Out of the Blue, a performance to banish long years of torture

Dublin 1-12 Kerry 1-11:OUT OF the blue it erupted. Dublin, for so long exemplars of under-achievement or more accurately the perennial experts at disappointing exaggerated expectation, did what they weren't supposed to do.

History had taught them to expect little from championship encounters with Kerry. It had also encouraged people to disbelieve their survival instincts in a tight finish. Both of these rules of thumb went unobserved in the most extraordinary of finales in yesterday’s GAA All-Ireland football final at a reverberating Croke Park.

Ironically for a team that has consciously under the management of Pat Gilroy eschewed melodrama in front of the Hill, Dublin couldn’t have devised a more startling coup de theatre at the northern end of the ground than to summon Stephen Cluxton from goal to address a free, 35 metres out, in the dying moments of injury-time with the All-Ireland final tied at 1-11 each.

Cluxton, having survived a determined attempt by Kerry to hack his kick-outs and delivered another accomplished display in goal – at one stage pulling down a free kick that looked like dropping over the bar – may have felt that he wasn’t under pressure given that by the time he kicked, the highest price of missing would be a replay. But that wasn’t the full picture.

He was kicking for his county to defeat Kerry in championship for the first time in 34 years and in a final for the first time in 35. He was kicking for Dublin’s first Sam Maguire since 1995 and the redemption of a season which had concluded with four All-Ireland finals in two weeks, three of which had been lost by the time he flighted the ball over the bar.

Within seconds Joe McQuillan had whistled the end and Kerry, masters of September, were beaten and spent.

They’ll puzzle and agonise over this one long into the cold, dark winter. Having absorbed Dublin’s most determined challenge to their imperium in a long time the Munster champions looked to have pulled clear when their captain Colm Cooper, with characteristic brilliance in the crucible, pointed from the left sideline to put his team four in front with seven minutes left to his becoming the first Dr Croke’s man since the legendary Dick Fitzgerald to captain Kerry to All-Ireland success.

He wasn’t alone in carrying the fight to Dublin. Kieran Donaghy gave his best display in the championship in a long while, switching out to the wing early on and getting involved in the game before reverting to more natural environs at full forward and posing a constant threat, whether drifting in to menacing positions or tussling for the ball, as when at one stage he hustled Cluxton into losing possession.

His point to equalise at the end of normal time was both brave and bravura and looked to have swollen Croke Park’s coffers by delivering a replay for which people might well have killed to get tickets.

Maybe it was the way Dublin had to win – not nervously defending a shrinking lead but throwing caution to the wind and attacking the opposition regardless of reputation and the natural order.

There were reasons why Dublin went on to take their 23rd All-Ireland. Firstly their mentality, so often doubted even when after the current team had been re-forged in the hellfire of the 17-point beating Kerry gave them two short years ago, was resilient and honest.

It’s an indicator that there was such debate over the Man of the Match award afterwards – as of course there should be in a team sport – but all 15 played well and no-one hid when the pressure intensified.

Secondly Gilroy’s specific project – the stiffening of the defensive capability – produced a back-six performance as good as Dublin had given in years and against the attack with the highest quota of quality and class in modern football.

Michael Fitzsimons from Cuala, following in the footsteps of the late and great Mick Holden, was surprisingly put in charge of Cooper and did a good job, erring in judgement just once when trying to let a ball run over the end line under pressure from Cooper and conceding a converted 45.

Rory O’Carroll gave nothing to Declan O’Sullivan after a point in just the second minute and Cian O’Sullivan, his Kilmacud team-mate, led the charge that produced the vital 64th-minute goal.

It came when Declan O’Sullivan was harried out of possession and his namesake gathered and pumped the ball into Alan Brogan, whose well-judged pass placed replacement Kevin McManamon for a decisive finish.

Kevin Nolan, the other Kilmacud back, equalised to cap a display of quality football and preternaturally calm judgement on the ball, making him the go-to man in many relieving bouts of hand-passing at the back.

Ger Brennan was on the back foot against Darran O’Sullivan but used his strength on the ball to help organise the break-outs even if he conceded a couple of silly frees. O’Sullivan’s pace was instrumental is setting up Cooper for the Kerry goal in the 19th minute and the blue hordes must have felt the icy grip of fear that has haunted recent generations when in the heat of battle with their most traditional rivals.

Thirdly the precepts of the modern team panel have been observed by Dublin and Gilroy was able to make effective substitutions. For the second day in succession McManamon came off the bench and survived an underwhelming acclimatisation period when he wasted some early possession to make a huge impact on the match.

Aside from the obvious contribution of a goal that changed the course of the whole championship, McManamon was hungry for ball and drove hard at Kerry as their defence was ever so slightly fraying.

Fourthly the quality of the forwards mightn’t be hallmarked to the same carat as Kerry’s but neither is it counterfeit.

Alan Brogan gave another industrious display, fired over a couple of points and provided the goal assist whereas his brother Bernard again confirmed his evolution from a firecracker individualist and reigning Footballer of the Year into a complete team player, making the runs – although not always rewarded with serviceable deliveries – and taking on his nonpareil marker Marc Ó Sé in a memorable tussle.

His six-point haul could have been greater but for an inexplicable miss before half-time from a free, mirroring Cooper’s similar error at the other end moments previously.

The day didn’t start well with the defeat of the well fancied city minors, who had twice previously played Tipperary in the curtain raiser to Dublin-Kerry senior finals. The county had won the minor on those occasions only to lose the main event.

Yesterday inverted that and in a further coincidence linked the day to 1934 when Tipp last won the minor All-Ireland and Dublin defeated Kerry in a senior semi-final.

Injury failed to have its anticipated effect with both Kerry’s Eoin Brosnan and Dublin’s Paul Flynn starting and playing for most of the match even if both were replaced before the end.

Flynn, Barry Cahill and captain Bryan Cullen worked extraordinarily hard in the winners’ half-forward line and Dublin maintained a threatening tempo apart from a period in the second half when it looked as if the match might be slipping away.

That coincided with a temporary waning in the influence of Dublin’s centrefield. Denis Bastick worked himself to a standstill, enlivening the afternoon with an acrobatic back-flip on half an hour to raise himself off the ground, and kicking a point just after the break to keep Dublin’s momentum going. His partner Michael Darragh Macauley was superb, getting onto the ball either fielding or making himself available and using his strength to break tackles.

If there was a slight dip in the second half Macauley came roaring back into the match in the crucial endgame.

For Kerry, Bryan Sheehan was the cause of the recession in Dublin’s fortunes in the sector and his second-half display was a huge factor in Kerry’s apparently decisive break for victory.

It was also fitting that the Brogans – genetically engineered for this day with their father who sealed Dublin’s last win over Kerry in the August of 1977 and maternal bloodlines in the Kingdom – should play such a significant role not just in yesterday’s gripping finale but throughout a season that has restored the glow of confidence to the county whose proud reputation had been shot through with self-doubt in the years since last keeping Sam Maguire in the city.

Free at last. Those family holidays will be a riot over the next 12 months.