Tipp and the best are now worlds apart
By Liam Hogan
Both Kerry and Tipperary were heading for the same destination but going in opposite directions looking at what transpired both on and off the field at Fitzgerald Stadium last Saturday in the Munster semi-final.
In what was the eighth championship meeting since 2010, Kerry wasted no time in putting Tipp to the sword to record their second biggest win over Tipp, matching that of their winning margin of the 1983 Munster final when Kerry won 5-16 to 2-5 in Clonmel and one shy of the Munster final win in 1928. The end result is that Tipperary’s attempt to defeat Kerry for the first time since 1928 will have to wait another year at least.
Tipperary entered the game very much the underdog as they faced the All-Ireland champions in their own citadel, and it didn’t take long for them to find out as the holders were ravenous for scores and led 0-12 to 0-2 at half time.
Tipp tried oh so hard to break through the Kerry defence but only had scores from Kevin Fahey after eleven minutes and the second -an excellent point - from Colm O’Shaughnessy in the 24th minute as Kerry led 0-6 to 0-2 at that stage.
But Kerry were very much in charge as they amount of possession forced Tipp to have fifteen men behind the ball on many occasions. As a result, they had nine men on the scoreboard with the six starting forwards scoring plus one each from midfielder Diarmuid O’Connor and full back Jason Foley while left corner Tom O’Sullivan scored one of the best points of the day with an effort from the outside of his left boot. Kerry’s lead would have been much greater but for goalkeeper Michael O’Reilly who dived full length to deny David Clifford from the penalty spot in the 30th minute.
The second half didn’t bring much change for Tipp who never gave up with Shane O’Connell and Jimmy Feehan working overtime in keeping the Kerry scores to a minimum. Further out-field Colman Kennedy, Jack Kennedy, Colm O’Shaughnessy, and Stephen Quirke did their best to stem the tide. Unfortunately, the scores didn’t match the work-rate as they had to wait until the 39th minute before John Kennedy pointed a free.
Kerry’s next score came from Tony Brosnan who would score three more times with each score better than the previous one.
Jack O’Connor used the bench and both Ruairi Murphy and Killian Spillane score making it eleven scorers for the Kingdom. All this and the footballer of the year failed to score from play.
After the match, Kerry manager Jack O’Connor revealed that while he was looking forward to the Munster final his thoughts on the twenty-four hours after the win over Tipperary was to find game time for the players on the bench and some of the players that came on during the game. It’s a no brainer he said. You have to give every player as much game time as possible, he said.
At the moment, Kerry and Tipperary are worlds apart and both managers admitted as much in their after-match comments. Jack O’Connor has a Munster final to think about which he says is important to win and earn his side home advantage in the first round of the Sam Maguire.
Meanwhile, David Power is looking forward to the Tailteann Cup and hoping they can do better than last year when they exited in the first round to Carlow, but this year’s format is round-robin so will have at least three games, one of which will be at home.
Power feels that Tipp would have survived in Division 3 of the National League had he had a full hand to pick from. Most of the players are back he says except for Conor Sweeney. Let’s hope so.
Winning the Tailteann would savage a year in which the minors are doing well and the under 20s were unfortunate not to get into the Munster semi-final.