Kerry survived kicking a large number of wides to defeat Dublin by 1-14 to 0-11 in Saturday evening’s Allianz Football League Division One opener.
Darran O’Sullivan netted a fine second half goal as Jack O’Connor’s men came from behind at Croke Park to gain some measure of revenge for Dublin’s joyous day out last September. Still very fresh in the memories was Stephen Cluxton’s last-gasp free to win the 2011 All-Ireland for the Dubs against the Kerrymen, but the latest chapter in the long history between the two sides brought about a different winner.
The Sam Maguire holders could have had a goal in the first minute, but Brendan Kealy stretched to deny Tomas Quinn who had raced away from the Kingdom defenders.
The Dubs spurned the ’45 that that save gifted them and soon found themselves two points behind as Paul Galvin played his part in scores for James O’Donoghue and Bryan Sheehan. Sheehan then added a third with a free from the left hand side, before a Dublin break led to one of their All-Ireland final heroes – Kevin McManamon – putting their first score over Kealy’s bar.
Diarmuid Connolly was wasteful from a subsequent Dublin free, but Quinn pointed their next chance to take Pat Gilroy’s men back within the minimum. O’Donoghue restored a two-point advantage for Kerry with a free from the right, but Bryan Cullen kicked delightfully over as the men in blue just began to find their feet.
Barry John Keane and Quinn traded efforts to leave it at 0-5 to 0-4 in Kerry’s favour, but the former’s score was his county’s last in a half in which they kicked 12 wides. Connolly was also struggling to find his range for Dublin, but McManamon levelled it ahead of a particularly notable string of misses from O’Connor’s side.
Even Sheehan was wasteful from frees, a long-range miss as the clock reached 35 minutes by no means his worst. What it did do, however, was allow Quinn to put the Dubs in front with a well-taken score. Then, in haunting scenes for Kerry, Cluxton did just what he did last September by kicking over from a long way out to make it 0-7 to 0-5 to the Dubs at half-time.
O’Donoghue’s third point of the night, from a free, kick-started the second half scoring before McManamon failed to find the net from a lovely Connolly cross-field ball. He did at least manage a point as he snuck in behind the left corner back.
Sheehan kicked another long range wide from an upcoming free, but a good score from him from play straight away and a free, won after the jinking O’Sullivan was floored, tied it all up.
And from there, Kerry broke loose. Sheehan continued to get enough chances to cancel out the ones he was missing with scores, putting Kerry two points up before O’Sullivan’s decisive goal was rammed to the net on the back of defence-splitting build-up play.
Connolly finally forged a score to keep the Dubs in it but a beauty of a point from Keane, and Sheehan’s eighth of the evening, meant that that and a second Cluxton score were by now immaterial.
It got even worse for the All-Ireland holders when midfielder Eamonn Fennell was shown a straight red card following an off-the-ball clash with Sheehan.
That killed Dublin’s faint hopes stone dead and a lovely third point of the night from Keane sealed a six-point win for a Kerry side who are clearly hungry to atone for the vacancies in their trophy cabinet over the past couple of years.