A couple of strange things happened to Brian Ó Beaglaoich in the course of Kerry’s All-Ireland SFC demolition of Meath at the weekend.
Firstly, there were the three points he scored, a tidy if unlikely haul from the defender which matched Seán O’Shea’s tally on the day.
More significantly from the An Ghaeltacht man’s perspective was the fact that he started and finished the game, the first time he has managed that in the league or Championship since Kerry’s 2022 All-Ireland semi-final defeat of Dublin.
Ó Beaglaoich started the final two years ago too but was taken off and his time in a Kerry jersey since has been limited by a series of frustrating injuries, principally calf problems.
He missed all of the 2023 league and didn’t start a single Championship match last year either, coming on for 15-minute cameos in most of their games.
“It was a bad year last year, I didn’t play much,” said Ó Beaglaoich, who was delighted to last the duration in their big win over Meath. “The first time I’ve played the 70 minutes since 2022, so it’s a long time and I’m just happy to get that in the legs. The focus for me the last few weeks was just to stay on the field. Hopefully I’m on the right side of all those injuries. It was frustrating.
“Last year it was the calf at the start of the year and then I got a hamstring injury. At the start of this year, it was the exact same again, a calf injury on the other side this time. It was strange enough. We don’t know how it’s happening but everything feels good now, I’ve had a good bank of training, got a good block of running in so I feel like I’m in a good place now.”
Ó Beaglaoich had just returned to the team earlier this year, starting against Derry in the opening round of the league, when the injury struck again, costing him the next five games.
Derry beat Kerry in that league opener in Tralee, a result that seemed pretty important at the time. Five months or so later, it looks like Derry may have imploded with three losses on the spin while Kerry give the impression of a team only coming to life now.
The two goals they scored on Sunday against Meath, both from David Clifford, were their first of the Championship, four games in. They probably won’t need their A game for a while yet either, as a draw or win against Louth in Round 3 will lock down top spot in Group 4, securing automatic qualification for an All-Ireland quarter-final.
“At the end of the day, it’s a Championship game,” said Ó Beaglaoich, rejecting the suggestion that games like Sunday’s against a defensive and outclassed Meath can’t particularly energise the group. “We’re here to do a job, go home, get ready for two weeks’ time again. We have Louth up next so we want to just keep going every two weeks like that. We want to top the group so that’s the next focus.”
Jack O’Connor said the much publicised goal drought – Kerry hadn’t scored in the Championship before Sunday and had only hit two in their previous eight league and Championship games combined – was something of nothing. Ó Beaglaoich tended to agree.
“That’s not something we were too concerned about,” he said. “We were creating goal chances in every game. Obviously we would have preferred to take them but I think we were a bit more clinical against Meath. That’s good and we want to keep that going but we’ll not get hung up on it.”
Ó Beaglaoich’s own ability to grab important scores will have been noted by Louth. Chances are Ger Brennan will set the Wee County up just like Meath did, defensively, similar to what Louth did against Dublin in the Leinster final. Faced with a low block of green jerseys, Kerry gave their defenders a licence to pour forward and Ó Beaglaoich curled over three beauties. Tom O’Sullivan scored two and set up Clifford for his first goal.
Both midfielders got on the scoresheet too. It wasn’t until the last quarter or so that the Kingdom’s forwards, and Clifford in particular, belatedly cut loose. That sort of spread of scorers, 11 in all, is a useful tool to possess.
“It takes the pressure off the boys up front,” agreed Ó Beaglaoich. “That’s always something we work on because the game has changed and a lot of games are like that now.”
Ó Beaglaoich is satisfied overall with Kerry’s progress. Without expending much energy they are on the brink of the last eight. They have Paul Murphy, Tadhg Morley and Stephen O’Brien putting their hands up for selection again and only Graham O’Sullivan in the sick bay.
“We have serious depth there now,” said Ó Beaglaoich. “We’re in a good place.”
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