Keith Duggan: Kerry’s game management and ability to endure pays rich dividend

Thy Kingdom Come.

Kerry’s eight-year wait for an All-Ireland — a gap considered a terrible hunger in that part of the world — is over. They won their 38th version of the Sam Maguire by 0-20 to 0-16 but the four-point gap does not begin to explain the nature of the taut drama between two of the bluebloods of the game.

Galway, deemed the outsiders, played some shimmering football and still lost here. No matter to Kerry. They all count. Suddenly, all the years of hurt seemed worth it. Suddenly, all their fabulous minors were all grown up and doing the town. Suddenly Pat Spillane was sobbing like Sally Field on Oscars night as he closed out a 30-year career as RTÉ’s most provocative pundit. Suddenly, then, was the vision that made them swoon: David Clifford lifting the big silver cup in the stadium. Suddenly, all was right with their world again.

“We are just hoping that this can spark something big,” said Jack O’Connor, who now ranks in the same class as Mick O’Dwyer of alchemising Kerry class into a gritty, hard-nosed unit capable of closing out championships. In the 12 months since he reappeared as senior manager, Kerry’s defence was transformed from fun house to hell house. The thunderbolt hit by Dublin’s Cormac Costello in the semi-final was the only goal they have conceded in this year’s All-Ireland championship. That bare stat is what will have O’Connor smiling in the darkness at his ceiling for the rest of the week.

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Galway headed west nursing a bag load of what-ifs and a more than reasonable grievance against a referee’s call that had a disproportionate influence on the outcome.

The day — season, year — swung on Sean Hurson’s decision which was interpretative, to say the least. The All-Ireland final was deadlocked at 0-16 with 67 minutes gone on the clock. The crowd huddled under an atmosphere of dank July heat and the fizzing tension of a contest that had become unbearably riveting without ever fully breaking open. Neither team was cracking. Nor were they displaying the gilt-edged certainty that they could win the thing.

In front of the Hill, a cautious Kerry build-up was broken up by Galway and as John Daly took possession, he was met by Killian Spillane. The Galway man pushed forward, the Kerry player tackled him and Daly was whistled for holding Spillane’s arm. Galway had just hit two scores on the trot to draw level and the huge maroon sport was erupting after Daly’s turnover. The unexpected free-in killed that energy stone dead. Clifford was not remotely perturbed by the chorus of boos that rang around the stadium and, one could guess, 31 counties of Ireland. He hit the free from an acute angle. Kerry had daylight.

It was, Padraic Joyce said flatly, “the most crucial part of the game”.

“I couldn’t get over it from where I was standing. It looked to me that Damian Comer was pushed in the back. It should have been a free out. But then he gave a free against John Daly for apparently holding a hand. John Daly had the ball in his hand trying to get out. The reason his hand was up high was to stop the Kerry fella’s hand going around his neck, which will happen. Can’t get over it.”

Jack O’Connor, understandably, held the opposite perspective and lauded Clifford’s eighth and final point.

“We felt it was a free. We felt he leaned in with the shoulder. But that was some conversion though. I will tell you something. That is some kick. There is a tricky wind down there. So hats off to him.”

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But it was a shame that a referee’s call played such a central role on an afternoon that produced some gorgeous scores. Shane Walsh, who finished with 0-9, gave one of the All-Ireland performances of any age and was a beacon for his county from the get-go.

Once again, the old game proved that nobody knows anything. All week, in Kerry, old dogs gathered at lamp posts — several with All-Ireland medals dangling off collars — and agreed that this was a business that Kerry would want to get over and done with early.

A long, inquisitive and typically insouciant early ball delivered in to Paul Geaney suggested that this was indeed the plan. They don’t throw out good recipes in Kerry. It worked early in the All-Ireland final of 2014 against Donegal. Why not here?

Galway dealt with it and O’Shea sent the resultant 50 wide. And from there nothing went quite according to plan. It was 0-8 to 0-7 at the break in Galway’s favour. The idea of a Kerry blitz did not materialise. They had 0-2 from play and the strange statistic of three points from marks. That peculiarity demonstrated the work that was carried out down in Fitzgerald Stadium on hammering home Kerry’s aerial advantage up in the front six. They created chances but sent a further six wide over the half.

Flawless early Galway

Meanwhile, Galway were flawless with their opportunities over the first half hour. Shane Walsh started the game a hundred miles an hour and was scintillating, curling a gorgeous, ever-climbing right-footed point that was the pick of a 0-5 first-half haul that included two frees and a 50.

Elsewhere, Rob Finnerty and Liam Silke shimmered with ideas and clever movement. But Galway could not get the ball to Damian Comer. And Kerry, increasingly, began to seek out the figure of David Clifford who had Galway captain Sean Kelly glued to his hip for the first half.

What was happening, it began to dawn on the crowd, was that they were watching two of the sport’s regal counties trying to learn how to win an All-Ireland as they went. Here was an obvious consequence of Dublin’s six-year dominion. Apart from a scattering of survivors from Kerry’s 2014 win, all of the footballers on show were in new country.

But the qualities O’Connor cultivated over the cold winter began to tell in the breathless closing quarter. Apart from Walsh, only one of Galway’s starting forwards scored from play. Damian Comer was lassoed all afternoon. The goal, the pyrotechnics would not come.

Galway made have handsome strides but this was one step too far. Kerry had the vital edge in reserve, with Killian Spillane coming in to score two invaluable points and Michael Burns giving Kerry an outlet as Galway desperately sought turnovers. It was an All-Ireland achieved on grit rather than the silk and flair which is the stuff of bad pub songs. Kerry’s learning took place over the closing 15 minutes under the eye of the shrewdest schoolteacher Kerry have produced. The Kingdom can winter happily now. And the beauty is, it’s not even winter.