GAA Football All Ireland Senior Championship Qualifiers – Kerry 1-16 Tyrone 1-6

O’Connor hails Kingdom revival

By Damian Lawlor for the Sunday Independent newspaper

KERRY 1-16 TYRONE 1-6

KERRY maintained their historic record of not losing a home championship game in the past 17 years by utterly dismissing Tyrone at Fitzgerald Stadium yesterday evening. And Colm Cooper is now just three points away from becoming the all-time top scorer in Gaelic football history. His 0-5 haul last night edges him even closer to the current holder Mikey Sheehy and it’s odds-on that the Gooch will take his mantle when Kerry play Clare in the fourth round of the qualifiers next weekend.

Cooper’s team has been heavily criticised this year for their wearisome displays but they had a point to prove last night. With the futures of some of their most experienced and established stars hanging in the balance they pulled their sleeves up, gritted their teeth and pulled through in fine style. “Sometimes our backs needs to be against the wall to get a performance and that’s the way it was today,” said Kerry manager Jack O’Connor. “We felt the form was there and the players were there but it took our old nemeses to get this out of us. You never know from week to week if you’ll get a performance like this but we got one.”

Mickey Harte praised Kerry for their display but was critical of referee David Coldrick. “Kerry should have been further ahead half-time,” he said. “That gave us lifeline and we didn’t believe the game was lost by any means. But while they were under pressure when we scored our goal they responded positively.” Harte said he believed the sending-off of Brian McGuigan was harsh. “I do believe the sending-off was harsh. I didn’t think that the shoulder to the back should have been a red card offence. Yes, it was foul and it was petulant and yes it shouldn’t happen but I felt it was harsh, there was no merit in that red card. The extra man did make a difference and after that it was a damage limitation job for us. “Seventeen yellow cards was excessive,” he added. “I thought when Pat McEnaney became the referees’ boss all that was behind us, I thought we were trying to send the message out that we don’t need a plethora of cards. That message didn’t seem to register with this man today. “In every other game I’ve seen this year the card count has gone down — that didn’t happen today.”

In front of a crowd of 24,370 this game was no spectacle. It wasn’t helped by constant bickering and persistent fouling from the players either. When asked if he had concerns over Coldrick’s appointment for the game, the Tyrone manager replied: “I have to say I was concerned that he was appointed. I’m not in a position to blame referees for losing games, let me make that clear. That is the third game we’ve played that he’s taken this year (Kildare in the league final and Donegal in the Ulster championship) and while he didn’t beat us, you have to ask yourself what influence these people have on games. I don’t feel that he benefits our team a lot. Harte also made reference to the fact that he would be around next season to rebuild the side and said it was too early for any of his players to consider retiring.

Midway through the second half Tyrone gave themselves a chink of light with a goal from Conor Gormley, who had run from deep to support his colleagues. Joe McMahon’s shot was saved by Brendan Kealy but Gormley slipped it home. But almost immediately Kieran Donaghy replied with a well-taken goal of his own and from there Kerry only gained in confidence.

Kerry had led 0-8 to 0-4 at the break, but should have been further in front, such was their dominance at times. After the restart, Bryan Sheehan and Aidan Cassidy exchanged points but the game came to life after 43 minutes with Gormley’s goal. Up to then the home team had defended well and pressed even better. It was a bad goal to give away but two minutes later Donaghy also palmed a goal home to send the crowd wild. A marvellous Sheehan catch found Cooper in space — he fisted across for Donaghy to arrive at the far post and raise a green flag. His score left Kerry four ahead again, 1-10 to 1-6. Down a man soon after, Tyrone never recovered. It’s back to the drawing board for Harte but with key players to return from injury and plenty of young players to work with there is still much to look forward to. Kerry’s concerns are more immediate. On the night that Tomas O Se made his 81st championship appearance, it was fitting that their veteran players refused to let the curtain fall on their careers in their own backyard.

Scorers — Kerry: C Cooper 0-5 (1f), K Donaghy 1-1, B Sheehan (3f), Declan O’Sullivan 0-3 each, J O’Donoghue 0-2, P Galvin, P Curtin 0-1 each. Tyrone: C Gormley 1-0, C Cavanagh, C Clarke, D McCurry, M Penrose (1f), A Cassidy, Sean O’Neill 0-1 each

Kerry: B Kealy; M O Se, A O’Mahony, S Enright; T O Se, E Brosnan, K Young; A Maher, B Sheehan; P Galvin, Declan O’Sullivan, D Walsh; J O’Donoghue, C Cooper, K Donaghy. Subs: Darran O’Sullivan for D Walsh (49), P Crowley for S Enright (65), K O’Leary for Declan O’Sullivan (65), P Curtin for O’Donoghue (66), B McGuire for K Young (66)

