Keeper Durcan in the dock as Kerry return to summit

IT may not have lived up to all the hype and expectation, but last Sunday’s first ever All-Ireland football final meeting between Kerry and Donegal still proved a fascinating affair. This was a showdown where the rival team managements were never going to adopt a free-flowing approach with the result that the capacity crowd in Croke Park and the huge television audience instead had to witness a largely negative, tactically strangled encounter.

Defending in numbers was the manta of the day, especially after the way Donegal had ransacked a too attack-conscious Dublin in the All-Ireland semi-final. Eamonn Fitzmaurice and his mentors would have forensically taken apart that match video and given that they are fast learners in Kerry when it comes to football, they were not going to fall into Dublin’s trap of all-out attacking only to leave themselves lacking cover at the back.

Yet, for all the tactics and planning, sometimes all it takes is one calamitous error to swing a big game one team’s way. Unfortunately, Donegal goalkeeper Paul Durcan was the player in the dock afterwards after his shocking stray kick out into the hands of the grateful Kieran Donaghy in the 52nd minute turned what up to then had been an extraordinarily tight contest Kerry’s way.

Donaghy, the renaissance man of the football summer, accepted the gift to put Kerry four points and though Donegal bravely responded with three unanswered points of their own from substitute Patrick McBrearty (two) and full back Neil McGee, the Munster champions had struck a huge psychological blow and were always going to find extra reserves down the home stretch, especially as the game had begun to open up somewhat.

Kerry couldn’t have hoped for a better start when Paul Geaney, isolated one on one with Paddy McGrath, tucked his shot neatly into the far corner of the net after just 52 seconds and when Donaghy fired over a fine point in the fourth minute, you wouldn’t have believed then that the Kingdom would only add a mere two points to their tally by half-time.

They were taking on Donegal at their own game, but after that explosive start Kerry were still determined to keep it tight and though the Ulster men were also running into heavy traffic, they gradually wiped out the deficit with Michael Murphy’s accuracy from frees helping to settle them down. Donegal only managed their first score from play when midfielder Odhran MacNiallais fly-kicked the ball over the bar in the 29th minute, but they were still level (1-3 to 0-6) at the break.

They had recovered well from that nightmare start and appeared to be wearing down Kerry. Much of the third quarter was largely unforgettable, however, as both teams spurned several routine chances. Kerry had just edged ahead when Durcan, who had only conceded two goals on Donegal’s way to the final and was outstanding against Dublin, got his wires crossed with his short kick out going astray. It was a schoolboy error and must have really rocked Donegal, but they had the margin back to one only for Kerry to kick on again with points from Johnny Buckley, Barry John Walsh (free) and Donaghy.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.