Jack O'Connor: Kerry's missed goal chance into the Hill was a critical moment

CHANCE: Tom O'Sullivan of Kerry in action against Niall Grimley of Armagh during the GAA Football All-Ireland Senior Championship semi-final match between Armagh and Kerry at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by Daire Brennan/Sportsfile

A missed goal at one end, an avoidable green flag at the other. Both swung momentum to Armagh. Both grew the influence of the Armagh crowd.

Jack O’Connor’s post-match analysis honed in on a third quarter where Tom O’Sullivan was presented with two green flag opportunities. With the first, he refused to take on the shot and doubled back. For the second on 41 minutes, he took the shot but the shot went wide.

Fast forward 13 minutes, a Rian O’Neill delivery fell out of the clouds and then fell out of Shane Ryan’s hands. Pouncing to punish was the defender tasked with shadowing David Clifford, Barry McCambridge palming to pare a Kerry advantage that stood at five on 47 minutes to the minimum.

Over to Jack for his thoughts on the consequences of all that.

“It looked like that missed goal chance into the Hill was a critical moment,” the Kerry manager said of O'Sullivan failing to put the Kingdom six in front.

“If that went in, I thought the game was probably beyond Armagh. And then their goal, that poor goal that we conceded was a huge moment in the game. That is where the game swung, those two moments. The goal we conceded was a killer in the sense that it got the Armagh crowd into it.

“I thought we quietened the crowd for large parts of the game, and it just gave Armagh momentum and it is hard to break momentum. We did well to come back and equalise in normal time. We had a ferocious effort from our boys, but it was bitterly disappointing, it was a game we had enough chances to win.”

Let’s stay with the crowd for a second. The stands carried an orange hue. Green and gold was a minority. You can’t measure that in white or green flags, but the Kerry manager insisted it carried an impact.

“The goal gave them momentum and the crowd drove them on. They outnumbered us fairly substantially out there and I thought the crowd was a factor in the game. No question about it, it just lifted Armagh and we tried very hard, but it was hard to arrest that momentum.

“Armagh have not been here for a while, so they were bound to come in big numbers. It is a Bank Holiday weekend up north. Armagh are great supporters, great followers and they came in big numbers.”

The crowd, though, were not responsible for Kerry managing only five points following Paul Murphy’s 47th minute goal. Five points - one of which was a 65 - across approximately 53 minutes of fare.

“Dylan Geaney kicked a great point to take it to extra time. Armagh have been in those situations a bit more than us, maybe. They have gone to extra time and even penalties in a few games over the past few years. Maybe they had the experience to manage that,” Jack continued.

“We obviously had to make a lot of changes and had to finish the game without a share of what we call key men. In the end, the lack of experience on the field told. There were a couple of chances we didn’t take near the end and maybe another day, we would.”

Did their less than taxing run to the last four also tell? They hadn’t been examined to the extent Armagh probed and prodded them throughout. They were made to answer questions they hadn’t been asked all summer.

“We weren’t tested to that extent that we were tested out there, I suppose, and maybe that was a factor. That was possibly a factor but like my abiding feeling is when you miss chances and then you concede a poor goal like we did, that’s huge because it’s a momentum changer.

“Momentum is big in games and then when you have a huge crowd behind Armagh and the momentum swings, that’s a poor combination from our point of view.” There was the inevitable David Clifford question. Only one point from open play to go along with a mark and two frees. His shadow, Barry McCambridge outscored him from play.

“Ah, what can I say? Sure, he’s double and triple marked. He’s a key man for us but, up to this game we were getting a lot of scores from other areas. Maybe today we didn’t get as many as we hoped from other areas but David tried his heart out there and gave it everything.”

On his own future, Jack said he has another year left in his contract and is hopeful of seeing that out.