Tyrone: P McConnell; A McCrory, C Clarke, D Carlin; R McNamee, C Gormley, S O’Neill; J McMahon, C Cavanagh; Mattie Donnelly, Mark Donnelly, P Harte; M Penrose, D McCurry, O Mulligan. Subs: R McMenamin for D Carlin (11), D McCaul for R McNamee (33), A Cassidy for Mattie Donnelly (35), S O’Neill for M Penrose (46), B McGuigan for D McCurry (55)

Referee: D Coldrick (Meath)

Superb Kerry Back on Track

Report from the GAA.ie web site

GAA Football All-Ireland Senior Championship Qualifiers Round 3: Kerry 1-16 Tyrone 1-6

Kerry eased through to Round 4 of the GAA Football All-Ireland Senior Championship Qualifiers after a 10-point defeat of Tyrone in Killarney on Saturday evening. It was Kerry’s first Championship win over Tyrone since the 1986 All-Ireland final, and surely one of their most impressive in living memory. Jack O’Connor’s side laid the platform with a scoring burst in the first half, which yielded five unanswered points, and then crucially fired a 46th minute goal from the excellent Kieran Donaghy, just after Tyrone had threatened a revival when Conor Gormley hit the back of the net for the Red Hands. Kerry then hit the final six points of the game, taking complete control and securing their 10th straight win in the Qualifiers, after Tyrone’s Brian McGuigan was sent off for a foul on Declan O’Sullivan in the 58th minute.

Having been all but written off after a poor showing in the Munster final, and after narrowly beating Westmeath last Sunday, Kerry answered their critics with a wonderful display. All their big players delivered huge performances: Donaghy scored 1-1 and destroyed the Tyrone full back-line, while Declan O’Sullivan orchestrated matters from centre-forward and Colm Cooper chipped in with five points; Paul Galvin deservedly won the man of the match award after a typically combative display. Kerry were ahead in the first minute when Declan O’Sullivan gave them the perfect start with a fine score from play, before Colm Cavanagh leveled the game for Tyrone.

Kerry, though, were clearly psyched up from the very start and quickfire scores from Cooper and Bryan Sheehan gave them a 0-3 to 0-1 lead. After that early flurry of points, the game settled into a more sedate rhythm, with numerous breaks in play, as both sides delivered big hits in an uncompromising and sometimes scruffy first quarter. Conor Clarke, the Tyrone full-back, did steal up field to score a fine point from play, but it was frenzied stuff punctuated by a string of yellow cards – there were 15 in total by the end of the game – to each side.

In a real battle, Kerry made the first surge, hitting five points in a row to lead by 0-8 to 0-2 by the 33rd minute, although they might have been much further ahead had they been less profligate, with Cooper and Kieran Donaghy both hitting post with point efforts. The Kingdom hit a real seam of form in the second quarter, as Sheehan started that purple patch with his second free before James O’Donoghue and Declan O’Sullivan hammered home their advantage with scores from play. Kerry were opening up the Red Hand defence at will, and Galvin also got off the mark with a superb before Cooper hit his second from play to put the Kingdom six clear and in a position of absolute control.

However, just when Kerry looked to be running away with the game, Tyrone hit back with a point from Darren McCurry, who started in place of the injured Stephen O’Neill. Martin Penrose then landed a free just before the break to leave Mickey Harte’s side trailing by a far more manageable four points at the break, 0-8 to 0-4. Kerry opened the second half with another Sheehan free, but Aidan Cassidy hit back immediately, flashing a shot over the bar when he might just as easily have hit the back of the net. Tyrone did just that in the 43rd minute, when Joe McMahon bullied his way through the Kerry defence and saw his left-footed shot well saved by Kerry goalkeeper Brendan Kealy. The rebound fell kindly for Gormley who bundled the ball over the line.

But three minutes later Kerry hit back and landed the really crucial blow. Sheehan was the creator, drifting behind the Tyrone full-back line and finding Donaghy, who fisted into an empty net. The game was all but over as a contest when McGuigan was shown a red card after tangling with Declan O’Sullivan less than a minute and a half after his introduction. In truth, Kerry were well on top and they drove home their advantage by tagging on three more points late on to seal a 10-point win and a Round 4 Qualifier clash with Clare.

Kerry Scorers: Declan O’Sullivan 0-3, C Cooper 0-5 (0-1f), B Sheehan 0-3 (0-3f), J O’Donoghue 0-2, P Galvin 0-1, K Donaghy 1-1, P Curtin 0-1.

Tyrone Scorers: C Cavanagh 0-1, C Clarke 0-1, D McCurry 0-1, M Penrose 0-1 (0-1f), A Cassidy 0-1, C Gormley 1-0, Seán O’Neill 0-1.

Kerry: B Kealy; M Ó Sé, A O’Mahony, S Enright; T Ó Sé, E Brosnan, K Young; A Maher, B Sheehan; P Galvin, Declan O’Sullivan, D Walsh, J O’Donoghue, C Cooper, K Donaghy.

