic. So, they have had a similar enough experience to us, but we have to do a lot of work on the boys in the next couple of weeks to convince them this job isn't done. This is far from done.” 

The outlook for July 24 looks bleak from Gavin White’s standpoint, and that will be no help to Kerry. The Dr Crokes defender looked in big trouble with a possible knee injury in the frantic final stages, and his electric pace and energy would be a sizeable loss to Kerry on both sides of the ball.

As they filed out of the changing area afterwards, drained from the battle, Sean O’Shea politely declined the opportunity to embellish the point heard around the world.

It’s like someone with a baseball cap had reminded them all. This is far from done.