Date Published: 16-Mar-2011

Kerry 0-16

Galway 0-8

FRANK FARRAGHER

at Fitzgerald Stadium

Even in the days of plenty, Galway struggled desperately to reap any harvest return from the fields of Kerry, so last Sunday’s trip to Killarney in more straitened times barely carried a feather of expectation.

Alas, that’s the way things turned out at Fitzgerald Stadium in the Allianz National League tie as Kerry sauntered to a double scores victory over a Galway side not short of courage or honesty, but desperately lacking in quality and purpose.

It’s now four straight defeats out of four for Tomás Ó Flatharta as Galway seem destined to stay rooted at the bottom of the league table, and with All-Ireland champions Cork next on the list this coming weekend, there is little sign of any respite.

There were genuine concerns in the wake of the Mayo match that Galway could face annihilation in Killarney, but in fairness they were dogged and resilient even if it was strikingly obvious after the first 25 minutes that their cause was doomed.

Kerry don’t use up any spare fuel when they know that they’re going to be first past the chequered flag, and there was a notable easing of the foot on the throttle early in the second half when they had sailed into an 11-3 lead.

This coincided with a spurt of Galway enthusiasm that yielded four points without reply but the Kerry crowd of around 3,000 never had to breathe too heavily – they knew that the counter surge was always going to come and the ‘Gooch’ was on fire whenever the ball came his way.

The display of Colm Cooper was probably worth the admission money alone. He slithered his way around the Galway defence, jinking and turning into space before invariably kicking points with either his left or right foot. All done with perfect balance and poise.

Beside him, Kieran Donaghy was like a giant basket gathering up any loose balls that came his way, always willing to pick out a colleague in a better position and often that was the ‘Gooch’. Cooper – Kerry’s captain this year – ended up with eight points, five from play, to inflict most damage on the Galway defence.

Ironically his marker, Alan Burke got on a fair bit of ball and did everything humanly possible to try and limit Cooper’s influence, but on his day, the Dr Crokes player is virtually impossible to curtail.

Likewise, Colin Forde did a reasonably decent job in keeping tracks on Donaghy but the big man from Tralee is a handful for any defender – he is the type of player that Galway are crying out for . . . big, mobile, able to play football and not afraid to score either.

Galway played with the aid of the stiffish diagonal wind, and as in their three previous ties, Tomás ó Flatharta’s side started with a reasonable degree of zest, sharing six points with Kerry over the course of the first 13 minutes.

Cormac Bane (free), Eoin Concannon and Gary Sice – thundering upfield from the centre back position – all hit the target for Galway but yet by the time the interval whistle sounded, Kerry had stormed into an 8-3 lead.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.