Electric Ireland All-Ireland MFC Semi-Final

KERRY 2-26 KILDARE 0-10

By John Harrington at Croke Park.

The conveyor belt of young talent in Kerry football is turning merrily.

Their minors put on a show in Croke Park in this All-Ireland minor semi-final as they swept Kildare aside with ease.

Their kick-passing, support-play, and score-taking was a joy to watch and the Lilywhites simply couldn’t cope with the finishing power of players like David Clifford and David Shaw.

Clifford finished the match with six points from play, as he showed just why he’s regarded as the outstanding young talent in the Kingdom.

He’s powerfully built, tremendously skilful, and can kick just as accurately off both feet.

He and Shaw have an instinctive understanding in that Kerry full-forward line that makes them a frightening proposition for opposition full-back lines to cope with.

Kerry came into the game with a big billing, but in the early stages of the match at least Kildare weren’t overawed by the challenge facing them.

They took the game to Kerry and were 0-4 to 0-2 ahead by the eleventh minute. Jimmy Hyland had impressed for the Lilywhites all year and was to the fore again in early stages of this game as he opened the scoring with a classy left-footed point on the run and then won a free that he knocked over himself.

Kerry were starting to assert themselves though and looked really threatening whenever the ball made its way into their inside forward line where David Clifford and David Shaw had the beating of their man.

That started to happen more and more when the Kingdom started to dominate possession in the middle third, and Clifford in particular was proving hot to handle for the Lilywhite defence.

He kicked three quality points in the first half, two of his right foot and one off his left, the Fossa teenager showing just why he’s regarded as the outstanding young talent in Kerry.

Shaw was getting in on the act as well with two points from play, as Kerry moved into a 0-8 to 0-5 lead by the 24th minute.

Kildare rallied briefly as Paddy Woodgate and Cian Costigan kicked two lovely scores, but Kerry turned the screw just before the break as three unanswered points saw them take a 0-11 to 0-7 lead into the dressing-room.

They then blitzed Kildare in the first nine minutes of the second-half as they scored 1-7 with just a single point in reply.

Dara Moynihan set the tempo with two well-taken points in as many minutes, and any prospect of a Kildare comeback was dead and buried when Shaw scored the first goal of the match.

It was created by Clifford who fielded the ball superbly and then immediately hand-passed to his onrushing team-mate who finished the ball calmly and clinically to the bottom corner.

The stuffing was completely knocked out of Kildare now, and the rest of the match was simply an exercise in how much Kerry would score and how many of their players would get on the scoresheet.

In the end, an impressive 12 of them did, two of them substitutes, as the closing minutes of the match played out like an exhibition game.

There was one final exclamation mark from the Kingdom as Diarmuid O’Connor scored a fine goal in the last play of the game.

Kerry now progress to the All-Ireland Final against Galway where they will bid to win a third title in a row. If they can reproduce the quality they showed here, they’ll  be hard to stop.

**Scorers for Kerry: **David Clifford 0-8 (2f), David Shaw 1-3, Seán Ó’Shea 0-5 (2f), Diarmuid O’Connor 1-1, Dara Moynihan 0-2, Niall Collins 0-1, Graham O’Sullivan 0-1, Michael Potts 0-1, Mícheál Foley 0-1, Mike Breen 0-1, Ferdia O’Brien 0-1, Cormac Linnane 0-1

**Scorers for Kildare: **Ciarán Kelly 0-3 (2f), Jimmy Hyland 0-2 (1f), Cian Costigan 0-1, Paddy Woodgate 0-1, Jack Robinson 0-1, Kevin Foley 0-1, Danny O’Sullivan 0-1.

**Kerry: **Billy Courtney; David Naughton, Niall Collins, Graham O’Sullivan; Michael Potts, Daniel O’Brien, Micheál Foley; Mike Breen, Mark Ryan; Dara Moynihan, Seán O’Shea, Diarmuid O’Connor; David Clifford, David Shaw, Bryan Sweeney. **Subs: **Cormac Linnane for Dara Moynihan (44), Caolim Teahan for Bryan Sweeney (50), Ferdia O’Brien for David Shaw (55), Stefan Okunbar for Mark Ryan (55), Kieran Dwyer for NiallCollins (60), Seán Ó Lúing for Billy Courtney, (60)

**Kildare: **Luke Mullins; John O’Toole, Mark Dempsey, Danny O’Sullivan; Tony Archbold, Jason Gibbons, Sam Doran; David Marnell, Aaron Masterson; Jack Robinson, Paddy Woodgate, Cian Costigan; Ciarán Kelly, Brian McLoughlin, Jimmy Hyland. **Subs: **Kevin Foley for Paddy Woodgate (44), Mark Barrett for Tony Archbold (44), Sean Kavanagh for Brian McLoughlin (40), David Kelly for Cian Costigan (40), James Burke for David Marnell (46), Niall Murphy for Jack Robinson (53)

**Ref: **Martin McNally (Monaghan)