Have you taken a breath yet?
What more can we say about Mayo vs. Kerry, it’s just bound to produce classic encounters.
There are murmurs that the match was even better than the two classic encounters in 2014, there really wasn’t anything between them.
Mayo vs.Kerry 2014 or 2017
— Darragh Culhane (@DarraghCulhane) August 20, 2017
Mayo were probably the better footballing side on Sunday but Kerry were clinical for the most part and hung on in there and then nearly went on to win the game if it weren’t for Paddy Durcan.
On a day where Andy Moran stole the show, there wasn’t too many star performances, it was a wet day and everyone ground it out yet somehow produced an absolute thriller.
The wet weather dictated the game, for the most part, mistakes were plentiful and breaking balls was how the game was to be won or lost (or drawn).
Neither Brian Kelly or David Clarke had their finest displays in terms of kick outs, the wet weather didn’t promote kicking into space for midfielders and wing backs to run onto so it was always going to be an uphill battle.
When the rain came pouring down it was always going to be the case that long kick outs would be 50/50 for the most part, kicking down the field in hope that each of their respective sides wins the high ball and takes possession.
Short kick outs were, of course, few and far between for Kerry. Mayo pushed up on the kick outs and knew that their midfield would be able to contest one on one further down the field.
To Clarke’s credit, he was on the ball for the most part with kick outs, quick from the restart to go short when he could and maybe didn’t get enough credit for this on Sunday but he also used one little trick to keep Kerry guessing.
He used his kicking tee and then he didn’t.
It’s simple really, you look at a goalkeeper and he has his cone he’s more than likely going long. Not always the case but normally.
He doesn’t use his trusted kicking tee and he’s going short. That’s the theory anyway.
So, when Clarke went to kick the ball out with kicking tee in hand and plonked it on the ground and didn’t put the ball on top of it looking to kick it quick all the Kerry players instantaneously went to stop the short kick but to their surprise the ball was airborne and sailing into the midfield.
Clarke would then opposite, placing the ball on the kicking tee and then kicked short.
It then became a bit of a guessing game from there, sometimes the ball would go on the tee and it’d go long sometimes there’d be no tee and he’d go short.
It didn’t win Mayo the game, evidently, it also didn’t win them the kick out battle. No team won that. What it did do was confuse the Kerry forwards at least just a little bit and sometimes that’s exactly what you need to stay in a game.
Clarke has it set up that he has gone long and although the Kerry full forward line has pushed up they haven’t fully committed and he finds space.
Then there’s the standard long kick
But then in the second half, he would come out without the cone with Kerry players expecting him to try to find a short kick
Only to find his man near the 45-metre line
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