Two sides who seemingly couldn’t miss in the first half, struggled to put the ball over the bar in the second half leading to a tense finale
Kerry 0-12
Meath 0-11
The semi-final hoodoo is over.
The five defeats in the last seven seasons can be consigned to the memory banks. Following one of the most dramatic, indeed epic, collisions with Meath on a sun-drenched Thurles afternoon, Kerry are back in an All-Ireland Under 20 football championship final.
Against excellent Leinster champions, on a day where both sides seemingly couldn’t miss in the first half, and then could barely score on the resumption, the Kingdom kept their collective nerve in a fascinating final quarter, as two evenly-matched outfits attempted to go blow-for-blow.
However, with the tension rising to fever pitch, and the shooting radar going badly awry at both ends of the pitch, the scene was set for the mother-of-all heart-stopping finales. No matter how hard they persevered, nobody could throw the knock-out punch, with energy levels sapped.
In the heel of the hunt, substitute Paddy Lane’s 47th minute point turned out to be the eventual difference between the sides, putting Kerry two clear, 0-12 to 0-10, at that juncture. From there to the finish, only a Jamie Murphy free for the Royals (58th minute) was recorded.
That doesn’t tell half of the story. Tomás Kennedy, foiled by a brilliant save by Meath net-minder Oisín McDermott, and Lane, stopped by a diving block by full-back Liam Kelly, could have put the exhilarating affair out of the Royals’ reach, if they had converted two great goal chances.
Following on from Luke Crowley blazing over the bar, with only the ‘keeper to beat, at an earlier stage in the second half, Kerry would have had significant regrets if they had lost. Unfortunately, it was Cathal Ó Bric’s squad who ended up kicking themselves by the conclusion.
As the second half passages of squander-mania unfolded, Meath ended up with eight wides to Kerry’s seven, but were left devastated by the opportunities wasted to force a late equaliser. Substitute Conor McWeeney, in particular, just didn’t have luck on his side on this occasion.
The Meath number 21 thought he had levelled matters in the 59th minute, but his punched effort came back off the combination of post and crossbar. Then, through again, with an easy point at his mercy, he opted to try and set up Rian McConnell for a green flag, but that didn’t go to plan either.
Right at the death, four minutes into injury-time, it was left to full-back Kelly to try his hand at forcing a period of extra-time, which nobody in the Semple Stadium cauldron would have quibbled with, but his long-range shot drifted, agonisingly, wide of the far post.
While there didn’t deserve to be a loser after such a sustained 50/50 collision course between two superbly-matched and well-prepared sides, Kerry kept their composure in the dying moments to pass the finishing post, with their nose just in front, of an equally promising young colt.
The opening 30 minutes was full of tit-for-tat, attacking football of high quality, with no quarter asked or given. Both sides enjoyed periods of dominance, but it was Tomás Ó Sé’s charges who held the upper hand by the bare minimum at the short whistle, 0-8 to 0-7.
With four unanswered points after the lion-hearted Eddie Healy had opened the scoring within 25 seconds, Meath moved two points clear in a high-scoring first quarter, 0-6 to 0-4, with star full-forward Jamie Murphy raising a brace of impressive white flags.
When all is said and done, the shadowing job done on the Royals’ attacker by Glenflesk defender Cian Lynch turned out to be pivotal to the eventual outcome. In the absence of injured full-back Dara O’Callaghan, Lynch stuck like a leech to the Royals’ number 14.
There were heroes all over the pitch for the winners. Daniel Kirby didn’t allow the free-scoring wing-back Éamonn Armstrong to ever show the form that saw him register three goals in the last three games, while Darragh O’Connor was an absolute colossus at the heart of the Kingdom rearguard.
Healy, and his midfield partner, and captain Rob Stack, played their hearts out against the formidable Meath duo of Jack Kinlough and Charlie O’Connor, while the likes of Cormac Dillon, the indefatigable Crowley, and Kennedy, all had their moments of influence up front.
Unsurprisingly, the scoring ratio dropped considerably at the outset of the second half. Aidan Crowley supplied the pass for his namesake, Luke, to blast over, rather under, the Meath crossbar in the 37th minute, which was a definite sign of the so-near, so-far attacking play which was to follow.
By the end of the third quarter, it was the Munster kingpins, who still maintained their slender lead, 0-11 to 0-10, with the game well and truly in the melting pot, as it basically had been since the very first shrill blast of Thomas Murphy’s whistle. There was just no real separating the protagonists.
Lane, whose impact off the bench, along with the other Kingdom replacements, in giving Kerry fresh legs when most needed, was crucial, nailed a point with his very first touch. Little did the Austin Stacks youngster realise that would be the match-winner of a confrontation for the ages.
Kerry have defied the odds. Greater than the sum of their parts they most certainly are. One more hurdle to come next week. We’ll let them enjoy this one first.
KERRY: Michael Tansley (Austin Stacks); Gearoid Evans (Keel), Cian Lynch (Glenflesk), Maidhcí Lynch (Dr Crokes); Charlie Keating (Dr Crokes), Darragh O’Connor (Kenmare Shamrocks), Ryan Diggin (Laune Rangers) 0-1; Rob Stack (Beale), Eddie Healy (Listowel Emmets) 0-2; Odhran Ferris (Ardfert), Luke Crowley (Glenflesk) 0-2, Daniel Kirby (Austin Stacks) 0-1; Cormac Dillon (Duagh) 0-4 (0-2fs), Tomás Kennedy (Kerins O’Rahillys) 0-1, Aidan Crowley (Templenoe) Subs: Adam Segal (Ballyduff) for Diggin (35), Cathal Brosnan (Currow) for Ferris (43), Fionn Murphy (Rathmore) for Evans (44), Paddy Lane (Austin Stacks) 0-1 for A Crowley (46), Liam Evans (Keel) for Kirby (56).
MEATH: Oisín McDermott; Conor Ennis, Liam Kelly, Seán O’Hare; Eamonn Armstrong, John O’Regan 0-1, Killian Smyth; Jack Kinlough 0-1, Charlie O’Connor 0-1; Shaun Leonard 0-1, Rian Stafford, Conor Duke; Hughie Corcoran 0-2 (0-1f), Jamie Murphy 0-5 (0-2fs), Rian McConnell Subs: Conor McWeeney for Leonard (ht), Sean Emmanuel for Stafford (43), Tadhg Martin for O’Connor (43), Brian O’Halloran for Smyth (46), John Harkin for Corcoran (55)
REFEREE: Thomas Murphy (Galway)
