Kerry endured a late Dublin fightback to claim their first league win over them in Croke Park in nine years.<\/p>\n
Their second victory of their Division 1 campaign was obvious from a long way out. Dublin were at best workmanlike and Kerry should have put them to the sword far earlier than they did.<\/p>\n
Those in the 25,027 crowd who were in for the Dublin-Wexford Division 1B were treated to entertainment. Those who only caught this were treated to little until the conclusion.<\/p>\n
The humdrum nature of the first half continued after the interval. Con O\u2019Callaghan didn\u2019t return for it after picking up an injury later confirmed as a hamstring issue. He was missed by a Dublin side who made little penetration thereafter.<\/p>\n
The margin was four points in Kerry\u2019s favour in the 49th minute when Keith Evans intercepted a short Evan Comerford kick-out. He supplied Paudie Clifford who moved the ball onto Tony Brosnan but he skewed his shot wide.<\/p>\n
David Clifford was finding Se\u00e1n MacMahon a sticky marker but brother Paudie, making his seasonal bow, was involved in plenty and stuck over a point in the 54th minute to restore Kerry\u2019s four-point lead.<\/p>\n
Brosnan did find the net in the 56th minute. On the left wing, Peadar \u00d3 Cofaigh-Byrne was outnumbered for a Dublin kick-out and Kerry advanced swiftly. David Clifford offloaded to Brosnan and he placed it perfectly to put his side seven points up.<\/p>\n
Tom O\u2019Sullivan also returned to the fold following his exploits with Dingle and added his name to the scoring list in the 61st minute.<\/p>\n
Kerry threatened to be dragged into yet another dramatic finale when Peadar \u00d3 Cofaigh blasted a 65th minute goal to follow a Se\u00e1n Bugler two-pointer.<\/p>\n
The gap was whittled down to three but up stepped O\u2019Sullivan again as he did for Dingle at the Hill 16 last month to fire over a second point. A Se\u00e1n O\u2019Shea two-pointer in the final minute sealed the victory.<\/p>\n
Kerry led 0-9 to 0-6 at the break although they had been six points ahead in the 25th minute. Their attacks were made deliberate by a Dublin side getting bodies behind the ball. From the throw-in, Kerry retained the ball for two minutes and 12 seconds before David Clifford\u2019s fisted point attempt struck the crossbar.<\/p>\n
Se\u00e1n O\u2019Shea got Kerry up and running with a two-pointer in the fourth minute and Tadhg Morley sent over a one-point version two minutes later.<\/p>\n
Paddy Small had a shot smothered by Shane Murphy in the eighth minute. The resultant 45 was converted by O\u2019Callaghan and it was followed by a Ross McGarry point.<\/p>\n
Kerry\u2019s kick-outs were the area for improvement in the first half but a one-point lead transformed into five in less than three minutes. Clifford punted over a two-point strike in the 14th minute and Tony Brosnan and Graham O\u2019Sullivan followed it with points.<\/p>\n
The O\u2019Sullivan score was a nicely-worked one in which the Dromid Pearses man sprinted from the sideline to take receipt of a Joe O\u2019Connor pass before sliding the ball over the bar.<\/p>\n
Some of Dublin\u2019s positional switches were striking \u2013 Niall Scully was spending plenty of time in the half-back line and Ciar\u00e1n Kilkenny began at the edge of the square.<\/p>\n
He won a free against Dylan Casey in the 19th minute that O\u2019Callaghan sent over but Kerry responded with a brace of point. Cillian Trant\u2019s came courtesy of a sharp attack. Clifford broke a high ball down, Keith Evans reacted quickly and fed Trant.<\/p>\n
Clifford\u2019s 25th minute stretched the visitors\u2019s advantage to six prior to Kilkenny curling over Dublin\u2019s first two-pointer. At the other end, O\u2019Shea appeared to have cancelled it out but HawkEye deemed it missed its target. After 31 minutes, Kerry had recorded their first wide.<\/p>\n
Kerry had a slight sniff of a goal seconds later but the hand-pass to Evan Looney broke down. Looney was injured in the process and didn\u2019t return for the second half. O\u2019Callaghan\u2019s 33rd minute free after O\u2019Connor fouled Lorcan O\u2019Dell was the last score of an underwhelming half.<\/p>\n
Before the end of it, Clifford\u2019s marker Nathan Doran was booked and subsequently benched a minute before half-time. Seconds after his introduction, his replacement MacMahon was then yellow carded for dunting Clifford, who himself had entered referee Paddy Neilan\u2019s book for fouling Eoin Murchan off the ball.<\/p>\n
As captain, O\u2019Callaghan ran from the Kerry half of the field to remonstrate with Neilan as he was about to penalise MacMahon but the match official wasn\u2019t for turning.<\/p>\n
\n Scorers for Dublin: C. O\u2019Callaghan (0-3, 2 frees, 1 45); P. \u00d3 Cofaigh-Byrne (1-0); C. Kilkenny, S. Bugler (0-2, 1 tp each); R McGarry, P. Small, N. Scully (0-1 each).<\/p>\n
\n Scorers for Kerry: T. Brosnan (1-2); D. Clifford (1tp, 1 free), S. O\u2019Shea (2 tps) (0-4 each); T. O\u2019Sullivan (0-2); T. Morley, G. O\u2019Sulllivan, C. Trant, P. Clifford (0-1 each).<\/p>\n
\n DUBLIN: E. Comerford; D, Byrne, N. Doran, E. Murchan; N. Scully, B. Howard, A. Gavin; P. \u00d3 Cofaigh-Byrne, C. McMorrow; S. Bugler, C. O\u2019Callaghan (c), R. McGarry; P. Small, C. Kilkenny, L. O\u2019Dell.<\/p>\n
\n Subs for Dublin: S. MacMahon for N. Doran (34); J. Quigley for C. O\u2019Callaghan (blood, h-t to f-t); L. Breathnach for L. O\u2019Dell (43); K. McGinnis for R. McGarry (45); C Tyrrell for A. Gavin (62); L. Smith for M. O\u2019Shea (63).<\/p>\n
\n KERRY: S. Murphy; E. Looney, J. Foley, D. Casey; G. O\u2019Sullivan, T. Morley, A. Heinrich; J. O\u2019Connor, M. O\u2019Shea; C. Trant, S. O\u2019Shea (c), M. Burns; K. Evans, D. Clifford, T. Brosnan.<\/p>\n
\n Subs for Kerry: P. Murphy for E. Looney (inj), P. Clifford for M. Burns (both h-t); T. O\u2019Sullivan for G. O\u2019Sullivan, D. O\u2019Sullivan for C. Trant (both 54).<\/p>\n
\n Referee: P. Neilan (Roscommon).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kerry endured a late Dublin fightback to claim their first league win over them in Croke Park in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":310744,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1965,1128,42,43,850,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-310743","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-hurling","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-headlines","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-sport","13":"tag-top-news","14":"tag-top-stories","15":"tag-topnews","16":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310743","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=310743"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310743\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/310744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=310743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=310743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=310743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}