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Kerry progress in dour quarter-final with Derry

Updated / Friday, 24 Jan 2025 08:47

Kerry are into the All-Ireland semi-finals and Derry are out of their misery.

That just about sums up the fallout from a woefully poor All-Ireland Football Championship quarter-final that will make for a quick post-mortem in the Kingdom ahead of a semi-final against Armagh in a fortnight, and a somewhat longer period of introspection in Derry.

It took Kerry the bones of an hour to fully break free of the clutches of a Derry team that tried in vain to rescue an ailing Championship for them, but that finally came to a limp end for the league champions against the team that knocked them out last year too.

A disappointing first half saw the sides reach the interval at 0-06 apiece, and all things considered Derry would have been the happier with that.

After all, the fear was that their poor form and playing their third game in 14 days might have caught up with them quicker than that against a fresher Kerry side.

However, Kerry brought no great vim and vigour to the last of the quarter-finals, and the Kerry and Derry supporters in the 47,406 crowd had little to get excited about for much of the first half.

David Clifford opened the scoring for Kerry in the second minute and further points from Tony Brosnan and Clifford from a mark, put Kerry ahead, 0-03 to 0-02, after 11 minutes.

Derry needed some excellent goalmouth defending to deny Gavin White and then Tadhg Morley a goal around the quarter-hour mark, and then Shane McGuigan fired over two great Derry scores to put his side 0-04 to 0-03 ahead.

In the second quarter Kerry points from Brian Ó Beaglaioch, Joe O'Connor and Paul Geaney, with Brendan Rogers and McGuigan for Derry leaving it 0-06 apiece at the break.

McGuigan won and converted a free early in the second half to put Derry back in front in what was still a dull arm-wrestle of a game, though engaging for the tightness of it, as both sought to join Armagh, Galway and Donegal in the final four.

Kerry re-took the lead with scores from Diarmuid O’Connor and a David Clifford free, and around the 50th minute the crowd finally came to life when Chrissy McKaigue and Clifford tussled near the sideline and Sean O’Shea and went to ground in the large square for a tame enough penalty claim, which David Coldrick had no interest in.

It was still all square when Paul Cassidy knocked over a Derry point in the 51st minute, but there were signs that Derry were beginning to tire, and if there was to be a kick from one team Kerry looked the more energetic.

In the end Kerry didn’t have to find much more than one extra gear. Sean O’Shea, Killian Spillane, Tony Brosnan and O’Shea again from a free pointed to open up a three-point gap, 0-12 to 0-09, and that was that.

Derry were devoid of legs and ideas, their goalkeeper Odhran Lynch kicking their only score in the final 15 minutes while Kerry franked the win with late scores from O’Shea, Dylan Geaney and Gavin White.

Kerry: Shane Ryan; Paul Murphy, Jason Foley, Tom O’Sullivan; Brian Ó Beaglaioch (0-01), Tadhg Morley, Gavin White (0-01); Diarmuid O’Connor (0-01), Joe O’Connor (0-01); Tony Brosnan (0-02), Paudie Clifford, Dara Moynihan; David Clifford (0-03, 1f, 1m), Sean O’Shea (0-03, 2f), Paul Geaney (0-01).

Subs: Cillian Burke for D Moynihan (53), Killian Spillane (0-01) for P Geaney (57), Dylan Geaney (0-01) for T Brosnan (62), Adrian Spillane for J O’Connor (68), Mike Breen for B Ó Beaglaioch (72)

Derry: Odhran Lynch (0-01); Conor McCluskey, Chrissy McKaigue, Diarmuid Baker; Conor Doherty, Gareth McKinless, Eoin McEvoy; Conor Glass (0-01), Brendan Rogers (0-02), Ethan Doherty, Ciaran McFaul, Paul Cassidy; Eunan Mulholland, Shane McGuigan (0-05, 2f), Lachlan Murray.

Subs: Niall Toner for E Mulholland (39), Niall Loughlin for L Murray (59), Emmet Bradley for C McFaul (65), Cormac Murphy for P Cassidy (65)

Referee: David Coldrick (Meath)

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