All-Ireland SFC, Round 3: Kerry 4-18 (4-3-12) Armagh 0-17 (0-3-11)
Schopenhauer’s old distinction between talent and genius came into force a few times at Fitzgerald Stadium on Saturday evening. At least once Kerry took off their tracksuit bottoms and decided to play some football.
For the first 10 minutes or so, Armagh enjoyed an abundance of time and space, shooting four points and missing some handy goal chances. But Schopenhauer, remember, once said that talent is the marksman who hits a target others can’t reach, while genius is the marksman who hits a target others can’t even see.
So, between there and half-time, David Clifford, Dylan Geaney, Graham O’Sullivan, Jason Foley and Paul Geaney each showed flashes of their own genius, to varying degrees. That ultimately proved the difference between the sides – completing their fascinating trilogy across the last three summers in defiant green and gold.
With his first three touches, Clifford scored 1-2; his goal after 12 minutes coming off a series of delicious kick-passes from O’Sullivan and Dylan Geaney. Clifford still had to work some magic to rattle the net, finding a spot others couldn’t even see.
Later, when Armagh appeared to be hanging in there, trailing by just a point on 33 minutes, Clifford slotted over a two-point free. Armagh’s talent for hitting a target rarely lets them down, but with goalkeeper Ethan Rafferty then coming out to the halfway line in search of an orange flag of their own, Jarly Óg Burns fumbled a pass to Joe McElroy. Jason Foley pounced on the opportunity, booting the ball up towards Clifford and Paul Geaney.
In this instance, Clifford’s genius was to let the ball drop for Geaney, who then found his spot in the empty net from over 40m out.
After Dylan Geaney produced another moment of genius to set up Joe O’Connor’s goal 10 minutes into the second half – the rumblings of which must have been heard in the MacGillycuddy Reeks – Kerry began putting their tracksuit bottoms back on. Keith Evans did have the last say when firing in their fourth goal in the last minute, but by then the All-Ireland champions had reached the summer solstice exactly where they wanted to be.
Clifford finished with 1-10, Dylan Geaney with 0-5, and for manager Jack O’Connor, there was also satisfaction in the smaller things: like Gavin White and Seánie O’Shea getting some game time, or Mike Breen growing in stature and belief at centre back.
“Probably after Joe O’Connor’s goal, it was going to take a bit of a collapse if we were going to get beaten then,” said O’Connor. “So we enjoyed the second half, for sure. You couldn’t say Armagh played badly in the first half, had us in a bit of bother. But goals are a massive boast, David’s first goal sustained us.
“Is it where we want to be? We’ll find that out next weekend. Obviously whoever we’re playing is going to be more rested than us. Whether that will be a factor or not, it’s a short enough turnaround now and there was fair pace in that game at times, so recovery is everything now.”
Kerry’s form soared in last year’s quarter-final when they swept Armagh away with an inferno of 14 unanswered points, and there’s no reason to suspect they won’t repeat that this season.
If the 24,648 in attendance at Fitzgerald Stadium were anticipating the game might come down to the wire, once Kerry stretched their lead to 15 points on 50 minutes, Armagh’s collapse was complete. Oisin Conaty and Andrew Murnin raised orange flags late on, but it was far too little, too late. Ross McQuillan and Jason Duffy had also showed promise early on, but Armagh’s scoring efficiency continued to rapidly decline.
“Disappointing probably doesn’t even cover it,” said Armagh manager Kieran McGeeney. “I thought we were doing well up until the 33rd-and-a-half minute, but giving away five points in the last 30 seconds, that was hard to take.
“In the second half, everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. Kerry couldn’t miss, and we couldn’t score. We finished I think 10 of 25 chances, from play. Kerry were efficient as usual, in front of goal, but we were just shocking with our efficiency. At this time of the year, at this level, you’re going to get punished. We just seemed to fall asunder, and I can’t quite put a finger on it.”
Too much of Armagh’s attacking play was slow, laborious, and utterly predictable, although McGeeney wasn’t blaming any of that on the six-day turnaround since losing to Louth on account of a last-second goal, before which Armagh looked to have had both feet in the quarter-finals.
“I don’t think you can use turnarounds for missing shots,” added McGeeney. “We had opportunities to slip some of those balls for the goals as well. We missed 2-2 there in about three minutes. You can’t afford to do that, that’s eight points. Eight points puts a fair dent in things at that sort of stage, and we kept dropping two-point shots. With that breeze behind you, it’s not acceptable at this level. We got punished, and rightly so.”
For O’Connor, Kerry’s return to Croke Park completes the perfect turnaround from when they lost to Donegal in the opening round of the All-Ireland series in Killarney.
“Six weeks ago, we were half on life support, but I just felt the way we trained here last Wednesday night, and the previous Wednesday, I felt we were coming into form. Training never lies. You always know, and sure the lads love the ground here. I was confident enough they’d have a big performance.”
KERRY: S Murphy; P Murphy, J Foley (0-0-1), D Casey; B Ó Beaglaoich, M Breen, G O’Sullivan (0-0-1); M O’Shea, S O’Brien; J O’Connor (1-0-0), P Clifford, D O’Connor; D Clifford (1-2-6, 1tpf, 2f), P Geaney (1-0-1), D Geaney (0-1-3). Subs: G White for Ó Beaglaoich (52 mins), S O’Shea for P Geaney (53), K Evans (1-0-0) for O’Brien (56), E Looney Murphy (60), T Brosnan for O’Brien (61, blood), A Hienrich for Casey (65).
ARMAGH: E Rafferty (0-1-0, 1tpf); P McGrane, A McKay, G Murphy; P Burns, T Kelly, J Óg Burns; A Murnin (0-1-0), J McElroy; C McConville (0-0-1f), D McMullen, R McQuillan (0-0-3); C Turbitt (0-0-2, 1f), J Duffy (0-0-2), O Conaty (0-1-2). Subs: O O’Neill (0-0-1) for Burns, T McCormack for McElroy (both 48 mins), C O’Neill for McConville (52), R Grugan for McKay (60), G McCabe for Turbitt (65).
Referee: D Coldrick (Meath).
