Kerry gold: Classic David Clifford winner frustrates defiant Mayo
Mayo’s Rory Brickenden and Aidan O'Shea try to block David Clifford of Kerry
COMETH the moment..and all that.
It wasn’t that Kerry were ever poised or in control of this freewheeling Allianz League Division One tie in Tralee, but in the final passage of added time, they worked possession into their sweet spot.
That is David Clifford’s quarter, where there’s enough real estate to manoeuvre his marker a yard and create the distance to curl over what proved a valuable winning point – valuable in more than the victory on the night too.
Did Kerry deserve it? Perhaps it’s easier to suggest Mayo didn’t deserve to come away empty-handed. It wasn’t that they threw away a lead or anything – they never led over 73 minutes, but there was rarely the sense until they were reduced to 14 men with Sam Callinan’s 60-minute departure that they’d come up short.
Three minutes after that, David Clifford put Kerry 0-15 to 0-12 in front and the huge home support finally ceased shifting in their seats. No such luck. Ryan O’Donoghue was straight up the other end to point and Fergal Boland made it a one-point game on 67 minutes. Kerry had frittered away several good scoring chances in the first half and there was a lingering sense that it would bite them on the bum. When Mayo won a Kerry restart on 68 minutes, they won a free which Ryan O’Donoghue converted to draw level for the first time since the opening bell.
They had a chance to get their noses in front, Rory Brickenden taking an ill-judged mark near the sideline, which made his effort to win it a low percentage one.
That afforded Kerry one last opportunity. Had they brought the same jumpy tempo to that last play, there was no win to be had, but David Clifford point-guarded the play and drifted into the area of the field where he feels like a darts player at the oche. Bullseye.
To show his mortality, he had missed an easier effort from the other side at 0-15 to 0-13 but five points from play is some return for a first start of 2024.
Hat tip too to his brother and captain Paudie who finished with 0-4, again all from play. They are a powerful advert for resting up.
Mayo will inevitably feel frustrated for they highlighted more open spaces in the Kerry half of the field than Jack O’Connor will feel comfortable with – in both halves.
Hence the relief for Kerry. It certainly wasn’t their most clinical night, but the two points are more important to them than the one may have been to Mayo.
It wasn’t just the seven first-half wides that were of some frustration to the hosts, but the facile nature of too many. Tom O’Sullivan, Joe O’Connor and Cillian Burke will not be happy with efforts that were uncontested, and could have made Kerry’s 0-7 to 0-5 interval lead more comfortable.
In terms of defending their backyard, Mayo were occasionally desperate but always defiant and in numbers, right to the half-time whistle when midfielder Jack Carney blocked Gavin White’s effort to edge Kerry three in front.
That strong work ethic served Mayo well at the other end too, forcing Kerry’s Diarmuid O’Connor into a midfield spill with keeper Shane Ryan gone walkabout. Aidan O’Shea teed up the scoring effort for Ryan O’Donoghue who must have considered plundering something more than the point he settled for to make it a 0-6 to 0-5 game in the 28th minute.
Their profligacy meant that the hosts were unable to put space to Mayo. Their most prolific trio, Sean O’Shea and the two Cliffords claimed all but one of their first-half scores, the seventh on 33 minutes coming from a surging loop from full back Jason Foley. The Ballydonoghue man showed the pace and composure that many of his colleagues lacked early doors to edge Kerry two in front.
Rory Brickenden forced David Clifford infield and away from goal, and his half back partner Sam Callinan showed a brisk turn of pace at the other end to point not once, but twice. The second of those, set up by the industrious Ryan O’Donoghue again made it a one-point game in the 27th minute, and Kevin McStay’s side looked threatening again when creating an overload on the stand side, but Eoghan McLoughlin blazed his effort wide. Impotency was spreading.
D Clifford (0-5), P Clifford (0-4), S O’Shea (0-4, 3 frees), D Geaney, D O’Connor, J Foley (0-1 each)
R O’Donoghue (0-5, 2 frees), F Boland (0-3), S Callinan (0-2), D O’Connor, C Reape (free), B Tuohy, J Flynn, D McHale (0-1 each)
S Ryan; G O’Sullivan, J Foley, D Casey; T O’Sullivan, T Morley, G White; D O’Connor, J O’Connor; P Clifford (c), D Geaney, C Burke; D Clifford, S O’Shea, D Moynihan.
C Geaney for D Geaney (48); B O’Sullivan for O’Connor (54); P Murphy for Morley (60), A Spillane for Moynihan (63); R Buckley for Burke (66); S O’Brien, A Heinrich, T Brosnan, D Bourke, K Evans, P O’Leary
C Reape; J Coyne, D McBrien, D McHugh; S Callinan, R Brickenden, E McLaughlin; J Carney, D O'Connor; B Tuohy, F Boland, J Flynn; A O'Shea, T Conroy (c), R O'Donoghue.
D McHale for A O’Shea; E Hession for McLoughlin (47); S Coen for McBrien (59); C O’Connor for Tuohy (60); C Boland for Conroy (71).
D O’Mahoney (Tipperary).
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