Kerry senior football team manager Jack O'Connor. Photo by Shauna Clinton/Sportsfile
Kerry manager Jack O'Connor was satisfied his team performed with the required intensity and energy in the second half against Derry at Croke Park on Sunday.
A flurry of late scores ensured Kerry prevailed by 0-15 to 0-10, setting up an All-Ireland SFC Semi-Final against Armagh.
O'Connor acknowledged that it was a demanding encounter against Derry. "A real tough battle," O'Connor reflected. "More or less what we expected.
"Probably wasn’t a game for the purists because it was defensive. But we were happy to play the game on whatever terms we came across. Derry set the terms early on. They got a rake of men back and made it tough for us to find space.
"I just thought we were playing around the periphery in the first half. In the second half, we made an agreement that we would go at the game aggressively.
"I thought we started to find pockets in the second half and just showed a bit more intensity and a bit more energy."
O'Connor praised the rich contribution made by Kerry's substitutes after the restart too. "Half-time is important." O'Connor says. "You’re up in the stand some of the time and you can see the shape of the game. I just thought we had two issues.
"First of all, we were allowing Derry come into our 45 without putting a finger on them. We needed to make contact higher up the pitch and stop leaving a good bit of space in front of (Shane) McGuigan.
"The second thing then was we weren’t testing their defence enough, getting runners in to occupy their defenders. That takes a lot of energy and it takes bravery as well because if you turn over the ball then, you have to get back 100 metres.
"The substitutions – Cillian Burke is a front foot player. I thought he made a big difference. He gave us a lot of energy. He asked big questions of the Derry defence.
"Him, Dylan Geaney, Killian Spillane – they in particular gave us good front foot energy in the second half."
