Red Hands have no answer to rampant Kerry

Tyrone 0-17 Kerry 1-20

IT just wasn’t to be. A curious refereeing performance aside, Tyrone could have no real complaints as they lost out to a David Clifford-inspired Kerry in Saturday’s All-Ireland Senior Championship semi-final showdown in sweltering conditions at Croke Park.

Thousands upon thousands of Red Hand supporters made the pilgrimage to GAA Headquarters in hope – if not quite in giddy expectation – of witnessing one of our era-defining victories over the Kingdom.

Queues at the toll bridge stretched for miles all the way back to the Mary McAleese Bridge in the Boyne Valley, scenes reminiscent of days of yore when it felt like the entire county decamped to Dublin in our All-Ireland winning years of the noughties. So it’s fair to say this was a big one, but it just didn’t really work out.

Referee Joe McQuillan, officiating his last game on the intercounty circuit (that’s basically the deal when you turn 50!), didn’t exactly do us any favours.

The free-count weighed heavily on the side of the Kingdom (they were awarded 18 frees on the day in contrast to a meagre eight for Tyrone), and while we’re conscious it’s an unforgiving job and all the rest of it, it did seem like the Ulster men had to work a fair bit harder for their frees.

But another way of looking at it is that the margin of victory could’ve been a fair bit worse.

Tyrone started promisingly – and in that opening quarter, we won break-after-break in the middle, Ciarán Daly notched two early points from play, and when late inclusion Eoin McElholm made it 0-5 to 0-2 with 13 minutes on the clock, things were looking really rather positive.

How do you solve a problem like David Clifford though? Padraig Hampsey was assigned the unenviable task, and while he’s given the Kerry talisman his fill of it in previous meetings, on this occasion, the five-time All-Star and two-time Footballer of the Year was nigh-on unmarkable.

That he scored a ridiculous 1-9 and wasn’t even awarded the Man of the Match award (that honour went the way of rampaging midfielder Joe O’Connor) probably says it all about the ridiculously high standards set by the Fossa phenomenon, where the sublime almost becomes the routine.

Clifford got his first point of the day in the 17th minute, making a beeline up the flank before unleashing a wicked shot over the bar. That became something of a recurring theme – Kerry conjured up umpteen goal chances on the day and to be honest it was nothing more than a stroke of luck that they only once did they rattle the onion bag.

It made for difficult enough viewing – the Tyrone defence found itself in a state of emergency for prolonged periods of the second and third quarters in particular, even though Peter Teague did a commendable job on Sean O’Shea while Niall Devlin did likewise on Paudie Clifford.

There were just too many fires that needed extinguishing – midfielder Joe O’Connor proved himself a nightmare to handle, Dylan Geaney and Graham O’Sullivan had big games up front, while David Clifford bestrode the stage like a colossus and Tyrone paid a hefty price.

The main man landed a two-pointer in the 20th minute, much to the delight of the Kerry faithful. Defending of the last-ditch variety from Seanie O’Donnell and Niall Morgan prevented a certain goal shortly thereafter, though Tyrone tagged on two of the next three scores – Mattie Donnelly pointed before a textbook effort from Darragh Canavan, who had his best outing of the season in front of the posts.

The overall team structure was fraying at the edges, however, and Kerry absolutely bossed the final five minutes or so of the half. Clifford, for all the size of him, showed lovely footwork to free up space and tuck the ball to the net after a perfectly weighted handpass from his brother Paudie, and from the restart Graham O’Sullivan found the target to open up a 1-8 to 0-7 lead.

And it very nearly got a whole lot worse, Niall Morgan pulling off a crucial save from Seán O’Shea after the Tyrone defence had parted like the red sea. Clifford subsequently tagged on another free, before Tyrone got the last point of the first-half, Mattie Donnelly’s second point from play, leaving three points between the teams.

The game was by no means over but the signs were ominous. Darragh Canavan was going very well indeed and scored thrice in the early stages of the second-half (the middle effort a superb two-pointer), but Tyrone still looked very exposed at the back when the two Cliffords kept Kerry’s account ticking over.

And then things just seemed to unravel. From Darragh Canavan’s point in the 42nd minute, Tyrone didn’t score again for a full 20 minutes while Kerry made hay down the other end.

David Clifford and Joe O’Connor tagged on further points and it was almost a minor-miracle from a Tyrone perspective that they didn’t follow suit with goals, Dylan Geaney’s effort skirting across the face of goal and wide alongside various other instances when Kerry squandered decent goal-scoring opportunities.

Kerry’s lead was beginning to stretch and Malachy O’Rourke reached into his subs bench with Michael McKernan, Mark Bradley, Peter Harte and Ruairi Canavan all entering the fray.

McKernan was yellow carded for his involvement in a spat with Clifford, and you can’t blame a man for trying to do something, but Kerry were thoroughly unruffled and Tyrone were finding it increasingly difficult on their forays forward, despite the best efforts of Conn Kilpatrick in particular, who really brought the fight to the Kingdom in an attempt to kickstart a comeback.

But wides seep the energy out of a team and Tyrone were struggling to find the target. You could credit Kerry as they certainly minded the house, but the attacking play in general lacked vigour and directness, though in saying that the game was played in stifling conditions which didn’t help.

Kerry kept motoring along and scores from Clifford, O’Shea and substitute Adrian Spillane wedged open a 1-20 to 0-13 gap by the time Tyrone got their account up and running again with a point from Seanie O’Donnell in the 63rd minute.

Tyrone kept on battling with late scores from Darragh and Ruairi Canavan (a lovely two-pointer) but time wasn’t on their side and Kerry were fully deserving victors as the curtain descends on our 2025 season.

Scorers

Tyrone: Darragh Canavan (0-7, 1 2pt, 2f), Mattie Donnelly, Seanie O’Donnell and Ciarán Daly (0-2 each), Ruairi Canavan (0-2, 1 2pt), Kieran McGeary and Eoin McElholm (0-1 each)

Kerry: David Clifford (1-9, 1 2pt, 4f), Seán O’Shea (0-3, 2f), Joe O’Connor, Killian Spillane and Paudie Clifford (0-2 each), Graham O’Sullivan and Dylan Geaney (0-1 each)

Teams

Tyrone: Niall Morgan, Cormac Quinn, Padraig Hampsey, Niall Devlin, Peter Teague, Ben McDonnell, Conn Kilpatrick, Seanie O’Donnell, Eoin McElholm, Ciarán Daly, Darren McCurry, Mattie Donnelly, Darragh Canavan. Subs: Michael McKernan for McDonnell, Mark Bradley for McCurry, Peter Harte for Daly, Ruairi Canavan for McElholm, Michael O’Neill for O’Donnell.

Kerry: Shane Ryan, Paul Murphy, Jason Foley, Dylan Casey, Brian Ó Beaglaoich, Mike Breen, Gavin White, Sean O’Brien, Joe O’Connor, Mark O’Shea, Paudie Clifford, Seán O’Shea, Graham O’Sullivan, David Clifford, Dylan Geaney. Subs: Killian Spillane for Geaney, Armin Heinrich for Casey, Tadhg Morley for Breen, Micheál Burns for O’Brien, Tony Brosnan for P Clifford.

Referee: Joe McQuillan (Cavan)