Kerry take a while to assert themselves

National Football League Final/Kerry 2-12 Galway 0-12: Two years ago these counties gave us some fun and games in the Allianz National Football League final, which turned out to be a high-scoring match. This time around the imperatives had clearly changed.

Yesterday at the Gaelic Grounds in Limerick, before a record low crowd for a final, 7,598, the football was full of hits and swarm defence.

In the end Kerry were flattered to repeat their 2004 victory by such a wide margin but there was no disputing their merit as winners. Galway had been clearly superior in the first half but were unable to register a representative score.

Having apparently ridden out an improved Kerry display in the third quarter and retaken the lead, the Connacht champions fell victim to a misfortune of a goal that turned the match decisively against them.

It was this ability to penetrate for goals that earned the winners their 18th title, and their second goal, just after the hour, settled the issue, the rest of the scoring adding merely grace notes.

A grim first half was mainly distinguished by Galway's close-knit defending, dropping men back to crowd out Kerry's attacks and proving far too quick on breaking ball and too sharp when reading the opposition attacking patterns.

Kerry went 27 minutes without scoring in the first half and struggled to build meaningful forward movement. Colm Cooper was kept quiet by a combination of Damien Burke's diligent marking and the lack of decent supply to the full forwards.

With Galway hustling the opposing forwards, Kerry never got time on the ball and so effective was the swarm defence that on one occasion you could count five defenders to one forward as the ball was played out from the back.

Diarmuid Blake had an exceptional first half at centre back, sweeping all around and getting on the ball with striking regularity.

Galway needed this aggression because centrefield was struggling and would end up under the hammer in the second half as Darragh Ó Sé took impressive control, prompting manager Jack O'Connor to remark that he must send him to New York (where last week the player and his brothers attended the wedding of their retired team-mate Dara Ó Cinnéide) more often.

Brother Marc had another big match at full back, where he continues to cover the absence of the injured Michael McCarthy most effectively. Although he was under pressure from Pádraic Joyce, particularly in the early stages, Ó Sé gradually asserted himself, and when the match turned against Galway he was able to turn defence into attack.

Galway manager Peter Ford's regret that his team could only manage a three-point lead at half-time was well founded, as the margin looked too meagre a return for such a dominant first 35 minutes.

Joyce and Michael Meehan looked capable of opening up Kerry throughout the early stages but six points wasn't adequate. Seán Armstrong showed great aptitude for winning ball and taking on his marker but the accuracy of his kicking once in a scoring position was poor.

O'Connor reorganised his attack for the second half in order to counter Galway's deep-lying tactics. Eoin Brosnan came on and his running game began to unnerve the opposition. Darren O'Sullivan's speed and orthodox corner-forward play also stretched Galway.

Although Cooper continued to be quiet by his standards he made vital contributions in the second half. The first came in the lead-up to the match's turning point. In the 53rd minute Cooper and Burke went down under a high ball from Darragh Ó Sé and from the tangle on the ground the Kerry star managed to feed out a pass - "that God nor man could get away," according to O'Connor - to Paul Galvin, who had a clear run for a crisply dispatched goal.

This rocked Galway just after a fine point from Matthew Clancy had put them back in front.

Eight minutes later Cooper linked with his clubmate Brosnan to send the latter in for another goal, which shut down the match.

Cooper added a point for another devastating contribution despite having a quieter day than usual.

Burke, his marker, had to be replaced because of injury and it was a tough conclusion to what had been an accomplished display for so long.

The rest was just footnotes, although O'Connor was pleased with the continuing improvement of Bryan Sheehan, who landed some prodigious frees in the second half. It hadn't always been pretty but for Kerry it was pretty satisfactory.

KERRY: D Murphy; A O'Mahony, M Ó Sé, T O'Sullivan; T Ó Sé, S Moynihan, M Lyons (0-1); D Ó Sé, K Donaghy; P Galvin (1-1), E Fitzmaurice, B Sheehan (0-5, all frees); C Cooper (0-3, two frees), D O'Sullivan (0-1), R O'Connor. Subs: Darren O'Sullivan for O'Connor (33 mins), E Brosnan (1-1) for Fitzmaurice (half-time), T Griffin for O'Mahony (69 mins), MF Russell for Cooper (71 mins).

GALWAY: A Keane; D Meehan, K Fitzgerald, D Burke; A Burke, D Blake, M Comer; P Clancy (0-1), N Coleman; M Clancy (0-2), D Savage, M Donnellan (0-1); M Meehan (0-2, one free), P Joyce (0-4, three frees), S Armstrong. Subs: P Geraghty for Armstrong (54 mins), B Cullinane for Savage (59 mins), F Hanley for Burke (65 mins).

Referee: E Murtagh (Longford).