How Kerry's kickout clinic overwhelmed Donegal

Irish Examiner

3 days ago

Everything felt different. David Clifford stood in the parade like a caged bull, ready to be unleashed. The start was delayed by drawn-out formalities, while in the Kerry warm-up, Shane Ryan was the one practising frees off the ground.
For a team that contains one of the purest ball strikers in the country, it was a curious sight. Seán O'Shea was immense in the decider, but it was noticeable that throughout the second half, he was down stretching his calves and seeking energy shots from the sideline. When they earned their first two-point free of the second half, Ryan came forward to take it. He slipped and it dropped short.
O'Shea took over and slotted the next one from his hands. It was demonstrative of Kerry's steely determination and composure throughout. Thankfully for Kerry, it was one of the few Ryan slips all afternoon.
The Rathmore man finished with 71% retention. Remarkably, they retained as many long restarts as they did short. One clipped kickout to the corner was too short but Paul Murphy showed how this side has developed throughout the championship.
In a similar scenario in the quarter-final, Dylan Casey paused and allowed Rory Grugan to dart in for a goal. This time Murphy accepted a small loss and conceded the free, catching the ball inside the arc. They won 17 kickouts in total and turned that into 12 points.
Their break ball structure was sheer coaching brilliance. Of the 10 Shaun Patton kickouts they stole, eight were on breaking ball. McGuinness singled out Gavin White for specific praise in that element of the tie.
Too often in Gaelic football, hunger is offered as the sole determining factor on breaking ball. Kerry's improvement in this regard since the Meath defeat in the Sam Maguire series has been immense. They routinely gambled on Ryan's kickout, with defenders positioning themselves on the other side of the forward to ensure they were ball side on the break.
Their variety and creativity in short kickouts was strikingly clever. On several occasions, Jason Foley or Paul Murphy matched up with Michael Murphy on the arc and took off in a foot race. The rest of their defence created space on either side for them to prosper.
Shaun Patton, to his credit, tried to get creative. His first kickout to the Cusack Stand side was an absolute dart. As they began to run into trouble, he signalled for an overload and went wide. Donegal finished with a respectable 64% retention.
Despite the fact David Clifford, a two-time Footballer of the Year and current favourite for a third award, finished with nine points, this was a triumph of Kerry's system. Some of Joe O'Connor's kickout wins were immense. His soaring catch in front of the sideline for Paudie Clifford's first was a classic example.
Donegal never gave in, but the reality is that they found themselves in an irrecoverable hole midway through the first half. It was 0-13 to 0-4, with 10 of Kerry's points during that stretch coming from kickouts.
'We didn't perform, Kerry did perform,' said McGuinness.
'That is the bottom line. They started very early in the game and they got a foothold in the game. I thought we responded quite well in the first half on our attack, we were good, we were clinical, but I think they might have scored in their first six attacks, so we were struggling to deal with them in that period.'