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| Kerry derail Rebels' crusade - Sunday, September 20, 2009
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Kerry 0-16
Cork 1-9
An outstanding display from Kerry has denied their neighbours Cork from collecting this year's Sam Maguire crown, as they put the Rebels to the sword this afternoon at Croke Park on All-Ireland final day.
The Kingdom had had their doubters throughout this season's campaign, but when all was said and done they had four points to spare over Conor Counihan's team, who were widely expected to end their 19-year wait for All-Ireland success after seeing off former champions Tyrone last month.
However, Kerry tore up the script at GAA headquarters here and mixed experience with class to stun their rivals and reclaim their status as the best team in the country.
After conceding a goal ten minutes in, Jack O'Connor's men took to the driving seat and pointed their way towards a two-point lead at half-time, from which they built on in the second-half and held their opponents scoreless in the closing 15 minutes.
A coolly flighted 40-metre free from the boot of Donnacha O'Connor helped settle Cork into this game after three minutes, before Tadhg Kennelly quickly drew Kerry level down the far end with a rallying point.
The Rebels though looked to stomp their authority on the game early on and through full-forward Colm O'Neill they were back into the lead when the young Ballyclough man collected possession out around the 40-metre line and swung over a wonderful point.
On nine minutes Paddy Kelly cut in from the right and looped a shot through the posts to open up a two-point lead, and a minute later disaster struck for Kerry, as Nicholas Murphy's free from centre-field split the Kingdom's defence and allowed O'Neill to latch on to the pass, while rounding 'keeper Diarmuid Murphy, and blasting to the net.
Kerry's response was cool though, as they went on to own the rest of the half, with the accuracy of Colm Cooper and Tommy Walsh, along with the dogged work of Kennelly, Declan O'Sullivan - who was giving Kieran O'Connor (a late replacement for Ray Carey) a torrid time - and Paul Galvin leading them towards the advantage at half-time.
Cooper pointed frees with either foot in the 13th and 14th minutes to cut the deficit down to a goal. The Kerry ace's opposite number, O'Connor, sent over his second placed effort for Cork soon after, but this Kerry team really made their experience on the big stage count, as Walsh fired over a brilliant brace of points within a minute of each other to edge his team closer.
Cork's lead was brought down to the bare minimum on 23 minutes once Declan O'Sullivan got himself dragged down by the struggling O'Connor, who would be replaced at half-time. Cooper had no problems in slotting the free afterwards.
Kennelly and Galvin had their chances to draw the Kingdom level, but dropped them the wrong side of the posts. Declan O'Sullivan eventually did so by curling a shot inside the post for Jack O'Connor's team, who were completely outfoxing Cork's 'big men' around the centre.
Unlike their semi-final victory over Tyrone, Paul Kerrigan and Pearse O'Neill were largely absent for Cork throughout this decider and when Cooper moved Kerry into the lead with a free on 30 minutes they would never let it relinquish.
Kennelly doubled the would-be winners' advantage after being slipped through by Galvin before Daniel Goulding ended a 14-minute scoring drought for the Rebels with a point sent over from the right flank.
Kerry were in firm control, and nothing demonstrated that more when Tomas O Se stormed forward from wing back to re-establish a two-point lead, which was calmly added to via another Cooper free, who had turned the tables on Anthony Lynch from the Munster final replay earlier this season; giving the Naomh Aban defender a frustrating time of it by drawing numerous frees, which were sharply sighted by referee Marty Duffy off the ball.
Three minutes into added time a Colm O'Neill '45' was well-taken by Goulding just outside the square and he drew a foul from the Kerry defence in the simplest of positions to send the teams in at half-time on a score-line of 0-11 to 1-6 in Kerry's favour.
At the start of the second-half, Conor Counihan deployed Eoin Cadogan to his team's defence to try and restrict the influence of Tommy Walsh.
However, it was Cork's attack that let them down in the opening minutes of the restart as they kicked four chances wide in the first eight minutes and had to stand idly by as they watched Cooper stretch their opponents' lead with another nerveless-taken free.
Ten minutes into the restart and a blistering run through from Darran O'Sullivan from the left saw him land a marvellous point from an impossible angle, although the Kerry captain did look to have bounced the ball twice on route to goal.
Cork looked to have received their wake-up call just before the game ran into its final quarter, and began to edge the battle around centre-field, so much so that O'Connor withdrew Kennelly from the fray.
A Goulding effort at goal was shot straight at Murphy to deny Cork another much needed major, but was followed up by an O'Connor free and Goulding placing over another half-chance at the net.
The Munster champions looked as though they had raised their game to match Kerry when a rare breakthrough from Graham Canty drew a free for Goulding to put between the posts, but, worryingly, Cork failed to score in the final 15 minutes of this defining encounter, as Kerry shut their rivals out.
Cooper burned through his pace down the left to set-up Tommy Walsh and quickly re-establish the Kingdom's two-point advantage. Kennelly's replacement, Donnacha Walsh, assisted the full-forward for another brace of points within a minute of each other, when the Kerins O'Rahillys man shot another accurate one into the sky.
The men form Leeside looked for a response but could find no way through Kerry's wall of defence, which included Declan O'Sullivan and Cooper tracking back to try and regain possession.
Ten minutes from the final whistle, Cooper - who confirmed his status as top-scorer in this year's All-Ireland championship here - displayed real cuteness with a quick free taken at centre-field, which set Tomas O Se loose to score his second point of the day.
Kerry's accuracy was lethal, while Cork's, on the other hand, was perhaps best summoned up when former top-scorer James Masters came off the bench with seven minutes to go and struck an appalling wide.
In injury-time, Donnacha O'Connor managed to find an odd breakthrough on goal, but his shot flashed well past Murphy's left post, which was the curtain call for Cork, as Kerry came through comfortably in the end to re-claim this year's Sam Maguire crown in spite of all their doubters and at their neighboured rivals' expense.
Kerry - D Murphy, M Ó Sé, T Griffin, T O'Sullivan, T Ó Sé (0-2), M McCarthy, K Young, D Ó Sé, S Scanlon, P Galvin, Declan O'Sullivan (0-1), T Kennelly (0-2), C Cooper (0-6, 6f), T Walsh (0-4), Darran O'Sullivan (0-1). Subs - D Walsh for Kennelly (51), M Quirke for D Ó Sé (57), K Donaghy for Darran O'Sullivan (57), D Moran for T Walsh (67), A O'Mahony for Young (69).
Cork - A Quirke, K O'Connor, M Shields, A Lynch, J Miskella, G Canty, N O'Leary, A O'Connor, N Murphy, P Kelly (0-1), P O'Neill, P Kerrigan, D Goulding (0-4, 2f), C O'Neill (1-1), D O'Connor (0-3, 3f). Subs - E Cadogan for K O'Connor (ht), F Goold for Kerrigan (50), D Kavanagh for Lynch (57), J Masters for Goulding (63), M Cussen for A O'Connor (65).
Ref - Marty Duffy (Sligo)
Source: hoganstand.com |
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