NHL DIVISION ONE: Kerry 0-12 Derry 0-10:HOLDERS DERRY tumbled to the first defeat of their title defence, as Kerry picked up a second win on the road in Ulster in the Allianz NFL Division One.
At a wintry Bellaghy, in front of 3,000 spectators, and where the perishing chill was enlivened by occasional lashes of freezing rain, Jack O’Connor’s team rode out the storm of a lively opening by the home side to win far more comfortably than the margin indicates.
Of further significance was the longest-awaited senior debut in GAA history when Tadhg Kennelly, late of the Sydney Swans, took the field for the final 15 minutes to launch his challenge for the senior Kerry jersey that in his own words he was sure he’d pull on 10 years ago before his life took a different direction.
“It’s great to have got in for a run,” he said afterwards. “I’m back a month and the more games I get under the belt the better. I was like a big child full of beans. I just kept running and running. It was a bit emotional too. I only played 12 to 13 minutes, but it was still heavy going for me after waiting and waiting on the bench.”
In a reversal of last year’s final between the counties, both under new management, it was Derry who burst out of the traps and established a four-point lead in the opening nine minutes. Their defence was coping well with any incoming ball in the direction of the returned Kieran Donaghy and the flow of possession into the forwards was efficiently finding Eoin Bradley whose speed and availability made him the focal point of the attacks and he was central to three points of the opening salvo.
It wasn’t that Kerry slammed on the brakes and turned the match around but rather their opponents somehow lost urgency and began to squander chances. Shots went wide or were dropped short and possession was lost, as when Marc Ó Sé picked Paul Young’s pocket to initiate the move leading to Micheál Quirke’s first point for Kerry as late as the 17th minute.
Although Kerry had levelled by half-time – exploiting what would be a full 35 minutes of scoring inactivity by the holders – they were greatly assisted by Derry’s poor shooting that led to wides and shots dropped short. In the middle of all this, two yellow cards were issued by referee Joe McQuillan and both worked out well for the visitors.
For Kerry, Quirke – who saw yellow for a late challenge on Joe Diver – had to be replaced by Anthony Maher, who put in a very industrious 40 minutes and helped turn around centrefield.
A couple of minutes later the match swung away from Derry when Bradley was ordered off for a trip on Tom O’Sullivan.
Damian Cassidy sent in Enda Muldoon to full forward, but he struggled to get involved and didn’t offer the constantly moving target offered by Bradley, whose brother Paddy was omitted from the match panel to rest an injury, according to officials.
By half-time, with the score at 0-4 apiece, Kerry had turned the corner. Donaghy was posing more and more difficulties, Cooper was beginning to penetrate and Declan O’Sullivan gave Derrys hitherto impressive new centre back Barry McGoldrick his toughest outing of the season.
Ultimately, the wonder was that Derry kept the deficit so tight. A few minutes into the second half the visitors had opened a three-point gap at 0-7 to 0-4, but laboured when it came to kicking on and putting a bit of distance on the scoreboard.
An encouraging aspect from Cassidy’s point of view was the display of young James Kielt, who kicked five points, including two lineballs – one from either side of the field – to suggest he may be ready for regular football at this level a bit sooner than expected.
Kerry were able to reintroduce Tomás Ó Sé as well as Kennelly in keeping with the team’s policy of giving as many players as possible a run in the competition. Cooper pushed Kerry four ahead in the 62nd minute when he saw a penalty awarded for a push on Donaghy tipped over by Gillis. Although Derry pulled back a couple of points the result never looked particularly on the line.
Winning manager O’Connor paid tribute to the quality of the field. “There was a bit of a conspiracy theory as to why it was brought up here, but I can see why – it was a great lively pitch.
“We’ve five players coming into the team, who have no football, the like of Kieran Donaghy and Micheál Quirke coming back after knee injuries, Tom O’Sullivan and Tomás Ó Sé who’ve just come back into training and Donncha Walsh. They needed that game and it was great to give Tadhgie a run-out as well. They’re an experienced team and they can get out of periods of difficulty. Derry started out very fast with a great work rate, but we felt they wouldn’t be able to keep that up.”
His Derry counterpart was frustrated at the loss of Bradley so early in the match. “His ball winning capacity and showing ability was a loss and we certainly missed out on that. We were a very different team as a result unfortunately. It’s a good learning curve for us. We’re working on playing in a particular way and at the start of the game it worked quite well for us.
“But when the pressure came on – and I was acutely aware that that was going to be a test – it was disappointing that we didn’t manage to get back into that method of play that we’re trying to develop, we started going a wee bit solo on it. I’m not sure that pace was the main problem.
“The way we were building up to the full forward line was more of a problem. They controlled the middle third. It was a bit of a damp squib at the end of the day.”
KERRY:G Reidy; P Reidy, T O'Sullivan, A O'Mahony (0-1); T Griffin, M Ó Sé, D Bohane; S Scanlon, M Quirke (0-1); P Galvin (0-2), Declan O'Sullivan (0-1), D Walsh; C Cooper (0-6, three frees and a penalty), K Donaghy, Darren O'Sullivan (capt; 0-1). Subs:A Maher for Quirke (yellow card, 29 mins), T Ó Sé for Griffin (45 mins), T Kennelly for Walsh (56 mins), P O'Connor for Galvin (58 mins), MF Russell for Darren OSullivan (62 mins), K Quirke for O'Mahony (70 mins).
DERRY:B Gillis; K McGuckin, K McCloy, SM Lockhart; P Cartin (0-1), B McGoldrick, G OKane (0-1); F Doherty, J Diver (0-1); E Lynn, P Young, B Mullan; E Brown (0-1), E Bradley (0-1), J Kielt (0-5, two frees, two lineballs). Subs: E Muldoon for Bradley (yellow card, 31 mins), P Murphy for Young (half-time), SL McGoldrick for Mullan (half-time), C McKaigue for McGuckin (51 mins).
Referee: J McQuillan (Cavan).
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