Dublin 0-22 Kerry 2-14
For all the glorying we do in their panoply of talents, Dublin's ability to end days like this still standing rarely gets the press it deserves.
Kerry emptied every chamber at them here and Jim Gavin’s side reacted by catching bullets between their teeth.
They go into the third All-Ireland final of Gavin’s four seasons knowing that whatever Mayo bring three weeks from now, the toughest score to find will be the one that kills them off.
This wasn’t snatch-and-grab, for they were undoubtedly the better side.
But they needed to come back from five points down at half-time – and three points down on 62 minutes – to make this theirs.
They were outscored by 2-4 to 0-0 in the 10 minutes before the break but they sucked it up and ground it out.
The words barely need typing but for the avoidance of doubt, let it be said that this was an extraordinary game.
Kerry’s status as underdogs is alien to their very being as a people and they played at times as though insulted by it.
They are betwixt and between right now – an uneasy balance of diminishing and developing forces. That they very nearly found a way past the best team of the age says only good things about Eamonn Fitzmaurice and his players.
Plastic bottles
If right was right, indeed, they would surely have come close to sending this to a replay.
Referee David Gough was pelted with match programmes and plastic bottles as he walked off into the tunnel underneath the Cusack Stand at the end, the Kerry crowd outraged at a late decision not to award Peter Crowley a free around 43 metres out.
Crowley took a pass on the run from Bryan Sheehan before being met with a shoulder to the jaw from Kevin McManamon. The Kerry sideline – already thoroughly convinced they’d had the rough end of the stick from Gough all day – screamed for a free that Sheehan would have fancied to level the game going into the last throes of stoppage-time.
Gough waved play on and Diarmuid Connolly kicked the sealing score at the other end.
That said, Kerry had much bigger problems than an unhelpful referee for much of the day.
Routed everywhere
For the first 25 minutes, they were routed everywhere but on the scoreboard. Dublin ransacked the Kerry kick-out, bursting through off broken ball and swishing points before turning and facing and making them start from scratch again.
Kevin McManamon, Bernard Brogan and Connolly all split the posts from this scenario midway through the first half, with Connolly's second of the day pushing them five clear.
Kerry were gasping for air at the other end. Jonny Cooper was at his dogged, belligerent best in the Dublin full-back line and of the Kerry forwards, only Paul Geaney could find any sort of space.
Kieran Donaghy was trying manfully though, catching one sky-scraper to dish off to Geaney for a score and diving on dirty ball to win a free for Colm Cooper to convert in the 29th minute.
That made it 0-9 to 0-6 but what happened next made it a game.
Even as Cooper was taking the free, the whole of the Kerry team was pushing up the pitch to flood the Dublin half for Stephen Cluxton’s kick-out.
Defenders even abandoned their posts, with four Dublin forwards left inside the Kerry 45 and only two men to keep tabs on them.
By the time Cluxton put the ball down to kick it out, 12 Kerry players were within his kicking range and each of them had their hands in the air waving frantically. Cluxton had to try and land a chopper in a minefield and it blew up in his face.
He tried a short one to corner-back Davy Byrne and Geaney swooped to intercept. A quick transfer to Donnchadh Walsh, an even quicker one from Walsh to Darran O’Sullivan and Kerry were walking in a goal.
A perfect coup.
Dublin were rattled, all of a sudden. The next Cluxton kick-out went out for a sideline ball; Geaney fed Cooper for a score. Emboldened, Anthony Maher had a rare pop at goal from 50 metres – it dropped on top of Cluxton but Geaney managed to get a touch and Byrne couldn't prevent the ball crossing the line. When Cooper added a free just before the break, 0-9 to 0-4 had flipped on its head to become 2-8 to 0-9.
Hang on
But for Kerry to hang on, they needed to do more than hang on.
Dublin took advantage of half-time arriving when it did, gathering themselves in the dressing-room and proceeding as if the 10 minutes before the break hadn’t happened.
They wiped out the Kerry advantage by the 50th minute, with Dean Rock dead-eyed from frees and Brian Fenton throwing into the pot from play.
Kerry weren’t done though. Barry John Keane came off the bench and boomed a point immediately. James O’Donoghue set Geaney up for a slick score before flicking one of his own. With 62 minutes on the clock, Kerry led by 2-13 to 0-16.
Dublin kept coming, however. Philly McMahon got forward to snipe a fine score, Rock iced a couple of frees. McManamon, excellent all day, looked like winning it with a sumptuous score in the 70th minute, only for Stephen O’Brien to equalise in the 71st. The place was pulsing.
In the end though, Dublin carried the day. Eoghan O’Gara sent the Hill into a spiral to put them one ahead.
Kerry didn’t get their free with the next attack and Connolly applied the full-stop.
DUBLIN: Stephen Cluxton; Philly McMahon (0-1), Jonny Cooper, David Byrne; James McCarthy, Cian O'Sullivan, John Small; Michael Darragh Macauley, Brian Fenton (0-1); Paul Flynn, Kevin McManamon (0-2), Ciaran Kilkenny; Dean Rock (0-12, eight frees, two 45s), Diarmuid Connolly (0-3), Bernard Brogan (0-2). Subs: Paddy Andrews for Flynn (46 mins); Paul Mannion for Small (51 mins); Eoghan O'Gara (0-1) for Macauley (60 mins); Michael Fitzsimons for Cooper (68 mins); Cormac Costello for Brogan (71 mins).
KERRY: Brian Kelly; Shane Enright, Mark Griffin, Killian Young; Aidan O'Mahony, Peter Crowley, Tadhg Morley; Anthony Maher, David Moran (0-1); Paul Murphy (0-1), Colm Cooper (0-5, 0-4 frees), Donnchadh Walsh; Paul Geaney (1-4), Kieran Donaghy, Darran O'Sullivan (1-0). Subs: Stephen O'Brien (0-1) for O'Sullivan (40 mins); James O'Donoghue (0-1) for Donaghy (51 mins); Barry John Keane (0-1) for Walsh (52 mins); Brian Ó Beaghlaoich for Morley (57 mins); Bryan Sheehan for Maher (59 mins); Marc Ó Sé for Geaney (68 mins).
Referee: David Gough (Meath)
