Kerry complete historic three-in-a-row of minor football titles

Kerry 3-7 Galway 0-9

David Clifford has played better at Croke Park this year, much better in fact, but the Fossa man still provided the genius moment that sealed a historic three-in-a-row of All-Ireland minor titles for Kerry.

Six months after the attacker’s 2-5 blast that clinched a colleges success for St Brendan’s, Killarney at GAA headquarters, one brilliant goal was enough this time to etch his name in history.

A resurgent Galway had fought back to just two points down with 53 minutes on the clock when Clifford raced clear and nailed a stunning solo goal that effectively decided the contest.

Stephen Joyce’s Connacht champions will kick themselves for not making better use of the ball in the first 20 minutes when they dominated possession, registering 13 wides in total.

But they can console themselves that they were beaten by a special Kerry side that has retained the underage title with the minimum of fuss.

Cork came closest to reeling Kerry in on Munster final day but even they were beaten by six points while Peter Keane’s side twice administered 22-point beatings during the campaign, to Waterford and Kildare.

Several of their players have now won college and minor titles this year and Kerry senior manager Eamonn Fitzmaurice must be licking his lips at the arsenal of young talent coming to maturity in the county.

It is the first time since 1933 that Kerry have won three-in-a-row and only two other counties have achieved the feat though boss Keane sought to play down the achievement afterwards.

Asked if the win endorsed Kildare manager Brendan Hackett’s suggestion, following the Lilies’ semi-final loss, that this is perhaps the greatest minor side ever, Keane frowned

“Lookit, fellas can say that stuff and sometimes it’s easy to say that after the game if you’re beaten and it sounds great because it can take a bit of the heat off your own team,” said Keane. “I’m not saying that in a bad way but, you know, that’s rubbish.”

Likewise, Keane wasn’t in much of a mood to praise the three-in-a-row achievement.

“It means nothing to me,” he said. “I don’t think it means a whole to pile those fellas either. You had fellas there today winning their first All-Ireland medals, it’s not like they all won one last year and the year before.

“There wasn’t the same pressure as there would be on a senior team going for three-in-a-row that had done it the previous year or for two years. There was a lot of talk about history. Look, it’s great, it was apparently going back to the 1930s (since Kerry did it) and if that’s the case that’s great to say we equalled some gang in the 30s. But so what? It’s all about these fellas here and now winning an All-Ireland medal.”

Kerry were overwhelming favourites after humbling the Leinster champions in the semi-finals but led by just 0-1 to 0-0 after 19 minutes.

They were hugely fortunate that Galway kicked a series of wides in that period and that goalkeeper Billy Courtney flicked a ball off the line when he’d initially turned his back on the play, thinking the ball had ran over the endline.

Goals in the 19th and 23rd minutes redeemed Kerry with Diarmuid O’Connor flicking in the first and Clifford catching superbly and playing in David Shaw for the second.

Kerry led 2-2 to 0-2 at half-time but three Galway points in a row after the restart from Adam Quirke and Robert Finnerty reduced the gap to three.

A bad day for Galway was compounded by the injury-time dismissal of midfielder John Maher following a second yellow card.

They got that gap down to two late on but Clifford’s wonderful solo goal after a turnover in possession arrived shortly after and changed the game, allowing Kerry to breathe out and coast home.

KERRY: B Courtney; G O'Sullivan, D Naughten, M Potts; N Collins (0-1), M Foley, D O'Brien; M Breen, M Ryan; D O'Connor (1-0), S O'Shea (0-2, 2f), D Moynihan (0-2); B Friel, D Clifford (1-0), D Shaw (1-1).

Subs: C Linnane (0-1) for Friel (48), C Teahan for Collins (54), B Sweeney for Shaw (60), K Dwyer for Foley (65), S Okunbor for O'Connor (67).

GALWAY: C Haslam; E McFadden, S Mulkerrin, L Boyle; A Quirke (0-1), E McDonagh, F Garvey; C Darcy (0-1), J Maher; F O Laoi, E Murphy, R Forde (0-1); R Finnerty (0-3, 2f), S Raftery, D Conneely (0-2, 0-l2f).

Subs: B Goldrick for Murphy (38), R Murphy for Raftery (50), Rory Cunningham (0-1) for Finnerty (55), E Deeley for Garvey (57).

Referee: Ciaran Branagan (Down).