Kerry reach league final but Armagh celebrate survival after epic draw

Armagh came back from 10 points down to snatch a dramatic draw with Kerry, securing their Division 1 status. Kerry will play Donegal in the league final

Tom O'Sullivan scored 0-5 - including two two-pointers - as Kerry drew with Armagh at the Athletic Grounds. Pic: Ray McManus/Sportsfile

National Football League Division 1: Armagh 1-21 Kerry 0-24 

A stalemate, but nothing like kissing your sister. For Kerry, it’s a league final against Donegal. For Armagh, it’s a reprieve from relegation to Division Two thanks to their resilience against the All-Ireland champions and events in Salthill.

News of Galway’s defeat of Dublin out west filtered through just moments after the home side had failed to use 90 seconds of possession to land a winner. Armagh were safe. The place, not for the first time, erupted. Despair to joy.

It was a fittingly dramatic ending to an afternoon of absolutely wild swings, with the Ulster side falling ten behind in the first quarter just the first of the abrupt changes in momentum that made for such an epic.

David Clifford had Kerry off the mark inside 38 seconds, tipping over the bar on the run despite the close attention of Aaron McKay who had to cover every blade of grass in the Armagh half as the great man wandered to his heart's content.

Kerry let rip from there. They were ten points to no score to the good with just over 20 minutes played. Their dominance was total and it owed to an absolute iron grip on the midfield where Armagh were floundering.

Kieran McGeeney and his lieutenants called midfielder Ben Crealey over to the line to impart some emergency instructions at one point but it didn’t change anything. Not immediately anyway. Kerry continued to dish out the pain.

It took the hosts until the seventh minute to launch an attack, ten minutes to win a kickout and 23 minutes to score a point. Joe O’Connor was immense in that spell, Clifford dangerous as ever and Dylan Geaney was knocking over points for fun.

McGeeney had to change something. He did, and it paid off. Conor Turbitt hit a two-pointer and another point within a minute or two of coming on for Jarly Óg Burns as the tide was turning dramatically in the middle third.

Armagh won seven kickouts on the bounce towards the end of the first half, all bar one of them on Kerry balls. Darragh McMullen was making inroads and the Ulster side outscored Kerry 0-10 to 0-2 in the last dozen minutes before the interval.

Armagh continued the recovery on the restart with four of the first five points, and an Oisín O’Neill goal in the 42nd minute put them into the lead for the first time after Jason Foley had initially blocked McMullen’s low shot on the run.

Tom O’Sullivan was doing as much as anyone to keep Kerry ticking along. His two two-pointers either side of that goal keeping the sides cheek by jowl on the scoreboard, but Armagh were beginning to find some daylight in the final quarter.

Two McConville frees took them two points clear for the first time before Joe O’Connor managed what Clifford couldn’t on a couple of previous occasions and landed a two-pointer. On it went, to and fro.

Clifford ended with ten points so it’s not like he didn’t do his bit but there were heroic individual efforts all over the park on both sides. Neither deserved to lose and, on this evidence, Armagh didn’t deserve to be relegated.

Scorers for Armagh: O O’Neill (1-2, 0-1 free); D McMullen (0-4, 1 2pt); C Turbitt (0-3, 1 2pt); R McQuillan (0-3); C McConville (0-3, 2f); O Conaty (0-2); J Og Burns, B Crealey, T McCormack, G McCabe (all 0-1).

Scorers for Kerry: D Clifford (0-10, 1 2pt, 1 2pt free, 1 free); T O’Sullivan (0-5, 2 2pts); J O’Connor (0-4, 1 2pt); D Geaney (0-4); S O’Shea (0-1).

ARMAGH: B Hughes; G Murphy, A McKay, P McGrane; R McQuillan, T Kelly, J Og Burns; P Burns, B Crealey; T McCormack, D McMullen, G McCabe; C McConville, J Duffy, O Conaty.

Subs: O O’Neill for Burns (29); C Turbitt for Conaty (30); O Conaty for Duffy (38); J Og Burns for Crealey (temp), 44 and Burns (51); C O’Neill for Kelly (64).

KERRY: S Murphy; P Murphy, J Foley, D Casey; T O’Sullivan, M Breen, A Heinrich; J O’Connor, S O’Brien; M O’Shea, S O’Shea, G O’Sullivan; D Geaney, D Clifford, K Evans.

Subs: B O Beaglaoich for Murphy (32); T Kennedy for Evans and M Burns for G O’Sullivan (both 46); K Spillane for Geaney (59); L Smith for O’Brien (68).

Referee: B Cawley (Kildare).