Tyrone: P McConnell; A McCrory, C Clarke, D Carlin; R McNamee, C Gormley, Seán O’Neill; J McMahon, C Cavanagh; Mattie Donnelly, Mark Donnelly, P Harte; M Penrose, D McCurry, O Mulligan.

Referee: David Coldrick

Attendance: 24,370

Kerry underline class with clinical dismissal of Tyrone

By Dermot Crowe for the Sunday Independent newspaper

KERRY 1-16 TYRONE 1-6

AT last some relief for Kerry from the oppressive attentions of Tyrone. Having lost two All-Ireland finals, and a semi-final deemed an affront to football civilisation, they gained a measure of compensation with a 10-point win in the third round of the qualifiers. The final result, 1-16 to 1-6, doesn’t flatter them. Not for the first time they’ve found new life along the scenic route. There were some pleasing spells of football, a necklace of five unanswered points in the first half from Kerry, and some classy finishing from Declan O’Sullivan and Colm Cooper. But there was controversy too; it wasn’t a match to inspire the bards. Referee David Coldrick issued 17 yellow cards and sent off Brian McGuigan, a second-half substitute, on a straight red for elbowing O’Sullivan in the back in a schoolboy fit of pique.

By then Tyrone were sinking fast, six points adrift. They were handed a lifeline when Conor Gormley had a goal after 42 minutes which reduced the difference to two points but in the next play Kieran Donaghy had one at the other end. “We got a goal and didn’t defend it, that was the end of the game for us in many ways,” Mickey Harte noted afterwards. Harte protested about the dismissal of McGuigan “in the context” of the match itself, feeling it warranted no more than yellow.

“Seventeen yellow cards was excessive. I thought when Pat McEnaney became the referees’ boss all that was behind us, I thought we were trying to send the message out that we don’t need a plethora of cards. That message didn’t seem to register with this man today. In every other game I’ve seen this year the card count has gone down — that didn’t happen today.” Asked if he had concerns over Coldrick’s appointment, Harte replied: “I have to say I was concerned that he was appointed. I’m not in a position to blame referees for losing games, let me make that clear. That is the third game we’ve played that he’s taken this year (Kildare in the league final and Donegal in the Ulster championship) and while he didn’t beat us, you have to ask yourself what influence these people have on games . I don’t feel that he benefits our team a lot.”

But the players, including a good many from Tyrone, repeatedly and freely got involved in tetchy exchanges leaving Coldrick with little scope for discretion. Indeed he could have taken sterner action and issued a few more. Late on Patrick Curtin was blessed to escape with a yellow card for a challenge no less objectionable than McGuigan’s. Donaghy pushed both hands into Paschal McConnell’s face in the first half and got away with it. Gormley had an early yellow and ran a dangerous line at times thereafter. Kerry face Clare next weekend and they will be unbackable favourites to cruise into the last eight. They worked assiduously and their defending suffocated Tyrone, starving them of scoring openings.

Jack O’Connor will have been additionally pleased with this result. “Fellas really put their bodies on the line,” he said, “and that’s what we had to do. Tyrone are a running team, they like to get numbers back and work it out and it was critical we slowed their momentum coming out of defence.” Tyrone were well beaten and could have no excuses. This is their earliest championship exit since 2006. They are in transition and can point in mitigation to key absentees like Sean Cavanagh and Kyle Coney. Stephen O’Neill was a late withdrawl, the teenager Darren McCurry playing instead, although O’Neill was sent on after half-time. But the usual fire was absent.

Team News

The Kerry Senior Football team to play Tyrone on Saturday July 21st at 5pm in Fitzgerald Stadium is as follows:

1. Brendan Kealy (Kilcummin)

2. Marc Ó Sé (An Ghaeltacht)

3. Aidan O’Mahony (Rathmore)

4. Shane Enright (Tarbert)

5. Tomás Ó Sé (An Ghaeltacht)

6. Eoin Brosnan (Dr Crokes)

7. Killian Young (Renard)

8. Anthony Maher (Duagh)

9. Bryan Sheehan (St Mary’s)

10. Paul Galvin (Finuge)

11. Declan O’Sullivan (Piarsaigh Na Dromada)

12. Donnchadh Walsh (Cromane)

13. James O’Donoghue (Legion)

14. Colm Cooper (Captain) (Dr Crokes)

15. Kieran Donaghy (Austin Stacks)

16. Brian Kelly (Legion)

17. Brian Maguire (Listowel Emmet’s)

18. Peter Crowley (Laune Rangers)

19. Darran O’Sullivan (Glenbeigh/Glencar)

20. Kieran O’Leary (Dr Crokes)

21. Johnny Buckley (Dr Crokes)

22. Patrick Curtin (Moyvane)

23. Jonathan Lyne (Legion)

24. Seamus Scanlon (Currow)

25. Barry John Keane (Kerins O’Rahilly’s)

26. Fionn Fitzgerald (Dr Crokes)

27. Michael Geaney (Daingean Uí Chuis)

Bainisteóir: Jack O’Connor (Piarsaigh Na Dromada)

