Jack O'Connor credits switches for Kerry's untouchable second half
Seán O'Shea was in awesome form for Kerry against Armagh, scoring 12 points, including three two-pointers. Pic: McManus/Sportsfile
What do you think of that, everybody?
Kerry shoved our predictions, premises and polemics back up our and most people including their own’s throats with this masterclass of defiance.
Afterwards, Jack O’Connor gave great insight into how hurt Kerry had been by last year’s defeat, the lack of faith in them among their own and the general assessment that they hadn’t be up to all that much in this championship.
But he need only have pointed to a sensational 14-point, 15-minute section where Kerry unburdened themselves of all the injury and insult that has come their way this year. There was rage there. In dispatches, we had heard about training going extremely well and players, the dwindling numbers able to tog out, being thorny with each other and training games being heavy. In the past, those omens have been good for Kerry football.
With 12 points, Seán O’Shea was the leader of the gang throughout, the spiritual one of the group according to O’Connor, yet in that period he was part of a collective organism that were in, if not close to a flow state.
It hadn’t been on the cards. Not before the game or during it despite a reasonable first half. When Tom O’Sullivan in the first half became the latest of their All-Stars to go lame, Kerry’s options seemed threadbare. Indeed, Armagh went five points up early in the second half and were hunting for more. But then came the surge.
Under these new rules, there will be power plays, passages where teams feel almost invincible and for 15 minutes here, between the 41st and 56th minutes, Kerry were untouchable.
Fourteen points scored without response, they transformed a five-point deficit into a nine-point lead. Everyone was in on the act, from the Cliffords, the one who started and the playmaker who came on at half-time, to Brian Ó Beaglaoich to captain Gavin White.
For a team supposedly down to their third-string midfield, Kerry demolished Ethan Rafferty’s kick-outs and sent over point after point including two-point efforts for O’Shea and David Clifford. The latter’s sibling entered the fray at half-time and what he could contribute was significant and welcomed.
Nine of 10 kick-outs went Kerry’s away. Every time Rafferty looked up, he must have sensed dread. “I suppose we kept kicking it to the wings,” said Kieran McGeeney. “Three or four things, it’s just sometimes like it happens in sport. If I could pinpoint the reason for you, we could have stopped it.
“We were too tight onto the sidelines, getting sideline balls and they were quicker on the breaks than us probably at that stage.
“Again, it was their ability to punish. Seánie just had one of those days. He couldn’t miss. So, that’s what happens. You have a forward of that calibre.”
Jarly Óg Burns going off for 10 minutes with a head injury didn’t help Armagh either but O’Connor pointed to a few switches that worked favourably for Kerry. Joe O’Connor had been quiet by his standards in the first half but was immense after coming away from wing-forward.
“I think the introduction of Paudie Clifford at half-time just gave everybody a lift because we know the calibre of a player Paudie is. Him and Micheál Burns really lifted the team.
“Joe O'Connor going to midfield halfway through the second half gave us a big lift as well because Joe had been a little bit peripheral on the wing and he had a big influence when he went to midfield. Some days, stuff like that works for you. Today was that day."
Cian McConville had a couple of goal openings in the 59th minute but save for an Oisín Conaty two-pointer four minutes later Armagh were drowning and it was appropriate that O’Shea kicked the final score of the game four minutes from time in front of this 70,350 Croke Park crowd.
O’Shea had been the stand-out Kerry player in the opening 35 minutes. He kicked eight points including a couple of two-pointers from play. He had three points by the time the clock struck three minutes.
Conaty, again Armagh’s best player, struck back with a brace of points prior to Conor Geaney threatening the Armagh goal after David Clifford laid off the ball but his seventh minute shot was tame and easily dealt with by Rafferty.
Armagh had more reason to curse the opposing goalkeeper in the 10th minute when Shane Ryan parried over a powerful Tiernan Kelly effort as Kerry fluffed their attempt to clear their lines.
Kerry’s reaction to that let-off was strong. White pointed, Clifford followed it with another two minutes later and then Graham O’Sullivan was key to them adding a second from the follow-up kick-out, a free converted by O’Shea.
Armagh bounced back with three points including a Jarlath Óg Burns’s two-pointer and the likes of Jason Foley were keeping them from stringing further scores. At the other end, O’Shea and O’Sullivan were finding their range again and Kerry led by three in the 25th minute.
For the remaining 10 minutes of the half, they were outscored by four, though. In the 29th minute came the game’s only goal. Dylan Casey was lax in retrieving a short Ryan kick-out, Kelly stole in on his inside, fed Rory Grugan and he struck high to the net.
Kerry wasted little time in recommencing play and may have been fortunate to win a free from Ryan’s longer kick. However, it paved the way for a much-needed O’Shea point and within a minute he was contributing another two-pointer to restore Kerry’s edge.
Dylan Geaney sent over a point in the 32nd minute but Rafferty then pumped over a two-point free and McElroy’s second came just after the buzzer.
Armagh started the new half with the same zeal and went five up in the first five minutes. Rian O’Neill curled over a two-point free in the 37th minute after a great dash by Jarlath Óg Burns to win the placed ball.
He and Conaty followed it up with points and the margin could have been six but for a poor Ben Crealey strike at the posts. And then Kerry took over. Completely.
S. O’Shea (0-12, 3 tps, 3 frees); D. Clifford (0-7, 2 tps); J. O’Connor, B. O’Beaglaoich, G. White, P. Clifford, G. O’Sullivan, M. Burns (0-2 each); D. Geaney (0-1).
O. Conaty (1 tp), R. O’Neill (1 tpf, 1 free) (0-6 each); R. Grugan (1-0); J. Burns (tp), E. Rafferty (tpf), J. McElroy (0-2 each); T. Kelly, D. McMullan, C. McConville (0-1 each).
S. Ryan; D. Casey, J. Foley, P. Murphy; B. Ó Beaglaoich, G. White (c), T. O’Sullivan; S. O’Brien, M. O’Shea; J. O’Connor, S. O’Shea, G. O’Sullivan, D. Clifford, C. Geaney, D. Geaney.
E. Looney for T. O’Sullivan (inj 24); P. Clifford for C. Geaney (h-t); M. Burns for M. O’Shea (50); D. Moynihan for M. Burns (temp 56-57); K. Spillane for D. Geaney (63); G. O’Sullivan for T. Kennedy (69); T.L. O’Sullivan for D. Casey (69-ft).
E. Rafferty; P. Burns, P. McGrane, B. McCambridge; R. McQuillan, T. Kelly, J. Burns; N. Grimley, B. Crealey; R. Grugan, J. McElroy, O. Conaty; D. McMullan, A. Murnin, R. O’Neill.
C. Turbitt for J. Burns (temp 37-47); J. Duffy for N. Grimley, C. Turbitt for R. McQuillan (both 50); A. Forker for T. Kelly (54); C. McConville for B. Crealey (56); S. McPartlan for R. Grugan (66); C. O’Neill for A. Murnin (temp 66-ft).
B. Cawley (Kildare).
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