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Updated/ Saturday, 24 Oct 2020 16:29
Sean O’Shea strikes the back of the internet for Kerry.
As happy 21 st celebrations go, this was as subtle and understated as one might imagine as Kerry protected the Allianz National League title, beating Donegal 2-18 to 0-10 at Austin Stack Park in Tralee.
Kerry rarely get overly excited about winning National League titles but, oddly enough, in the lack of advocates one noticed that this suggested plenty to the Kerry gamers and management.
Having lost the League last– and then the All-Ireland last– in 2015, Kerry couldn’t actually manage to lose a game and a title that was theirs for the taking.
After doing the tough part the previous weekend by winning away to Monaghan, Kerry were expected to beat a Donegal group coming south with little to bet, and they properly did.
A fortnight out from a Championship journey to Cork, Kerry wouldn’t have actually wanted to lose any momentum, and they looked purposeful and sharp this afternoon, albeit versus an understrength Donegal side that had other things on their mind.
Their focus remains very much on an Ulster Championship scrap with Tyrone next week, and that showed in Donegal’s team choice and it revealed out on the field.
They left Michael Murphy, Ryan McHugh, Neil McGee and others at home, so manager Declan Bonner won’t lose sleep over a 14- point defeat away to Kerry, however he will need to get the full band back together today and singing off the same page for Tyrone.
Kerry, on the other hand, will luckily take a League title and move on.
In the lack of spectators, the events were even more soft than they would usually be, however in these Covid times silverware is still flatware, and supervisor Peter Keane will not sniff at winning his first national title as senior team boss.
It took Kerry up until the first water break to settle into any sort of rhythm, however it stated much for their application and mindset that they outscored Donegal by 2-04 to 0-01 in the 10 minutes they were down to 14 males. Jason Foley was black carded in the 15 th minute as Kerry tracked 0-02 to 0-03, but when he returned his group were 2-06 to 0-01 ahead.
Straight after the water break Kerry flooded forward with protector Tom O’Sullivan setting up Sean O’Shea for a cool goal from close range, and after O’Sullivan scored a point, Gavin White cruised previous 3 deals with to place the ball past Shaun Patton to put Kerry six clear.
Tony Brosnan came to life with 3 points in as many minutes in the 2nd quarter, as Donegal had a hard time to get any real
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