The 16th Man

In a day of two shock results, Down claimed perhaps the biggest shock of the season by beating 2009 All-Ireland Champions Kerry 1-16 to 1-10 at Croke Park.

The Mourne men had a dream start to the quarter-final, with Mark Poland scoring in the first minute.

Sloppy defending by Michael Quirke allowed Poland in to power his shot past Kerry ‘keeper Brendan Kealy.

Benny Coulter followed the goal with a point, putting Down 1-2 ahead within three minutes.

It took fourteen minutes for Kerry to register any reply to Down’s mounting scores, and it was a player who had kicked three wides who knocked a point over.

Captain Paul Sheehan atoned for his earlier misses with a well-taken point following a nice offload by Kieran Donaghy.

The Kingdom’s Colm Cooper went on to kick three points over without reply, and Down’s excellent start was almost forgotten by the twenty-second minute when Kerry had a goal ruled out.

Donnacha Walsh passed to Killian Young out to the right of the Down goal, and Young hammered the ball past Brendan McVeigh in goal.

The referee then controversially disallowed the goal for what he judged to be a hand-passed offload from Walsh to Young.

Down went until the twenty-sixth minute without scoring a single point, but Martin Walsh eventually put two on the board in quick succession.

The match ebbed and flowed with both sides enjoying spells of dominance in the first half.

Down gave the ball away to Kerry far too easily at times, while Kerry were guilty of slack defending when Down put them undeer pressure.

Mark Poland scored two more points in the thirty-second and thirty-third minutes to bring his tally to 1-02.

Half-time saw Down take a commanding 1-7 to 0-4 lead in to the dressing room.

Martin Clarke, formerly of AFL club Collingwood, got the first score of the second half with a fine point in the a minute after play resumed from close range.

Points from Colm Cooper and Paul Sheehan brought Kerry back to within four points of Down, putting the Kingdom very much in the ascendancy.
A turning point came soon after as Donnacha Walsh was given a second yellow card for oulling Mark Poland down by his neck.

The resulting numerical advantage meant that Kerry were placed firmly on the back foot as Down were allowed far more time on the ball.

Kerry did manage to knock points over through Colm Cooper and Paul Sheehan but the writing was firmly on the wall for the 2009 champions.

Conor Maginn, Benny Coulter and Ronan Murtagh all pointed for Down before Colm Cooper managed to reply with his own point for Kerry.

The Ulstermen had a nine point lead with three minutes remaining, and even a last-gasp flourish could not spare Kerry.

David Moran scored from the penalty with seconds remaining after Donaghy was fouled, but it was only a consolation goal and the Kingdom crashed out of the 2010 All-Ireland Championship.

Down: B McVeigh, D McCartan, D Gordon, D Rafferty, D Rooney, K McKernan, C Garvey, A Rodgers (0-2, 1 ‘45), K King, D Hughes, M Poland (1-2, 0-1f), P McComiskey (0-2), B Coulter (0-3), J Clarke, M Clarke (0-4, 2f, 1 ‘45).
Subs: C Maginn (0-1) for J Clarke, R Murtagh (0-1) for McComiskey, B McArdle for Rooney, P Fitzpatrick (0-1) for King, R Sexton for Poland

Kerry: B Kealy, M O Se, T Griffin, T O’Sullivan, A O’Mahony, M McCarthy, K Young, S Scanlon, M Quirke, Darran O’Sullivan, Declan O’Sullivan, D Walsh, C Cooper (0-7 (5f), K Donaghy, B Sheehan (0-3, 1f, 1 ‘45).
Subs: D Moran (1-0, pen) for Quirke, BJ Keane for Scanlon, K O’Leary for Darran O’Sullivan, A O’Connell for O’Mahony, D Bohan for Young, A Maher for Sheehan

Comments