Kerry 0-32; Armagh 1-21
What a difference half an hour makes in a game of football. Five minutes into the second-half of this All-Ireland quarter final with Armagh leading by five points and cruising, mentally I began to wonder if this was the worst Kerry team display I had ever seen in Croke Park?
At the final whistle, I was struggling to remember a better 30 minutes play by a team from the Kingdom such was the total authority in build-up and an almost perfect score-taking that I had just witnessed.
On the way back to the deep south on Sunday evening, manager Jack O’Connor will be trying to unlock the secret and ensure it is that brilliant Kerry play that his charges bring to bear on Tyrone who they meet in the semi-final the weekend after next.
There are few worse wounded animals out there than a Kerry team scorned. And the same O'Connor was quick to shoot down his side’s critics in the aftermath glow of what had been a sensational turnaround by the Munster champions, who commenced the game without half a dozen certain starters due to injury curtailment.
This factor, on top of their shock defeat to Meath in Tullamore two weeks earlier, had made Armagh raging favorites to dispose of the men in green and gold, certainly the media saw it that way.
However, buoyed no doubt by the adrenalin of scoring 14 unanswered points in that second half-football storm, O’Connor said, in a somewhat understated manner: “One of the great motivators in life is trying to prove people wrong. We were being portrayed as a one-man team.
"I saw somebody [Joe Brolly] writing this morning that said the only Kerry player worthy of being called a Kerry player was David Clifford.
"Now, David is a great player but David will tell you that there was a fair supporting cast there today. We think we have a lot of good footballers but I think sometimes we're being judged on different criteria to other teams. I don't think too many people outside the camp saw that performance there. But we were very, very determined.
"There was ferocious determination in the camp that we weren't going to let the season fizzle out after the Meath game. It may have been difficult for Armagh not to listen to the outside noise where we were being written off and they were being written up.
"It's a big performance and a big Kerry support came up and backed the team, which is great. We love seeing that because a lot of people had us written off during the week. But obviously the supporters felt there was another kick in the team.
"They've seen it happen before. They saw it happen in 2006, they saw it happen in 2009. Kerry is a proud county and we weren't going to fizzle out of the championship without a hell of a fight. We saw that fight out there today,” he stressed.
It came in that time span but there was a real purple patch lasting 15 minutes when it looked like they owned the ball as Armagh were reduced to chasing shadows.
Who were the heroes? Seán O'Shea was simply magnificent throughout and outshone even the great David Clifford as he finished with a dozen points to his credit.
A number of other factors emerged to eradicate the goal Rory Grugan scored, which looked as if it might define the game.
The half-time arrival of the other Clifford, Paudie, was a real game-changer as his ability to get and use possession plus his innate skill to get scores, two when needed in this instance, was a big plus. His presence also gave his brother a new lease of life, as David scored two wonderful two-pointers in a six-point contribution over the second half.
The first half was a sounding out affair and O’Shea aside, it looked like Armagh were too polished and prepared for what the Kerry boys were offering.
Oisín Conaty looked like a player of the year in waiting as he ghosted through for scores while only heroics from Shane Ryan with a wonder save from Tiernan Kelly's goalbound shot kept the Munster men in the hunt.
Brian Ó Beaglaoich and Gavin White gave a hint of what could happen by racing through for scores but once Grugan’s goal struck, it gave Armagh a half-time advantage thanks to an Ethan Rafferty two-pointer and a McElroy point after the hooter sounded.
Armagh took up where they had left off and while Darragh McMullan and Joe O'Connor - who would go on to be the second half dominant midfielder - big Rian O'Neill slotted over a two-pointed free to make it a three-point game.
Conaty and the same O'Neill added points and suddenly the game seemed to be slipping from Kerry - around the time I was thinking Kerry could be about to hit a new low.
O’Connor was as good as any Kerry centre-fielder with the way he dominated the air and as his side dismantled Rafferty’s kickout time and again, the tide was not just flowing towards Armagh, it was pounding at their citadel. Yes, Kerry didn’t get in for a goal but such was the mellifluence of their play, that it began raining points with Clifford the elder at the heart of most of the good play.
Their last trump card on the day came with Micheál Burns’s introduction. Although wearing No 10 on his back, he was dropped before the game and, boy, did he want to make a statement to his management team.
O’Connor singled him out for praise afterwards for not only did Burns score two points when the game was still very much alive on the scoreboard, he won possession virtually at every turn down the left flank of attack as his pace caused the champions’ defense all sorts of problems.
Ó Beaglaoich, White and Clifford the elder upped the ante with further great white flags as Armagh all but threw in the towel. When former back Graham O’Sullivan got his side’s 28th score, it meant they had gone from trailing 1-16 to 0-14 to leading 0-28 to 1-16.
As an old man beside me said - “Only Kerry are capable of that.”
Kerry: S Ryan; P Murphy, J Foley, D Casey; B Ó Beaglaoich (0-2), G White (0-2), T O'Sullivan; S O’Brien, J O'Connor (0-2); M O'Shea, S O’Shea (0-12, 3tp, 0-2f) , G O'Sullivan (0-2); D Clifford (0-7, 2tp), C Geaney, D Geaney (0-1) Subs: E Looney for T O'Sullivan (23), P Clifford (0-2) for C Geaney (35), M Burns (0-2) for M O'Shea (49), D Moynihan for Burns (55-57, temp), K Spillane for D Geaney (62), T Kennedy for G O'Sullivan (68).
Armagh: E Rafferty (0-2, 1tpf); P Burns, B McCambridge, P McGrane; R McQuillan, T Kelly (0-1), J Óg Burns (0-2, 1tp); N Grimley, B Crealey; D McMullan (0-1), R Grugan (1-0), J McElroy (0-2); O Conaty (0-6, 1tp), A Murnin, R O'Neill (0-6, 1tpf, 0-1 '45) Subs: J Duffy for Burns (38-46, temp), Duffy for Grimley (49), C Turbitt for McQuillan (49), A Forker for Kelly (53), C McConville (0-1) for Crealey (55), S McPartlan for Grugan (66), C O'Neill for Murnin (temp, 66-ft).
GAA Results & Fixtures
All-Ireland SFC quarter-final
Kerry 0-32 Armagh 1-21
Meath 2-16 Galway 2-15
Tyrone 0-23 Dublin 0-16
Donegal 1-26 Monaghan 1-20
All-Ireland MHC final
Waterford 1-18 Clare 0-10
Fixtures Saturday 5 July
All-Ireland SHC semi-final
Cork v Dublin, Croke Park, 5pm
Sunday 6 July
All-Ireland SHC semi-final
Kilkenny v Tipperary, Croke Park, 4pm
All-Ireland MFC final
Tyrone v Kerry, St Conleth's Park, 1.30pm
