KERRY TURN THE TABLES
Old order is restored as Mayo simply blown away
ROMANCE versus youth under a burning southern sun, and the outcome was riotous confirmation that Kerry’s kids are alright.
Mayo fans snaked south in their thousands, heartened by their team’s latest career through the qualifiers and a recent history that had seen them get the better of Kerry.
Kerry supporters were in Fitzgerald stadium early, too, the stand full before 3pm and both crowds standing in the blazing heat, anticipating the match of the weekend.
After all that, it was over inside half an hour.
The relationship between these counties shifted over the last two years, after a long history in which Kerry were masters and Mayo their put-upon subjects. That hierarchy is back in place. Where Kerry’s young players were bullied by Mayo in the league final, they did not take a step back here.
Between their attitude and the tactical plans hatched by Peter Keane, Kerry gorged themselves on Mayo ball in the first half.
They attacked Mayo’s kick-out and David Clarke couldn’t cope; nine of his 17 restarts were turned over in the first period.
The result was pressure washing over Mayo relentlessly, which in turn led to the concession of a glut of frees.
Kerry led 0-7 to 0-3 after 11 minutes, and four of their points came from Sean O’Shea placed balls.
That was only one reason for their win. They were getting on so much ball around the middle, where David Moran gave a performance that must rank as one of his best for his county, that David Clifford and Paul Geaney could rely on a feast of accurate kick-passes inside and they simply vaporised the Mayo full-back line.
When Mayo did get the ball past half-way, attempts to place Darren Coen, Cillian O’Connor and James Carr were undone by sloppy passes.
Kerry led by nine points at half time, 0-15 to 0-6, and Mayo’s worst championship beating since 2006 looked likely; that, incidentally, was in an All-Ireland final won by Kerry with 13 to spare.
Keeping the beating to 10 was scant consolation, as was Cillian O’Connor overtaking Colm Cooper to become the Championship all-time top-scorer.
The lesson from the first year of the Super 8s was the danger of losing in the opening round. Doing so with a scoring difference of minus 10 only steepens the challenge.
Mayo, so long the romantics’ fancy, look worn out. The idea they could be the team to disrupt Dublin’s five-in-a-row seems an empty one this morning.
Where this leaves Kerry is intriguing. They looked a side that have hardened since the league final, young players like Tom O’Sullivan and Sean O’Shea aggressive and confident here, augmented by the experience of Moran and Paul Murphy, with the wonder that is Clifford leading the forward line.
Should they beat Donegal in Croke Park next Sunday, then their bona fides as challengers for the Sam Maguire will be undeniable.
‘I thought we worked very hard in that first half,’ said Keane.
‘The heat out there, I don’t know where ye were sitting but it was very warm out there, especially in that first half.
‘Our fellas worked like dogs out there. That was probably where the game was won, in the first half.’
Keane seems an imperturbable character. There had been some discussion of Kerry’s long unbeaten record in championship matches at Fitzgerald Stadium. They haven’t lost a summertime match here since 1995.
‘We probably didn’t get overly hung up on the record in Killarney because a day will come sometime soon, somebody will beat you in Killarney,’ he shrugged. But he added: ‘We didn’t want it to be today. There was a great hunger by the players not to let it
happen. The key there, not losing that first game, is very important to the subsequent role of games.’
Meanwhile, a deflated James Horan acknowledged Kerry’s dominance and sounded like a man for whom this was a significant defeat that he and his team would have to try to absorb inside the next day or two, before preparations turn to Meath.
A match that looked their easiest in the Super 8s is now fraught with challenge.
‘We struggled in the middle of the field. David Moran caught a lot of ball in the first half and then ball that we did get, we kicked away a huge percentage of it.
‘Our kick-passing was quite poor right throughout the game so when you’re not winning much ball in the middle of the field and anything you do get, you’re kicking it away, you’re going to struggle so we put ourselves and our full-back line under immense pressure, particularly in the first half.
‘Kerry were very good,’ he said, ‘we were a little bit off and they ran out comfortable winners but we have to move on straight away, there’s nothing we can do about it now.’
And so, the old order prevails once more.