Jack O'Connor content with Kingdom poise and patience

Jack O'Connor was satisfied with his side's focus and energy in defeat of Louth.

STOP THAT MAN: Louth’s Anthony Williams, Paul Mathews, Craig Lennon and Sam Mulroy chase David Clifford of Kerry. Pic ©INPHO/James Crombie

All-Ireland SFC Group 4: Kerry 2-21 Louth 1-10 

Progress and stats are peas in a pod. You can cook them any way you want.

Kerry beat Louth by 28 points at the same stage and in the same venue last year. The margin when they met again on Sunday was halved to 14 and yet that straight line from A to B is far too one-dimensional here.

Jack O’Connor’s side were in trouble approaching the game in 2023. This time they made for the midlands top of Group 4 after two convincing defeats of Monaghan and Meath and confident that the work before them would be spared the same edge.

More to the point, Jack O’Connor spied progress made from their most recent effort.

“You would have to be happy, much happier than we were after the Navan game [against Meath], even though they were similar enough scorelines. I just thought we went about our business a bit better today.

“We were more focused, more energetic, so, overall, we’re happy.” 

The Munster champions had 11 different scorers and recorded just five wides on a day when the wind had no hand in the game. They doubled their goal count for the Championship and the longest they went without raising a flag was seven minutes.

It was clinical stuff.

SORTING IT OUT: Kerry’s Tadhg Morley and Ryan Burns of Louth contest the issue. Pic: ©INPHO/James Crombie

Louth manager Ger Brennan wasn’t happy with the time and the space his side gave Kerry close to goal but the swiftness and the manner of the execution at times was sublime. So was their ability to strike long and diagonal balls to stretch the opposition.

Brennan had flagged that last week but knowing these things and preventing them are two different ball games and there was never a sense of anything approaching real difficulty for Kerry here, even with a sizeable red support around the ground.

Kerry did what they had to as the situation demanded. They pressed high and got some real purchase for their efforts and they were adept at moving the ball more laterally when the Louth defence manoeuvred itself into a bloc.

“Look, you have to be patient against that kind of defence because they set out their stall. They dropped 14 men inside the ’45’, so you can’t just be gung-ho with the ball and picking fellas out with pinpoint passes.

“You have to be patient, and work it. It’s a different game now. Maybe the lads up in the stand commentating might prefer a different game, but we’ve to play the game that we’re faced with in front of us.

“This is the way the game has gone,” said O’Connor. “You have to be patient, and keep moving the ball to try and move the defence around, and I thought we were quite good at that today.” 

Now the flip side.

Louth’s goal came just seven minutes in when Donal McKenny outjumped Tadhg Morley to a shot dropping short, but there were three other gilt-edged chances that could have caused more trouble and a penalty shout ignored when McKenny was pulled down.

Better teams will take note and make more of such opportunities.

“We gifted them a goal, to be honest,” said O’Connor. “They shouldn’t be getting a goal from that type of situation. It was just a kick for a point that dropped short, and we’d have to do a bit better there, boxing out.

“We spoke at half-time about the danger of runners from one-twos, and right after half-time they had another goal chance with Craig Lennon. Of course, there are always bits and pieces, and that’s certainly one are that we’ll have to look at.” 

The end result is that Kerry now have next weekend off while the preliminary quarter-finals get decided and O’Connor was understandably happy with that given the wear and tear that accumulates this deep into the inter-county season.

Whether that two-week gap is enough to allow Graham O’Sullivan return to action remains to be seen. Then Dromid Pearses defender missed the Munster final win over Cork with a groin injury and has been sidelined more recently with an ankle problem.

“Graham is making progress, he’s back running, and he’s kicking a bit of ball, but not partaking in full training yet. He’s not a million miles off it, and he’ll certainly make a big push over the two weeks to make the 26.” 

Scorers for Kerry: D Clifford (0-7, 0-5 frees); D O’Connor (1-1); B O Beaglaioch (0-3); T Morley (1-0); P Clifford and J O’Connor (both 0-2); S O’Shea (0-2, 0-1 free); P Murphy, T Brosnan, D Moynihan and T O’Sullivan (all 0-1).

Scorers for Louth: S Mulroy (0-3, 0-2 frees); D McKenny (1-0); C Grimes (0-2); C Lennon, B Duffy, P Mathews, C Keenan and C Byrne (all 0-1).

KERRY: S Ryan; T Morley, J Foley, T O’Sullivan; P Murphy, G White, B O Beaglaioch; D O’Connor, J O’Connor; T Brosnan, P Clifford, D Moynihan; D Clifford, S O’Shea, D Geaney.

Subs: K Spillane for Geaney and C Burke for Brosnan (both 56); M Breen for Morley, D Casey for Foley and BD O’Sullivan for J O’Connor (all 67).

LOUTH: N McDonnell; D McKenny, D Corcoran, D Campbell; C McKeever, A Williams, C Lennon; T Durnin, B Duffy; P Mathews, C Keenan, C Grimes; R Burns, S Mulroy, C Byrne.

Subs: L Grey for Lennon (50); C Early for Mathews (52); T Jackson for Burns (60); L Jackson for Byrne and P McStravick for Duffy (both 67).

Referee: C Lane (Cork).