Barry Dan O'Sullivan of Kerry is tackled by John Daly and Cathal Sweeney of Galway during the Allianz Football League Division 1 match between Kerry and Galway at Fitzgerald Stadium in Killarney, Kerry. Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile.
Allianz Football League Division 1
KERRY 0-15 GALWAY 1-10
By Paul Brennan at Fitzgerald Stadium
It is as they were for Kerry and Galway following this largely forgettable two-point win for Kerry over Galway in Killarney on Sunday afternoon.
Kerry won the game but miss out on reaching a League final they never really had a chance of reaching heading into this last round of games, and Galway maintain their Division One status despite losing, simply because their Connacht neighbours Roscommon lost to Derry.
Dublin doing the business against Tyrone ensured Kerry don’t need to worry about an Easter Sunday date with Derry, the day before they head for a training camp in Portugal.
Derry denying Roscommon the win they needed ensured Galway could get away with losing in Killarney and still stay up. All in all, then, both Jack O'Connor and his Galway counterpart Padraic Joyce were reasonably happy at the end.
The game's only goal came late in the action, coming from Galway substitute Tomo Culhane in the 68th goal, which was about the first exciting thing to happen in a game that will be quickly forgotten.
With Kerry leaving David and Paudie Clifford on the bench for this, that suggested how much Kerry were all out for the win. Not very, is the answer. And yet the Kingdom's two-point win somewhat flattered Galway.
The home side opened the scoring through midfielder Joe O’Connor, who went on to have an impressive game at midfield, in one of several positives for the Kingdom. How they coped with life without Jason Foley was another, even if they might wonder if Galway would have engineered that late goal had their injured full back been in situ.
Galway hit the front through two Rob Finnerty marks and a Cillian Ó Curraoin point from play, and by the 20-minute mark the visitors led 0-5 to 0-2, with Paul Conroy and Cathal Sweeney also on target.
The second quarter was all Kerry, with Killian Spillane, Stephen O’Brien and Sean O’Shea (free) bringing them back on level terms after 30 minutes, before further points from Darragh Roche, O’Shea and Spillane helped them to a 0-8 to 0-6 lead at the interval.
Kerry started the second half as they finished the first, with O’Shea (free), Armin Heinrich and Paul Geaney sending them into a 0-11 to 0-6 lead, with Galway’s interest in matters above in Celtic Park a little more pressing now.
With the crowd’s interest waning, Kerry sent on the Clifford brothers, with Paudie kicking a point with his first touch, and David converting a free towards the end.
It was all fairly inconsequential at that stage, with Kerry ahead 0-15 to 0-9, and thinking more about Portugal than Croke Park next week.
Kerry gifted Galway their goal in the 68th minute when Shane Ryan sold Gavin White short on a restart, and John Heaney turned over the ball for Finnerty to set up Culhane for the game’s only goal.
Conroy then pointed to cut the margin to two points but Kerry held on for the win. A win few will remember, same as it was a loss Galway won’t lose much sleep over.
Scorers for Kerry: K Spillane 0-4 (1f), S O’Shea 0-4 (2f), A Heinrich 0-1, J O’Connor 0-1, P Geaney 0-1, S O’Brien 0-1, D Roche 0-1, P Clifford 0-1, D Clifford 0-1 (f).
Scorers for Galway: T Culhane 1-0, J Heaney 0-2, R Finnerty 0-2 (2m), P Conroy 0-2 D McHugh 0-1, C Sweeney 0-1, C Ó Curraoin 0-1, J Daly 0-1
KERRY: Shane Ryan, Paul Murphy, Dylan Casey, Armin Heinrich, Seán O’Brien, Tadhg Morley, Gavin White, Barry ‘Dan’ O’Sullivan, Joe O’Connor, Adrian Spillane, Paul Geaney, Stephen O’Brien, Killian Spillane, Darragh Roche, Seán O’Shea.
Subs: Paudie Clifford for P Geaney (51), David Clifford for D Roche (51), Graham O’Sullivan for A Heinrich (51), Brian Ó Beaglaoich for P Murphy (53), Ronan Buckley for S O’Brien (58).
GALWAY: Connor Gleeson, Johnny McGrath, Seán Fitzgerald, Eoghan Kelly, Dylan McHugh, John Daly, Liam Silke, Paul Conroy, John Maher, Johnny Heaney, Cein Darcy, Cathan Sweeney, Rory Cunningham, Robert Finnerty, Cillian Ó Curraoin.
Subs: Daniel O’Flaherty for R Cunningham (34), Tomo Culhane for C Ó Curraoin (48), Patrick Egan for C Darcy (48), Jack Glynn for L Silke (56), Kieran Molley for D McHugh (58).
REFEREE: Seamus Mulhare (Laois)
