Kerry 0-16 0-15 Mayo.
Paudie Clifford started as captain for the first time for Kerry tonight and inspired them to victory as they beat Mayo, and avoided an old ‘curse’.
It is said that Kerry teams, whose captain wears the number 13, tend to lose, so despite normally sporting that particular number on his back, the superstitious Kingdom decided to give him the number 10 jersey.
From the neutrals’ point of view, it was good to see that both squads were quite direct in their styles, backing themselves to take on the opposition with plenty of balls being sent in to the likes of David Clifford in one end, and Ryan O’Donoghue in the other.
Paudie led by example by kicking two points in a row; even more impressive when you consider that they were playing against the wind.
His brother David kicked two points himself in that half, including one that had a touch of magic as he threw several dummies before popping it over, but Cillian Burke has proved to be a brilliant find for Jack O’Connor.
Burke was winning a lot of ball and linking up the play brilliantly, but fortunately for Mayo, Kerry weren’t wearing their shooting boots in the first half and hit a lot of wides.
The Connacht side were lacking a bit of intensity and consistency, showing only flashes of brilliance with the likes of Fergal Boland and Ryan O’Donoghue getting important scores, but they weren’t doing it any where near enough.
Despite the amount of space Mayo were leaving in front of the Kerry attack, and their lack of bite up front, they only went into the half time break two points down, so all eyes were on Kevin McStay to see if he could spark some life into them.
Dylan Geaney’s last action is to play a nice ball into David Clifford who turns sharply and points. Kerry keeping their noses in front.
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There was definitely a sense of urgency with the away side in the second half, as Mayo attacked with much more pace and intensity, which brought the likes of O’Donoghue, Boland and Diarmuid O’Connor into the game more.
They still struggled to get scores into those goals, while Kerry were having success from frees thanks to Sean O’Shea and the usual magic from the youngest Clifford brother, who was a constant threat throughout the game.
Even though the Munster team looked more dangerous, they couldn’t seem to pull away as Mayo always did enough to keep the match within a point or two at the most.
The task grew even larger when Sam Callinan was sent off, and despite more scores from the Clifford brothers and feeling that Kerry were in control, Mayo somehow found themselves level with a minute left in injury time.
However, cometh the moment, cometh the man, and David Clifford kicked a superb score in the last attack of the game to clinch the victory for the Kingdom.
Related links:
- “We have trained 65 times” – Roscommon manager calls out players for missing sessions
- Dublin finally use Con O’Callaghan properly as they overpower Roscommon
- The Fergal Boland story continues as Mayo’s almost forgotten man seals win against Dublin
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