Kerry start slowly but have plenty to spare against wasteful Tipp

Kerry 2-14 Tipperary 2-8

So much for Portugal. If the Kerry footballers find themselves filling the time between league and championship next spring with a little less scorchio in their lives, they will only have themselves to blame. They dealt with Tipperary here as a hassled babysitter would a bratty child – there was much sighing and eye-rolling but eventually they put it to bed.

As Eamonn Fitzmaurice pointed out afterwards, the whole idea of a training camp so close to the championship was to cut out the early-season rust that had made Kerry so unimpressive against Clare this time last year. Yet here they were again, behind early and having to rally; never particularly in danger of seeing the result go against them but far too indebted to Tipp’s shortcomings to truly enjoy the day.

“I would have thought we’d have been a good bit sharper this weekend, particularly with our ball handling,” said Fitzmaurice after they got out with six points to spare. “Basic skills that we got wrong today, we would usually be good on. And that’s surprising because we spent five days in Portugal working on that kind of stuff but that didn’t manifest itself today.

“I think to be fair to the lads, we were all very tuned in – management and players. The attitude was very good and if that hadn’t been where it needed to be today, we would have been beaten. We’ve a lot to work on and a lot to improve on for three weeks’ time.”

Well, they do and they don’t. A Munster final in Killarney has a way of focusing the mind that a dog day in Thurles just doesn’t, no matter how dark the Tipp horses were thought to be in the build-up. Fitzmaurice can take it that much of the slapdash stuff that held Kerry back here won’t make an appearance against Cork.

He can take heart too in a full 70 minutes banked by Colm Cooper and a welcome 25 for James O’Donoghue. They got in, they got out and nobody was hurt. A few of the fringe hopefuls probably played themselves off the team and spared him a headache or two down the line and he’ll have David Moran and Paul Murphy fit a firing come the final. It’ll do.

While Fitzmaurice was sexing it up just a little by suggesting they were ever in danger of losing, Tipperary left plenty behind them here. They lost this game in two spells at the beginning of either half, once when they were on top and once when they were trying desperately to cling on.

They blitzed Kerry from the throw-in and had 1-2 scored to Kerry’s 0-1 inside the opening 11 minutes. Sadly for them, they also had four heedless wides to their name and one of their points would have been a goal in more clinical hands. Kerry were able to console themselves in only being four points adrift when the distance should have been double that.

Tipp’s dominance was total, so much so that neither Kieran Donaghy, Colm Cooper or Barry John Keane touched the ball in the Tipperary half of the pitch inside the opening quarter of an hour. For Peter Creedon’s side to only be four up for their troubles could only spell trouble.

And so trouble came. Keane banged home the first Kerry goal on 18 minutes, Paul Geaney poked in their second on the half-hour. Both came from Tipperary mistakes – a misplaced kick-out for the first, a hopeful high ball not dealt with for the second – and it meant that the home side’s early pre-eminence was for nowt.

To Tipperary’s credit though, they found answer to the second Kerry goal almost immediately when Michael Quinlivan flicked his second of the day after a surge and offload by Philip Austin. Indeed, they got to half-time just 2-4 to 2-6 behind, and could troop off certain that the result was anyone’s.

Tipp needed to break even at worst in the 15 minutes after the break. Instead, they kicked five wides while Kerry stitched on five points. They ended the day with 13 wides to Kerry’s five and it was the ones they missed in this spell that drained all life from the game.

Geaney (two), Stephen O’Brien, Keane and Bryan Sheehan – by a distance man of the match – all took theirs as Tipperary missed chances at the other end, meaning Kerry led by seven with 20 minutes to go. No way back from there, doesn’t matter who you are.

“Our forward play wasn’t good enough on the day, simple as that,” said Peter Creedon. “Kerry probably executed the skills in their forward division much better than we did. We don’t convert enough in some of the bigger games against Division One teams but I suppose from our perspective, we were at least getting into their half a lot more than in the last number of years.”

TIPPERARY: 1 Evan Comerford; 3 Ciarán McDonald, 2 Paddy Codd, 4 Robbie Kiely; 5 Seamus Kennedy, 6 Peter Acheson, 7 Alan Campbell; 8 Steven O'Brien, 9 George Hannigan; 10 Colin O'Riordan (0-1), 11 Philip Austin, 12 Ger Mulhaire (0-1); 13 Conor Sweeney (0-1, free), 14 Michael Quinlivan (2-1, 0-1 free), 15 Brian Fox (0-1). Subs: 22 Liam Casey for Hannigan (temp), 23-35 mins; 24 Jason Lonergan (0-1) for Kiely, 30 mins; 21 Barry Grogan (0-1, free) for Hannigan, half-time; 20 Kevin O'Halloran (0-1, 45) for Austin, 54 mins; Casey for Fox, 65 mins; 23 Brian Mulvihill for Sweeney, 65 mins; 18 Andrew Morrissey for Mulhaire, 69 mins

KERRY: 1 Brendan Kealy; 2 Marc Ó Sé, 3 Mark Griffin, 4 Shane Enright; 5 Jonathan Lyne, 6 Peter Crowley, 7 Killian Young; 8 Anthony Maher (0-1), 9 Bryan Sheehan (0-5, 0-3 frees); 10 Mikey Geaney (0-1), 11 Colm Cooper (0-3, 0-1 free), 12 Johnny Buckley; 13 Paul Geaney (1-2), 14 Kieran Donaghy, 15 Barry John Keane (1-1). Subs: 19 Aidan O'Mahony for Crowley (temp), 23-33 mins; 18 Stephen O'Brien (0-1) for Buckley, 33 mins; 17 James O'Donoghue for Keane, 48 mins; O'Mahony for Crowley, 50 mins; 20 Darran O'Sullivan for Mikey Geaney, 53 mins; 24 Donnchadh Walsh for Sheehan, 63 mins; 22 Tommy Walsh for Maher, 67 mins

Referee: Ciarán Branagan (Down).