Mickey Harte savours frantic opening night win for Derry in Tralee
Sean O'Shea of Kerry in action against Derry players Gareth McKinless, Padraig McGrogan and Conor Glass during the Allianz Football League Division 1 match between Kerry and Derry at Austin Stack Park in Tralee, Kerry.Â
THIS one didn’t come down as much to the little details as it did the basics. The better side won in Tralee. Derry were more composed in Saturday night’s Allianz FL Division 1 clash, less error-prone and their decisions in the heated moments were mainly good.
Kerry’s were not. In the final quarter, the hosts did enough to earn a draw and had golden opportunities to extract even more. Twice Stephen O’Brien tried to force scoring moments when the point was there for the taking. It’s like anything in these moments – they are determined by the end product.
Graham O’Sullivan is nominally a corner back but the Dromid man has game. He rolled his man inside the Derry cover to tee up the equalising goal in the 63rd minute for Dylan Casey. Then after Derry re-established their authority for a second time with cool, clinical offence and a Ciaran McFaul point, it was O’Sullivan again who took the mark and pointed under pressure for the Kingdom.
At 2-8 to 0-14 in the 70th minute, with the driving rain at their backs and a home crowd bellowing for something to send them home happy, it was all in Kerry’s hands. Referee Joe McQuillan signalled three minutes of additional time – to that we shall return – and Kerry set up their zone offence for one final play. These scenarios are practised ad nauseam on the training pitch and in this scenario, one presumes Kerry would have worked to put the ball in Sean O’Shea’s hands. Instead keeper Shane Ryan took the matter into his and air-balled a distant effort wide.
Derry had come too far and done too much to allow the opportunity elude them. They worked the possession well and earned a clear free, from which Shane McGuigan kicked his seventh point, and the winning one.
A frustrated Jack O’Connor accepted his players got a bit frantic down the stretch, and paid the price. Going to Clones next weekend will undoubtedly demand a second thought on whether the Clifford brothers are ready for the fray. Certainly Mickey Harte had no such hesitation in terms of involving the Glen’s All-Ireland winners.
It cannot go without mention that Derry’s build-up to the League opener was more conducive to an opening night performance. Their McKenna Cup victory involved three meaningful tussles, and they were the better side, albeit with the elements, in the first period. They also responded well to both Kerry goals, an aspect of the win that will please Mickey Harte almost as much as the two League points.
Kerry’s supporters aren’t used to opening night defeats in their backyard. It’s the first opening-round loss at home since 2015. As a rule of thumb, local anticipation can be fairly accurately gauged by how rapidly the Austin Stack Park stand fills. At least an hour before throw-in, the tallymen reported. Their Killarney brethren fed Tralee expectation with sightings of a fully-kitted Conor Glass earlier in the afternoon, so his start – and that of his Glen colleagues Ethan Doherty and Ciaran McFaul – was no galloping shock. The wisdom of same is for another day. Harte said after there was no pressure applied to their decision.
If this was the No 2 and No 3 ranked sides in the country, Kerry didn’t start with the tempo one would expect. They played keepball against the wind and a low block for over two minutes before Shane Ryan was tempted into a contestable pass. Derry broke and Conor Glass claimed the game’s first point. For those keeping score, the first groan came at 0.58 but restlessness relented with a pair of Sean O’Shea points, prompting the visitors to finally bare their teeth. And how.
Maybe it’s the time of year, but there was a very noticeable trait about this Derry side. They’re rapid. Not just in transition but in possession of the ball. Through the incisive straight-line running of McKaigue, Conor Doherty and McKinless, they had Kerry chasing, often too late. Between the 12th and 24th minutes, Derry claimed six points, though Kerry may quibble with Joe McQuillan’s decisions on the latter two, frees which Shane McGuigan converted with ease.
Into the bargain, Shane Ryan’s restarts were not working – or to be more blunt, were not a good idea into the breeze with a rookie midfield of Joe O’Connor and Sean O’Brien trying to stave off the marauding All-Star pairing of Conor Glass and Brendan Rogers. Do that math. Additionally, Derry keeper Odhran Lynch was double-jobbing as a third midfielder.
Eventually Kerry elected to secure short possession off their kickouts, by which time the Beaufort debutant O’Brien had been replaced by Barry Dan O’Sullivan.
Though Rogers would claim the last point of the half, a high looping effort that dropped over the bar for Derry’s eighth point, a couple of Kerry points preceding it gave the hosts an important bit of geansai to hold onto. Dylan Geaney put through a tasty ball from which Kerry won a free for O’Shea to point. Then Dara Moynihan, one of Kerry’s best players in the half, started and finished a move for their fourth point. It left the gap at four changing ends, 0-4 to 0-8, which was not a bad return for a home effort that was, to put it benignly, underwhelming.
Odhran Lynch’s safari trips eventually caught up with him, but let’s face it, wandering keepers are here to stay. There are too many good footballers among their number for it not to. With Derry 0-11 to 0-7 in front, Lynch was heading the wrong way as his defenders coughed up the ball, and Kerry’s Conor Geaney had the task – not too easy – to direct the ball into the empty net. Declan Cassidy and Niall Toner points steadied the visitors before Dylan Casey took the slip pass from his fellow corner back O’Sullivan to draw Kerry level.
Now the fat was in the fire. But it was Derry who handled the heat better.
S O’Shea (0-5, 4 frees), D Casey, C Geaney (1-0 each), G O’Sullivan, D Moynihan, D Geaney (0-1 each).
S McGuigan (0-7, 6 frees), C McKaigue, G McKinless, C Doherty, C Glass, D Cassidy, C McFaul, B Rogers, N Toner (0-1 each).
S Ryan; G O'Sullivan, J Foley, D Casey; B O Beaglaoich, T O'Sullivan, G White; J O'Connor, S O'Brien; D Moynihan, D Geaney, C Burke; K Spillane, S O'Shea, M Burns.
B O’Sullivan for S O’Brien (27), P Murphy for O Beaglaoich, C Geaney for Burns (half time); Stephen O’Brien for Burke (44), D O’Connor for Spillane (48).
O Lynch; C McCluskey, C McKaigue, D Baker; P McGrogan, G McKinless, C Doherty; C Glass, B Rogers; E Doherty, D Cassidy, C McFaul; N Loughlin, S McGuigan, P Cassidy.
N O’Donnell for P Cassidy (47), C Murphy for O’Loughlin (56).
J McQuillan (Cavan)
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