Kerry take league title and end Dubs' unbeaten run
A twentieth National Football League title for Kerry is the line that goes down in the history books but it is one that will stand as the least interesting aspect to this exhilarating Allianz Division One league final between age-old rivals at HQ.
Becalmed for the first quarter, it ended in a blizzard of incident and drama, Dean Rock’s last-gasp free from just beyond the 45-metre line rebounding back off a post, taking with it the prospect of extra-time as well as Dublin’s two-year unbeaten stretch in league and championship.
Not just that but it stopped the bid by Jim Gavin’s side to make history with a fifth straight league title, gave Kerry just a second win over their rivals in eleven attempts and confirmed that the parity between the sides in Tralee three weeks ago was no blip.
A watershed afternoon, then, and one that lived up to the pre-match debate that had been prompted by Eamonn Fitzmaurice’s midweek observations on ‘mind games’.
The temperature actually rose no higher than tepid for much of the first-half but there was a rising fractiousness to it all the closer the game got to the break, by which time both sides had rightfully lost men to a black card.
The period ended with just a point between them, the largest lead having been a three-point margin for Dublin that began to narrow after Kerry’s Jonathan Lyne and the champions’ Diarmuid Connolly had been sent to the stands for blatant foul play.
The two losses were inextricably linked.
Lyne trotted off after hauling a rampaging Connolly to the floor as Kerry’s goal was threatened and it was the offender’s replacement, Gavin Crowley, who was pulled back by the collar and off the ball by the same Dublin forward just about three minutes later.
By now, players on both sides were lowering shoulders into opponents during breaks in play and Kerry’s Donnchadh Walsh was lucky not to be reprimanded for a light slap of James McCarthy’s face as the two quarrelled over a dead ball in front of Hill 16.
It wasn’t anything like the borderline nastiness that epitomised their meeting in Tralee three weeks ago - yet - but the pot was undeniably simmering as they made for the tunnel at the break and that was as much down to Kerry’s play as any residual tensions.
Faring well at midfield on their own ball, the Munster side hassled Dublin on Stephen Cluxton’s restarts and that allowed Lyne, wearing number ten, to funnel back and find a station in front of his full-back line time and again in his time on the field.
Both sides displayed an impressive discipline and structure in defence but every now and then a David Moran, Connolly or Ciaran Kilkenny would burst forward and land an audacious point for which no rearguard could rightfully be blamed.
Moran had the first-half’s best goal opportunity when he broke through the centre of the Dublin back line but his shot on the run was a perfect height for Cluxton to bat away. Jack Barry engineered another ‘white of the eyes’ moment on the break but opted for the fisted point.
It wasn’t so apparent then but Kerry were embarking on a period of ascendency that would stretch from Connolly’s departure in the 29th minute and all the way through to the 53rd, during which time they would outscore Dublin by ten points to two.
They went almost 20 minutes of the second period without a score and it could have been even worse for the city side.
The winners were guilty of a slew of wides in that third quarter but they led Dublin by five approaching the final quarter thanks to their own efforts, some unforeseen lethargy in the opposition and, it has to be said, a lot of tactical fouling.
Dublin were no poster boys either and a litany of controversial incidents committed by both sides would lie scattered through the rest of the game by the end, many of them off the ball and all of which turned the tide one way and then the next.
Dublin’s comeback was helped no end by a pair of points that could have been nipped in the bud by a free for Kerry but it was Paul Mannion’s goal on 61 minutes, shortly after Cluxton batted away Tadhg Morley’s shot, that set the scene for a frantic finale.
Controversy continued to interject until the end.
There were claims that Dean Rock should have earned a penalty in injury-time and complaints that Niall Scully was taken out of it in the air by Anthony Maher in the run-up to Kerry’s last score, from Bryan Sheehan.
Maher eventually walked for the blatant tug on Michael Fitzsimon’s jersey that would set Rock up for the dramatic last effort. Extra-time would have been tasty but, as a taster for the summer to come, this had everything.
Good and bad.
Scorers for Dublin: D Rock (0-6, 4 frees); P Mannion (1-2); C Reddin and C Kilkenny (both 0-2); P McMahon, J McCarthy, P Flynn, D Connolly (all 0-1).
Scorers for Kerry: P Geaney (0-8, 5 frees); D Moran (0-3); M Geaney and D Walsh (both 0-2); J Barry, P Murphy, K McCarthy, J Savage and B Sheehan (all 0-1).
Dublin: S Cluxton; P McMahon, M Fitzsimons, D Daly; J McCarthy, C O’Sullivan, E Lowndes; B Fenton, C Kilkenny; P Flynn, D Connolly, C Reddin; B Brogan, D Rock, P Andrews. Subs: N Scully for Connolly (black, 29); P Mannion for Andrews (41); MD Macauley for Reddin and K McManamon for O’Sullivan (both 51); D Byrne for Lowndes (61); BJ Keane for McCarthy (63); E O’Gara for Flynn (68).
Kerry: B Kealy; R Shanahan, M Griffin, F Fitzgerald; T Morley, P Murphy, P Crowley; D Moran, J Barry; J Lyne, M Geaney, D Walsh; K McCarthy, P Geaney, J Savage. Subs: G Crowley for Lyne (black, 26); D O’Sullivan for Savage (60); B Sheehan for Walsh (67); A Maher for Barry (70); A Spillane for M Geaney (72).
Referee: P Neilan (Roscommon).
