By 
Tyrone 2-16 Kildare 1-19
WELL, Division Two is unlikely to be a walk in the park – but perhaps that shouldn’t come as too much of a shock.
For one thing, there’s the calibre of opposition. Nobody’s throwing lumps of money on Kildare to win the All-Ireland, but on the evidence of Saturday night’s drawn encounter against Tyrone, they’re no bad outfit.
Still, there was an inescapable air of disappointment following a thoroughly entertaining Division Two opener at a wet and windy Healy Park. Ethan Jordan’s 66th minute goal seemed to deliver victory on a plate for Tyrone but their three-point lead was snuffed out without much fuss and late chances at either end to snatch victory didn’t come to fruition.
From a Tyrone perspective, this game brought more questions than answers. It was a fairly experimental line-up to start with – only four starters from last season’s All-Ireland SFC semi-final defeat to Kerry made the starting 15, but that comes with a few caveats.
A number of the game’s best performers were new faces (Ethan Jordan – incredible; Joey Clarke – he’s more than ready for it), while Tyrone did finish proceedings with captain Brian Kennedy, Darragh Canavan, Eoin McElholm and Frank Burns on the field.
So being blunt about it, this was a point dropped. Brian McLoughlin steered over three two-pointers, including the equalising score, and was afforded too much space around the arc on each occasion (compounded by the fact that Tyrone had an extra man on the pitch following Brendan Gibbons’ dismissal in the 45th minute).
Their goal on the stroke of half-time was a real suckerpunch and came from a scuffed restart from the usually on-point Niall Morgan, while there were a few other individual errors that directly led to Kildare scores. That said, this wasn’t just January football – this was January football in particularly troublesome conditions and it’s easy to be a hurler on the ditch.
The big good news story was the performance of Ethan Jordan. He’s a late arrival to the senior intercounty scene, but has grasped his chance with both hands and this was by a distance his best outing to date.
The 40-metre arc is tailormade to the Eglish man, and he finished his day’s work with 1-9 to his name. He was absolutely exceptional and took his late goal with aplomb – nothing too fancy, he just unceremoniously buried it to the back of the net.
Others to catch the eye were last season’s All-Ireland U20 captain Joey Clarke, Joe Oguz played his heart out and scored a cracking goal (though Kildare certainly held their own from restarts – they’re a big, physical team), Aidan Clarke and Ben Cullen. Ronan Cassidy also put in a good shift in a new role in the half-back line.
Tyrone played some great stuff early on and surged into a 0-7 to 0-3 lead midway through the first half. Five of those points came courtesy of Ethan Jordan – including a really tricky two-pointer clipped over with his favoured right foot on the right flank into a swirling breeze.
Michael McKernan was temporarily called ashore and returned to the play sporting a bandage and an unsightly facial gash, while Kildare had some good moments in attack, exemplified by two lovely points from Eoin Cully on his league debut.
The Kildare defence looked porous enough at times but Tyrone failed to make hay in the second quarter, striking a succession of needless wides and they were outscored by 1-5 to 0-1 for the remainder of the half.
A number of scores came straight from the training ground, though a few others emanated from individual mistakes, including their 35th minute goal – Darragh Swords scrambled the ball to the net seconds after a Tyrone restart failed to reach its designated target. 1-8 to 0-8 at half-time: it wasn’t really going according to script.
Plenty of food for thought from a Tyrone perspective but they enjoyed a productive start to the second-half. Newly introduced sub Eoin McElholm flashed over a score, Jordan landed his latest, and Ronan Cassidy was on hand to convert after Morgan did well to catch the ball under the crossbar at the other end of the pitch instigating a lightning fast counter-attack.
Even better was to follow: Joe Oguz came racing through and picked his spot superbly to leave it 1-11 to 1-10 on the scoreboard shortly before Kildare midfielder Brenan Gibbons swung back an elbow and was sent to the line for a second yellow.
A 45-metre free from that man Jordan wedged open a three-point lead but Kildare kept Tyrone on their toes with a two-pointer of their own from Alex Beirne with 50 minutes gone.
Two quickfire scores from Darragh Canavan, who was sharp on his return from injury, kept Tyrone in the ascendancy with 10 minutes remaining. It was frenetic stuff though, and Tyrone had Joey Clarke to thank for a potentially goal-saving interception but Kildare kept on coming and drew level following points from Beirne (a free) and McLoughlin (a booming two-pointer from play).
Fittingly, Ethan Jordan pulled Tyrone out of an ever-growing hole when he fired to the net after the ball broke kindly in the middle to Ben Cullen, feeding the ball to Joe Oguz who then handed it to the man of the moment.
2-16 to 1-16 with 66 minutes gone but Kildare weren’t for throwing in the towel. McLoughlin tipped over a free and then loitered with intent around the arc before splitting the posts in style. Ciarán Daly had a last-minute chance to snatch a winner but his effort dropped into the goalkeeper’s hands, and seconds later Ryan Sinkey’s effort was pawed away to safety by Niall Morgan. A draw then and whatever about the result, the game certainly wasn’t lacking in the entertainment stakes.
Anyway, after all that, it’s Derry at Celtic Park in the heart of the Bogside next Saturday evening. Ciarán Meenagh’s side lost to Meath in their league opener, so they’ll be hell bent on a first win. As will Tyrone, quite obviously. It doesn’t need much in the way of selling from a marketing perspective.
Scorers
Tyrone: Ethan Jordan (1-9, 2 2pt f, 1 2pt, 1f), Joe Oguz (1-0), Ciarán Bogue and Darragh Canavan (0-2 each), Ronan Cassidy and Eoin McElholm (0-1 each), Michael Conroy (0-1f).
Kildare: Brian McLoughlin (0-9, 2 2pt, 3f), Alex Beirne (0-5, 1 2pt f, 1f), Darragh Swords (1-0), Callum Bolton (0-2, 1 2pt), Eoin Cully (0-2), Kevin Feely (0-1).
Teams
Tyrone: Niall Morgan, Cormac Quinn, Aidan Clarke, Joey Clarke, Ben Cullen, Michael McKernan, Ronan Cassidy, Joe Oguz, Conn Kilpatrick, Cathal Donaghy, Ciarán Bogue, Ciarán Daly, Michael Conroy, Matthew Donnelly, Ethan Jordan. Subs: Brian Kennedy for Bogue, Eoin McElholm for Conroy, Darragh Canavan for Donaghy, Frank Burns for Cassidy.
Kildare: Cian Burke, Darragh Swords Padraic Spillane, Ryan Burke, James Harris, Eoin Lawlor, Brian Byrne, Callum Bolton, Brendan Gibbons, Brian McLoughlin, Alex Beirne, Liam Kelly, Ben Loakman, Kevin Feely, Eoin Cully. Subs: Ryan Sinkey for Swords, Colm Moran for Harris, Sam Doran for Cully.