Traenálaí: Alan O’Sullivan (Kerins O’Rahillys)

Roghnóirí: Ger O’Keeffe (Austin Stacks)

Diarmuid Ó Murchú (Daingean Uí Chúis) and Eamon Fitzmaurice (Finuge)

TYRONE: (SF v Kerry): P McConnell; A McCrory, C Clarke, D Carlin; C McCarron, C Gormley, Sean O’Neill; J McMahon, C Cavanagh; Mattie Donnelly, M Donnelly, P Harte; M Penrose, Stephen O’Neill. O Mulligan.

Tickets & Traffic Information

Patrons are advised to come early to the game on Saturday as a large attendance is expected and Saturday is a busy day in Killarney.

To avoid delays Patrons are asked to purchase tickets prior to Saturday.

The gates will open at 3pm on Saturday Evening in Fitzgerald Stadium to facilitate patrons.

Parking

There are two designated car parks at present:

1. One on the Bye pass road near fire station

2. Down Town : The field beside The Cathedral

3. There is also pay parking car parks available.

4. Other designated car parks are available and those will be well marked on the day. Gardaí & Stewards will direct patrons to all car parks.

5. Patrons are advised to come early to the game as Saturday is a busy shopping day in Killarney.

6. Patrons are advised to park responsibly at all times and not to obstruct exits or other cars.

Entry to Stadium

Please allow plenty of time to walk to the stadium

1. All children need a ticket for the stand. Children u16 are free to terrace and do not need a ticket.

2. The concession gates in stand for OAPs & Students are 39 & 40.

3. Wheelchair entry is through Daltons Avenue only

4. Terrace Children U16 Stiles are as follows for terrace: 5, 7, 13, 21, 28 & 29,. Adult stiles are next to all children stiles

5. Please note strictly u16 years of age will apply for children.

6. Press entry Gate: 22

Tickets

Patrons are advised to purchase tickets as soon as possible-Tickets for the game are for sale on Friday and Saturday from :

• Garvey’s Supervalu Stores in Tralee, Dingle, Listowel, Castleisland and Newcastlewest and other selected Centra and Supervalu Stores nationwide.

• Public Sale of Tickets Friday 20th July – 12.00-4.00pm – Austin Stack Park Tralee ONLY

*** IMPORTANT INFORMATION TO HELP YOU ORDER ON LINE – PLEASE READ CAREFULLY ***

You will be automatically given the BEST AVAILABLE SEATS at the price you choose when you order.

It is not possible to select specific sections within the stand or seats for this event.

Ticket prices as follows:

• All Juveniles FREE to Terrace 9 (At least one Adult ticket must be purchased if any Under 16 tickets are included in the order)

• Stand €20

• Terrace €15

• Family Stand Adult €20 – Juveniles €5 (subject to availability)

• Family Terrace Adult €15 – Juveniles FREE

• Student/OAP – Concession on Stand tickets only – pay full priceand get a refund of €5 at specified Stiles on the day (on production of validID)

• No Group tickets as Juveniles FREE to Terrace

Match Preview

ALL-IRELAND QUALIFIERS (ROUND 3)

KERRY v TYRONE

KILLARNEY, SATURDAY, 5.00pm

They meet in the championship for the first time since the 2008 All-Ireland final when Tyrone beat Kerry for the third time in the championship in six seasons, having also won in 2003 and 2005. It leaves Kerry seeking their first championship win over Tyrone since the 1986 All-Ireland final, which the first time the counties had met in the championship.

Kerry have never lost in the All-Ireland qualifiers while Tyrone’s last loss in the qualifiers was in 2006 when they were beaten by Laois (0-9 to 0-6) in Round 2.

Previous Championship Clashes

2008: Tyrone 1-15 Kerry 0-14 (All-Ireland final)

2005: Tyrone 1-16 Kerry 2-10 (All-Ireland final)

2003: Tyrone 0-13 Kerry 0-6 (All-Ireland semi-final)

1986: Kerry 2-15 Tyrone 1-10 (All-Ireland final)

Championship 2012

Kerry 0-16 Tipperary 0-10; Cork 0-17 Kerry 0-12 (Munster semi-final); Kerry 2-10 Westmeath 1-12 (Qualifier Round 2)

Tyrone 0-19 Armagh 1-13; Donegal 0-12 Tyrone 0-10 (Ulster semi-final); Tyrone 1-16 Roscommon 0-8 (Qualifier Round 2)