NFL Division One A/ Kerry 0-13 Offaly 0-9: The second-half introduction of Paul Galvin - who had had his 24-week ban lifted on appeal to the North Kerry Football Board last Thursday, after serving 13 - proved decisive for Kerry at Austin Stack Park on Saturday while Colm Cooper finished the top marksman with six points.
Kerry manager Jack O'Connor was not that impressed with his team's display but was nonetheless happy with the result. "Look we played very poorly at times but we got the result and that is the positive about it."
O'Connor was impressed with Darragh Ó Sé but felt that Kerry were not functioning in the forwards. "Darragh did well but I felt that we are malfunctioning up front because we were not able to get any quality possession into our full-forward line and get a hold of the ball in there. But look, we are only training one night a week, as we are not pushing them at full tilt at the moment with a game every weekend. We will have to up it from here on in especially when the day gets longer."
O'Connor was happy with the return of Paul Galvin but was non-committal on when Séamus Moynihan might reappear. "Séamus is back training with us and he is playing a bit of club football but he just feels he is not up to the pace at the moment. He will just play a few club games and see where that takes him, whenever we feel he is right then we will include him," added the Kerry manager.
Under-fire Offaly manager Kevin Kilmurray saw lots of positives despite his side's fourth successive loss. "We played well for the entire game and I am looking for positives from our display. I was very proud of the way they performed and stuck to their guns."
Kilmurray felt corner forwards Thomas Deehan and Niall McNamee had troubled the Kerry back line.
"The two lads played well while Pascal Kellaghan played out a bit and that worked well for us."
The game was still in the balance as it entered the final 15 minutes and Offaly closed the gap to the minimum with two points by Deehan. Galvin then scored a point before picking up a yellow card. Kerry finished the stronger with two late points from Cooper and another from centre back Aidan O'Mahony.
KERRY: D Murphy; M Ó Sé, M McCarthy, T O'Sullivan; T Ó Sé, A O'Mahony (0-1), M Lyons; D Ó Sé, K Donaghy; S O'Sullivan (0-2, one free), E Fitzmaurice (0-1), E Brosnan; C Cooper (0-6, three frees), D O'Sullivan (0-1), R O'Connor Subs: MF Russell for R O'Connor, P Galvin (0-2) for S O'Sullivan
OFFALY: P Kelly; K Lynam, S O'Sullivan,, N Grennan; G Rafferty, S Brady, K Slattery; N Coughlan, A McNamee (0-2); J Reynolds, C McManus (0-1), C Quinn; T Deehan (0-5, two frees), P Kellaghan (0-1), N McNamee. Subs: S Ryan for C Quinn.
Referee: G Ó Conamha (Galway).
