All-Ireland Under-20 football championship final: Kerry 0-21 Tyrone 1-10
All-Ireland wins are never less than special but ones like this, delivered against the head and against an old enemy, are particularly sweet.
Nobody was showing this Kerry team much love back in mid-April when they lost to Cork in the Munster round-robin.
At that stage, Tomás Ó Sé was in his fourth season as manager and had yet to land the big one, suffering an All-Ireland final defeat to Tyrone in 2024 and a semi-final defeat to the same county in 2025.
The group dug in impressively to regain the Munster title, and to reach this national final, but more difficulties landed at their door early on at Croke Park.
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With 19 minutes on the clock, Tyrone led by 1-7 to 0-2. Fast-forward to the 26th minute and the Ulster champions were 1-8 to 0-4 up.
So how is it that Kerry went on to win by eight points, forcing a remarkable 16-point swing on the scoreboard to take a first title since 2008?
A lot of it came down to Evan Boyle, their totem midfielder who plucked ball after ball out of the sky, providing the platform for Kerry to initially get back into the contest and then to dominate it.
Boyle kicked a vital two-pointer also and received the man-of-the-match award as Kerry went from playing second fiddle to outscoring Tyrone 0-17 to 0-2 from the 26th minute. Some turnaround.
Gearóid White, described as a ‘special talent’ by manager Ó Sé, contributed 0-5, while county senior Tomás Kennedy registered four important scores. Captain Paddy Lane’s return from a serious ankle injury spoke to his character, while collectively the defensive effort was superb.
“It isn’t as if we have a right to be winning these things but it was nice to come out on top,” said Ó Sé.
“Halfway through the first half, it wasn’t looking too great. But a few of them kept us in it. Evan Boyle had a Trojan first half and we stayed in it. I think in the last 12 minutes of the first half we outscored them seven points to one. That was massive and gave our lads a platform for the second half.”
From there, Kerry drove on to secure what is yet another All-Ireland win for a Kingdom side at Croke Park.
Mind you, it wasn’t one anybody seemed to be predicting after the Cork defeat.
“There were questions thrown at us, and there were questions thrown at Tomás, from our own people and we answered them today,” said Kerry captain Lane. “So thanks to those fellas that were writing us off down in our own county.”
Shea McDermott finished with 1-6 for Tyrone and his 11th-minute goal left Paul Devlin’s side 1-4 to 0-2 ahead.
His first converted free was the score that opened up that 1-8 to 0-4 lead.
It was all downhill from there for the Ulster champions, who scored just one more point in the next half-hour.
With Boyle and Daniel Kirby now lording it in the middle and substitute Killian Dennehy lending even more punch to their attack, Kerry reeled off score after score.
The pick of the bunch? Probably Kennedy’s early point in the second half, a sumptuous sideline conversion that underlined just what a talented crew of under-20s Kerry have conjured.
KERRY: K Robak; M Lynch, G Evans, D Stack; E O’Flaherty (0-0-1), A Ó Beaglaoich, P Walsh (0-0-1); D Kirby (0-0-3), E Boyle (0-1-1); S Ó Cuinn, G White (0-2-1, 2tpf, 1f), J O’Sullivan (0-0-1); R Carroll (0-0-1), T Kennedy (0-0-4, 1 sl, 1m, 2f), P Lane.
Subs: K Dennehy (0-0-1) for Lynch (24 mins); D Hogan for Lane (33); J Joy (0-0-1) for Carroll (45); D Sargent for Ó Cuinn (52); M McKivergan for O’Sullivan (60).
TYRONE: O Watson; S Broderick, L Neeson, M McNamee; A Quinn, C Devlin, B Gallagher; E Donaghy, C O’Neill; C Sheehy, L Hughes, T Muldoon; A McGurren (0-0-3), P Colton (0-0-1), S McDermott (1-1-4, tpf, 1f).
Subs: R McCullagh for Colton (35), J Concannon for Muldoon (53), D Donaghy for McGurren (54).
Referee: M Farrell (Offaly).
