Kerry ease past Mayo to claim inaugural Corn Mhichíl Uí Mhuircheartaigh
Kerry captain Gavin White lifts the trophy. Pic: Ryan Byrne/Inpho
Limerick’s hurlers won the inaugural Mick Mackey Cup in 2022, and just as fittingly, it was Kerry who claimed the first Corn Mhichíl Uí Mhuircheartaigh with aplomb.
The first part of a double Jack O’Connor has become synonymous with was completed with relative ease in front of a disappointing 21,596 crowd in Croke Park.
This Division 1 title hardly looked on the cards for Kerry after five rounds but for so much of this final there didn’t appear to be any chance of a winner other than them.
Eight points up in the 47th minute, they were cruising, Paudie Clifford was playing for fun and his team didn’t appear to be ruing Micheál Burns’s goal attempt, which was saved by Colm Reape five minutes earlier.
But then Eoghan McLaughlin stole in for a well-placed goal. A 50-metre infringement from Kerry in the ensuing kick-out and Ryan O’Donoghue punted over a two-point free having earlier missed another.
From almost disappearing out of Kerry’s rearview mirror, Mayo were on the tails and David Clifford was looking close to spent. Clifford’s dregs are better than and he was still able to fist over his seventh score after a fine curved effort by substitute Tony Brosnan.
Clifford did rack up wides – he finished with five, four in the second half – but Mayo’s attempt to build on their five-point combination was weak.
By the end, Clifford had found his scoring boots for an eighth point although he also had a shot kept out by replacement goalkeeper Adrian Phillips.
The opening 10 minutes belonged to Mayo who kicked four points to Kerry’s two. The early move to push Stephen Coen up to tag Gavin White was working while Aidan O’Shea was picked off a couple of points.
Kerry returned five of the next six scores including Paul Geaney’s 12th minute goal. David Clifford had only sent over a free when he infiltrated Colm Reape’s restart, Paudie Clifford pounced and shifted the ball right for Geaney to palm to the vacated net.
After David Clifford and O’Donoghue exchanged frees, Clifford punished a second foul by David McBrien on him and Barry Dan O’Sullivan followed it with a point from play to put Kerry four up.
McBrien was fortunate not to be booked for a second foul on Clifford, which was Reape’s fate after he shoved the Kerry corner-forward as he attempted to take a quick kick-out.
Another goal chance came Kerry’s way in the 25th minute. Like a quarter-back, Mike Breen took a couple of steps back before lobbing the ball over the Mayo cover for the on-running Graham O’Sullivan but his kick was wide of the mark.
O’Shea sent over his third point to bring Mayo within a score but Kerry’s finish to the half was solid as they continued to inflict pain on their opponents aerially, where Paudie Clifford was picking up oodles of breaking ball.
Off his weaker right foot, the older Clifford brother restored Kerry’s four-point advantage, which grew to six with scores from his sibling, one from play after Conor Reid’s pass was capitalised on by a Kerry break and a free after Micheál Burns was grappled by Eoghan McLaughlin.
Kerry were cited for breaching the four-back rule in the last minute of the half, but O’Donoghue couldn’t convert the two-point option and so Kerry left the field five points to the good, 1-9 to 0-7.
D. Clifford (0-8, 4 frees); P. Geaney (1-2, 0-1 free); P. Clifford (0-3, 2 45s); J. O’Connor (0-2); B.D. O’Sullivan, T. Brosnan, C. Geaney (0-1 each).
R. O’Donoghue (0-5, 1 tpf, 2 frees); A. O’Shea (0-3); E. McLaughlin (1-0); F. Irwin, J. Carney, J. Flynn, P. Towey (0-1 each).
S. Ryan; P. Murphy, D. Casey, J. Foley; B. Ó Beaglaoich, M. Breen, G. White (c); J. O’Connor, B.D. O’Sullivan; G. O’Sullivan, P. Clifford, M. Burns; D. Clifford, P. Geaney, D. Geaney.
T. Brosnan for D. Geaney (46); S. O’Brien for B.D. O’Sullivan (47); T. O’Sullivan for B. Ó Beaglaoich, C. Geaney for M. Burns (both 54); K. Spillane for G. O’Sullivan (66); R. Murphy for P. Geaney (temp 70-ft).
C. Reape; S. Callinan, J. Coyne, D. McHugh; J. Flynn, D. McBrien, E. Hession; J. Carney, M. Ruane; S. Coen (c), E. McLaughlin, C. Reid; A. O’Shea, F. Irwin, R. O’Donoghue.
D. McHale for C. Reid (33); P. Towey for F. Irwin (42); D. Neary for J. Flynn (45); A. Phillips for C. Reape (54); D. O’Connor for S. Coen (63).
D. Coldrick (Meath).
