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2024 Allianz Football League Division 1 – Kerry 1-17 Roscommon 1-11

March 17 @ 1:45 pm - 3:30 pm

Kerry defeated Roscommon by 1-17 to 1-11 in Round 6 of the Allianz Football League Division 1 on Sunday March 17th at Dr. Hyde Park Roscommon.

Match Highlights

‘Adequate’ Kerry weather Roscommon storm

AFL D1: Roscommon 1-11 Kerry 1-17

Report by Maurice Brosnan for the Irish Examiner newspaper

This could and perhaps should have been a storm. Roscommon fighting for their Division 1 lives in front of a healthy 6,464 home crowd.

Instead, Kerry masterfully navigated their way into the eye of it and resided there comfortably for the duration of the contest.

Billowing sheets of rain greeted Kerry’s management for their pre-game walk of the pitch. Fencing in front of the renovation work at the main stand came crashing down.

If Kerry had any sense of foreboding about this task, they channelled it seamlessly.

Roscommon won the toss and elected to play with the stiff breeze first, so Kerry won the throw-in and kept the ball for the opening three minutes.

Eventually Joe O’Connor raced along the endline and fisted over for the perfect start. The breeze did the home side no favours, as they struck six wides in the opening half hour.

Thankfully, the rain subsided before the throw-in and stayed away for the afternoon.

In the first half, Jack O’Connor’s side made hay. They led 0-8 to 0-4 at the turnaround without a single wide from play.

The only blemishes were a David Clifford penalty skied over the bar and an uncharacteristically wayward Sean O’Shea free.

The Kenmare Shamrocks star should truly have had a goal, but referee Noel Mooney elected to award a penalty for a David Murray pull after O’Shea had bundled a short Darragh Roche shot into the goal.

O’Connor’s charges deserve credit for maintaining control on a fixture that was liable to swirl away from them.

That humbling Croke Park hammering at the hands of Dublin has not sent them into a spiral.

Afterwards, the Kerry boss was asked if that defeat was a blip. He was in no mood to go that far, but he did suggest that they can try make it count down the road.

“That was an alarming enough performance,” O’Connor said. “You wouldn’t dismiss that one at all. If it helps us improve and makes us revisit a few issues, it might be a positive in the long term.

“Look, any day you get a beating like that isn’t a good day.”

What have they changed?

“A few failings were shown up and we have done a bit of work on them since.

“It remains to be seen — we will have bigger tests than today, I’m sure. For today, it was adequate.”

Kerry’s conversion was an impressive 70% yesterday.

They turned down possible goal opportunities, such as an O’Shea free that hit the post and dropped in the square, in favour of simple points.

Having gone man-on-man against the All-Ireland champions, against Roscommon it was a nominated sweeper depending on who was freed up first. A spell early on saw Paudie Clifford, Gavin White, and Joe O’Connor man the top of the D for successive plays.

It is still liable to breaches if a defender is soundly beaten.

Diarmuid Murtagh beat Sean O’Brien on the outside and squared across for sub Cathal Heneghan to goal.

Such moments only reinforce the importance of expert markers. Unfortunately for the Kingdom, Jason Foley went down with a concerning ankle injury late on, with Armin Heinrich coming on in his place.

Otherwise, there was positive squad developments. Stephen O’Brien came on and scored. Paul Geaney was sensational, scoring two points and laying across to O’Connor for an injury time goal.

With a new defensive structure still bedding in and a training camp abroad scheduled for the week before the league final, Kerry do not appear to be full of ambition for another outing in HQ. Should they be? It is hard to say.

After one worrying match, they’ve steadied the ship and answered all other questions asked of them. At this time of the year, that is enough.

Scorers for Roscommon: Cathal Heneghan 1-0, Enda Smith 0-3, Donie Smith 0-3 (2 free), Daire Cregg 0-2, Ronan Daly 0-2, Conor Carroll 0-1.

Scorers for Kerry: David Clifford 0-6 (0-1 penalty), Joe O’Connor 1-1, Barry Dan O’Sullivan 0-2, Paul Geaney 0-2, Stephen O’Brien, Paudie Clifford, Darragh Roche, Sean O’Brien, Dara Moynihan, Sean O’Shea 0-1 each.

ROSCOMMON: C Carroll; D Murray, N Higgins, B Stack; N Daly, C Hussey, R Daly; T O’Rourke, S Cunnane; R Fallon, E Smith, D Ruane; D Cregg, D Murtagh, D Smith.
Subs: U Harney for O’Rourke (32), C Cox for Cunnane, P Gavin for Higgins (both half-time), C Heneghan for Hussey (45), C Connolly for Murtagh (55).

KERRY: S Ryan; G O’Sullivan, J Foley, P Murphy; S O’Brien, T Morley, G White; B O’Sullivan, J O’Connor; A Spillane, P Clifford, D Moynihan; D Clifford, D Roche, S O’Shea.
Subs: S O’Brien for Spillane (52), P Geaney for Roche (58), D Casey for O’Brien (59), A Heinrich for Foley (60 – inj), K Evans for Moynihan (68).

Referee: N Mooney (Cavan).

Team News

Kerry (AFL v Roscommon): S Ryan; G O’Sullivan, J Foley, P Murphy; S O’Brien, T Morley, G White; BD O’Sullivan, J O’Connor; A Spillane, P Clifford, D Moynihan; D Clifford, D Roche, S O’Shea.

Ticket Information

Match Coverage

Details

Date:
March 17
Time:
1:45 pm - 3:30 pm

Venue

Dr. Hyde Park Roscommon

GAA Units

Clare GAA
Cork GAA
Kerry GAA
Limerick GAA
Tipperary GAA
Waterford GAA
US GAA