Kerry fail to score in the second half against Mayo

February 5th, 2013
by Weeshie Fogarty

 Of course it was a greatly under strength Kerry team that lined out against Mayo in Castlebar last Sunday and excuses can and will be made in relation to this. And it goes without saying that no matter how promising a young Kerry footballer appears to be it is an impossibility to replace the long serving stars who were absent for one reason or another as Mayo strolled to comprehensive victory. And yes there was a very strong wind which Kerry played against in the second half and unbelievably failed to raise even one flag during this abysmal thirty five minutes. More about this later.  Indeed Kerry manager Eamon Fitzmaurice made no excuses what so ever and told it exactly as it was. "We didn't play well "said the Finuge man, "We didn't perform. "Simple as that". That was it in a nut shell as the fellow said. However being present at the game it was even worse than that in many aspects. All the talk after the game was Kerry's failure to score against the wind and the fact that they were missing so many players. Nevertheless on the other hand it must be pointed out that Mayo were missing six of their side that started on the first fifteen in last years All Ireland final defeat by Donegal, so that cancels that out. Also in relation to that afore mentioned wind Mayo actually scored more while playing against the elements than with it. They played great football in that first half and scored nine points. So that, pardon the pun, knocks the wind out of that particular argument.

The winners were highly organized, disciplined and their work rate all over the field was much higher than Kerry's. Time after time they surrounded the Kerry player in possession and out muscled their opponents for many fifty fifty balls. The smaller, lighter Kerry forwards were generally playing second fiddle and the longer the game went on the more obvious this became. And in fact so poor was the Kerry attack in that second half they succeeded in kicking just two wides in that thirty five minutes.  The Mayo defence was excellent, Ger Cafferky, Colm Boyle and Chris Barrett were all to the fore and their disclipine in tackling was also hugely impressive, conceding just one close in free, and another startling statistic is the fact that Kerry failed to score from even one free during the course of the game. Johnny Buckley one of the few Kerry players to impress did point from a forty five in the opening half. And then again on the other hand the losers indiscipline in defence will be a worry for the side line men as they conceded seven points from placed balls and the winners inside forwards Jason Doherty, Michael Conroy and Kevin McLaughlin were very fast, lively and generally first to the ball as the Kerry defenders on many occasions were playing their man from behind, a recipe for conceding possession. 

James Horan has done a superb job with his side and following last years march to both the National League and All Ireland finals he has instilled huge belief, a massive work rate and a good bit of steel into his men. Not afraid to experiment it was most unusual to see two of their normal wing backs Richie Feeney and Lee Keegan lining out in the half forward line. With three of their regular forwards unavailable last Sunday make no mistake about it but Mayo will be a big force again in the championship. They continue to improve. The Kerry management on the other hand have plenty to ponder about as Dublin are the visitors next Sunday and taking their display against Cork into consideration and Kerry inept display their can be only one winner in Fitzgerald Stadium. We continuously hear the cry "give youth its fling" and Eamon Fitzmaurice to his credit has certainly done that even if his hands are tied due to other commitments by those players unavailable to him.

The Kerry display was completely disjointed and those four matches in the McGrath Cup have proved in retrospect to be a very false dawn and of course the opposition in those wins was extremely poor. New comers Johnny Buckley and Jonathan Lyne showed up well and Michael o Donoghue in the first half was very industrious and kicked two lovely points. James o Donoghue, Killian Young and Mark o Shea were also three of the better Kerry players. Brendan Kealy's handling of the ball, both high and low was first class.  Anthony Maher until the time of his dismissal was excellent and fielded some great ball. Indiscipline i.e. questioning the referees decisions (which he will never change), was also noticeable in some Kerry players. Its early days and Kerry will definitely improve as the absentees return. Eoin Brosnan, Kieran Donaghy, Declan o Sullivan, Paul Galvin and Colm Cooper have nothing to prove while Brian Sheehan will get much fitter. Now the trick for the Kerry selectors is to combine the new comers with these long serving warriors, this is the secret. The championship is the objective. Injuries or loss of form due to staleness/ tiredness must be avoided if a long championship run is envisaged.

Fogra: The last time Kerry failed to score in the second half of a league game was as far back as December 13th 1966. That day Louth beat Kerry in Tralee 0-6 to 0-5 and the home side team was booed off the field at the full time whistle. Kerry football was going through a very lean period losing Munster finals to Cork in 1966-67. Previous to that in May 1963 Kerry beat Down in the Home National League final, 0-9 to 1-5 but failed to raise a flag for the entire second half. They went on to beat New York in the final in Croke Park, 1-18 to 1-10. Niall Sheehy was the winning captain. Three Kerrymen starred for New York that day, the Foley brothers from Keel. Mick and Jim and Mickey Moynihan from Rathmore.  Mick o Dwyer was Kerrys top scorer in that league campaign of 1962/63 with a total of 0-28 pts. Johnny Culloty played in goal in the home final and Seamus Fitzgerald was in goal for the New York game.


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