KERRY...2-10 CLARE...0-9: A time of fragile spirits in Clare. In Ennis where the football men of the west county came east to do battle they found their native brethren flat of spirit and foul of mood.
A game of football with Kerry was never likely to enliven the place but Clare, in a dour sort of way, at least managed to avoid a hiding like their hurlers got. In the end Kerry won but did so with so little style that they trooped off as if they'd been whipped.
A poor game of football left nobody entirely happy. Kerry started where they had left off in the league final, spraying ball confidently and getting the most out of their waspish corner forwards.
A quarter of the way into the thing they had the business of winning done and dusted as Johnny Crowley and Mike Frank Russell went about their work calmly, but after that they got distracted by Clare's physical challenge.
Early on Kerry had used the spaces in Cusack Park as wisely as a developer would use real estate. They popped balls wide, slammed them back across the goals and let Declan O'Sullivan just rampage down the middle.
Russell's first two points were sublime, one from the left, one from the right. It looked as if it might be an afternoon of such decoration.
On four minutes Crowley had begun the Kerry scoring with a top-drawer goal, Colm Cooper and Eoin Brosnan combining to set him free in front of goal.
We sat back for fireworks. Nothing so illuminating came.
The rest of the game was a grind. Kerry succumbed to Clare's desire to play the game in the corridor down the middle third of the field. (Cusack Park's dimensions had been reduced by a yard or so on each side)
Then, having got Kerry to play on their terms and having brought full forward Enda Coughlan out to midfield, Clare lacked the confidence to finish the job. They had 11 wides and would have had more only for a reluctance to shoot at all.
And so the novelty moment of the first half was from the sideshow drawer. Referee Ger Kinneavy had a clash of heads with Clare's Ger Quinlan and began seeing stars and needing stitches. He handed his little box of cards and biros over to linesman Haulie Byrne before going to the repair shop.
Byrne was soon busy with the chastising. Clare full back Conor Whelan and his quarry Johnny Crowley were clacking off each other like castanets. After a skirmish following the decking of Cooper, both Whelan and Crowley were booked and minutes later they were both lucky not to be sent off when they resumed hostilities.
Soon afterwards Crowley was forced off with a knee injury. More comedy. Whelan followed him towards the sideline and then wandered off, as if disoriented, towards his forwards where he took receipt of a high ball. He advanced in past the 21-yard line with a full back's confidence before he got dizzy and snapped the ball wide.
By half-time Kerry led by six points and there was still the prospect that Clare might make a game of it. Cooper was, well, ginger in the tackle after his early decking and Crowley was being missed, having been replaced by the monumentally tall but less mobile Michael Quirke.
For the second half referee Kinneavy reappeared head in bandages that looked like they'd been requisitioned from a comic strip. Clare played most of their remaining cards by sending in three subs. Kerry dug in.
Clare had their chances. After 10 minutes a move down the left saw Denis Russell through with space in front of him. The mind computed the options. A point at least. A goal possibly. Russell panicked and blazed high and wide.
A minute later his brother David slotted another wide. So it went. Michael O'Shea, a half-time sub, was full of movement and running and another sub, Evan Talty lived up to his billing as an exciting prospect. But they wanted for a cutting edge.
Kerry's second goal came without such a blade. Characteristic of the game, it was an own goal. Eoin Brosnan, Kerry's best forward on the day, was through. He tried his luck with a low ball. Whelan poked his foot out hoping to divert the ball wide but had the misfortune to slot it Thierry Henry style into the corner past Dermot O'Brien. Sometimes you just can't catch a break.
From there it was all over bar the morbid inquests. It was dour ugly stuff, unpunctuated by moments of genius. There was a feeling that if Clare could just have borrowed Kerry's confidence they might have won the game. Instead they'll have to look back and wonder how much closer they might have come.
Jack O'Connor was grey coming off the field. "You'd have to be disappointed with that" he said "there was no intensity, we won grinding. We lost a lot of breaking ball. Sometimes a scrappy game can do you good. It gets players back to basics."
In Cork they'll have been watching and wondering. Did Kerry have an off day or did Clare discover a weakness. Will John Crowley be recovered within three weeks. Is there a backlash in Kerry? There'll be some excitement wrung from the Munster Football championship yet!
KERRY: D Murphy; T O'Sullivan, M McCarthy, A O'Mahony; T Ó Sé, E Fitzmaurice, S Moynihan; D Ó Sé, W Kirby, P Galvin; D O'Sullivan, E Brosnan (1-4); C Cooper (0-1), J Crowley (1-0), MF Russell (0-5, two frees). Subs: M Quirke for Crowley (22 mins), L Hassett for P Galvin (45 mins), M Ó Sé for T Ó Sé (57 mins), R O'Connor (Foilmore) for Quirke (64 mins).
CLARE: D O'Brien; P Gallagher, C Whelan, K Dilleen; N Griffin, B Considine, R Slattery; David Russell (Kilkee), D O'Sullivan; G Quinlan, Denis Russell (0-3, two frees), O O'Dwyer (0-1); C Mullen (0-3, two frees), E Coughlan, S O'Meara. Subs: S Hickey for O'Meara (half-time), E Talty (0-1) for N Griffin (half-time), M O'Shea for O'Dwyer (half-time), M O'Dwyer (0-1) for E Coughlan (53 mins), David Russell (Clarecastle) for D O'Sullivan (58 mins).
Referee: G Kinneavy (Roscommon).
