17-05-2025
A summer stroll as Kerry thoughts turn back to Cork and the summer road
All-Ireland SFC Group Stage: Kerry 3-18 Roscommon 0-17
THREE family visitors came to town the weekend, and all begged the same questions.
How are Kerry going, and will they win the All-Ireland? The first impregnates the second, though it is insignificant by comparison.
Kerry need to be going as well as the carriage to Croke Park demands. The All-Ireland series will hardly take them much outside their comfort step and Munster is a wasteland. So everyone feasts on the minutiae.
How has Sean O'Shea come back from that knee? What gear is Clifford in? Will they go with Joe O'Connor, Paudie and Seanie in a devilish half-forward unit? Will Dylan Casey hold off Paul Murphy?
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There is a price to be paid and this is it. It seeps into the creaks and the players have to be as vigilant as the night watchman. But they are human.
Two years ago at this stage Mayo came and torpedoed a 28 year record that Kerry held proudly in Fitzgerald Stadium.
Roscommon don't possess the same cachet as their Connacht neighbours but they're no mugs. Against the wind here they were poised and deliberate and kicked the better scores.
Six of Kerry's eleven point total came from two point frees, but don't they nitpick that Kerry don't accumulate enough two-pointers?
Supporters gather in the terrace before the GAA Football All-Ireland Senior Championship Round 1 match between Kerry and Roscommon at Fitzgerald Stadium. Pic: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile
Daire Cregg and Ben Carroll were problematic for the Kerry block, each tagging on a nice point. At the other end David Clifford was quiet by the Clifford barometer, and Dylan Geaney quieter.
But they led 0-11 to 0-6, and the crowd of 6,814 were occasionally engaged. Was there a Championship slap inflicted in the first half? Three to emerge from the group will do that.
Most had already decided the result. The roads into Killarney were sprinkled with nothing but hardy annuals. A rare cocktail of a predictable weather forecast and the gorgeous reality settled any debate by midweek.
For those who were there, the form of Joe O'Connor, even at wing forward, continues to stir enthusiasm for the summer road. With Diarmuid O'Connor back and kicking two first half points, the options in the middle eight are swelling for Jack O'Connor.
Ditto with Mike Breen at centre back. The Beaufort man has the cut of a lad who's filling out the six jersey. And Paudie Clifford will add his own range of Fossa spice. But will they win the All-Ireland?
Kerry would believe they are one of the more adventurous sides in the championship but the early moments of the second period underscored the primacy of data and the folly of pot shots these days.
Paul Geaney and Sean O'Shea both had more than acceptable opportunities to score into the dressing room end but eschewed the chance to pull the trigger.
They knew. Nevertheless, Roscommon went downfield and Ciaran Murtagh pointed a free.
Eleven points of second half play had elapsed before Kerry, via David Clifford, roused themselves to score a point.
Journalists watch the action from the press box. Pic: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile.
The tie needed a Roscommon goal to stir the pot, instead it come at the other end as Briain O Beaglaoich did wonderfully to stay upright and set up David Clifford for the drilled finish on 49 minutes. 1-13 to 0-8.
The crowd reaction was that of an audience that knew they could roll up their programmes and rumble for the car keys.
Kerry should have had a penalty a minute later when Tom O'Sullivan was manhandled out of a goal but David Coldrick had a yellow card for Daire Cregg from a previous incident in his head. Shane Ryan converted the 45 to increase the gap to nine points. You could stick a fork in it now. It was done. And in case it wasn't Paul Geaney walked in Kerry's second goal on 53 minutes to make it 2-15 to 0-8.
They have sorted, to a large degree anyway, the rules of the game, but the format of its blue riband needs addressing if they want to inject cut and thrust into these snoozefests.
On the hour, Gavin White ghosted in at the back post to net Paul Geaney's sumptuous invite. 3-16 to 0-11. Conor Cox came on, and anytime he does in this part of the world, he has a little eager point to make, and that he did, grabbing three points in the dead time.
By the hooter, Kerry were ten points to the good and thinking of Cork. Everyone else went out the gate asking themselves the other question.
Scorers for Kerry: S O'Shea (0-7, 0-4 tpfs, 1f), D Clifford (1-3, tpf), P Geaney (1-1, 0-1 mark), G White (1-0), D O'Connor and J O'Connor (0-2 each), S. Ryan ('45'), B O'Beaglaoich, T Brosnan (0-1 each).
Scorers for Roscommon: R Daly (0-3, 1 tp), C Cox (0-3, 1 tp), D Murtagh (0-3, 1 tp), C Murtagh (0-2, one free), B O'Carroll (0-2), B Stack, E Nolan, K Doyle, D Cregg (0-1 each).
KERRY: S Ryan; D Casey, J Foley, T O'Sullivan; B O Beaglaoich, M Breen, G White; D O'Connor, B 'Dan' O'Sullivan; J O'Connor, S O'Shea, M Burns; D Clifford, P Geaney, D Geaney.
Subs for Kerry: T Brosnan for D Geaney (47); G O'Sullivan for Burns (47); K Spillane for D Clifford (60), T Morley for O'Beaglaoich (62), M O'Shea for BD O'Sullivan (62).
ROSCOMMON: C Carroll; N Higgins, B Stack, D Murray; S Lambe, R Daly, J McManus; E Nolan, K Doyle; D Ruane, E Smith, C Hand; D Cregg, B O'Carroll, C Murtagh.
Subs for Roscommon: D Murtagh for Doyle (41), C Neary for Ruane (48), S Killoran for Smith (54), C Lennon for Lambe (54), C Cox for Hand (57).
Referee: D Coldrick (Meath).
