Oisín McConville: Kerry can go on and do great things with this group

Mon, 25 Jul, 2022 - 08:15

Oisin McConville

I’ll hold my hand up. I’ve been critical of this Kerry team in the past, but I always felt I was entitled to pose those questions when they couldn’t close out matches that were within their grasp. Now that my hand is up, I’ll extend it for a collective acknowledgement – fair play to Kerry. They got the job done here in impressive fashion.

Kerry have passed the final test, which wasn’t really about defeating Galway – if you know what I mean; it was just about getting over the line. They looked like an unstoppable force that would not be halted from fulfilling their destiny and completing what everyone in the county expected them to do. They were the better team. Kerry had the better squad. And the longer the game went on, the more they were going to win by.

This was in no way scripted in the fashion I thought it would be. Both teams had been heavily focussed on their defence all season, with Kerry only conceding a shade above 0-12, and Galway having only coughed up an average of 0-15. Yet there were 22 scores from play here. There was a mad period for most of the third quarter when there were ten points from play.

It was brilliant stuff, with that charge led by David Clifford and Shane Walsh who delivered incredible individual displays. We’ve all known for a long time that these guys are exceptional talents but it was fitting that the two of them together produced that quality on the day it mattered most.

Clifford is just a brilliant player that you’d often be left wondering if there is more in him, that if he could have done even more than he actually did. But his impact was still decisive.

At times, it was all hard to take in. When the ball was bouncing up and down the field like a game of ping-pong in that third quarter, I’m sure both management teams were wondering how this was happening. Both sides certainly wouldn’t have wanted it to be as easy for the opposition at it was at stages but it only looks easy if the players in question make it look that way. And they did, including the defenders.

I felt beforehand that Kerry’s stronger bench could prove critical and you’d have to say that it was a key factor in that second half. All the subs they brought in improved the team, especially Killian Spillane who scored two fine points.

The midfield pairing Kerry had in the second half seemed to have a better balance and was able to contribute more than the pairing they started with. It was testament to Gavin White’s class too that he could put that knee injury sustained in the semi-final behind him to step up to the level he did, especially in the second half.

White’s late point was a metaphor for how Kerry just kept increasing the pace before eventually sprinting past Galway down the home straight. Galway deserve huge credit for the immense challenge they put up but they just ran out of gas and puff.

Damien Comer was never in the game while I felt Rob Finnerty was a big loss when he went off. He was a gunslinger that Galway needed coming down the stretch when Comer wasn’t firing and Walsh had probably fired all the bullets he could have, or which Kerry were going to allow him to unload.

Galway just didn’t convert enough of their chances in the second half but that’s understandable when a team, which is in its first All-Ireland final, is trying to transition into that team they hope to become, especially to take down a seasoned crew like Kerry.

Galway were in Division 2 this year. Yesterday will have given them more a taste of what’s required as opposed to just leaving the bitter aftertaste of defeat in their mouths. It’s not a nice feeling but sometimes, as we discovered in Armagh, you just have to suck up those hard defeats in order to eventually reach the Holy Grail.

Galway will be a better outfit for this experience. They have a lot done but this will have reaffirmed how much more they still have to do. Strengthening their bench will be one of their main starting points.

Winning All-Irelands is all that ever matters to Kerry but winning this one was even more satisfying again considering the pressure they were under. Now that Kerry have the old Cannister – as they like to call it – heading south again, they have the potential to go on and do far greater things with this group of players.

But they won’t worry about that for now. I hope they enjoy the celebrations. Because they deserve to.

My team of the year

Shane Ryan (Kerry)

Chrissy McKaigue (Derry)

Seán Kelly (Galway)

Tom O’Sullivan (Kerry)

James McCarthy (Dublin)

John Daly (Galway)

Gavin White (Kerry)

Cillian McDaid (Galway)

Rian O’Neill (Armagh)

Shane McGuigan (Derry)