Tony Leen: Kerry couldn’t tell us whether Derry were running on empty

Tempo may be one of the most undervalued elements of field sport and if you don’t set it, the other team will. Milltown-Castlemaine’s Burke, all power, pace, and bold enough to go after Conor Glass, began to find the holes that Kerry had failed to interrogate for the majority of the piece. Now pockets of space and third-man runners in the Derry third began to appear, turning a 0-10 to 0-9 squeaker on 58 minutes into a no-stress five-point victory at Croke Park.

Going three points behind for the first time after 63 minutes, Derry finally began to look like an outfit that had spent the last three weeks staying in the championship. They may have been running on empty throughout for all we know - Kerry were too accommodating in their tempo-less play to let us in on the secret.

They now progress to a last-four tie with Kieran McGeeney, Kieran Donaghy and Armagh still searching for the Molotov cocktail to torch the road to the end of the month. Only those within know the degrees of pressure the Kerry players feel to make it to a final. And win it. Dublin’s demise on Saturday will have only ratcheted up expectations at home that the run to Sam Maguire is clearing. It’s patent nonsense of course, but it only increases the nervous tension amongst the playing group. There’s still a debate on how well they manage that.

It didn’t require a visit down to the media aftermath to appreciate the case for the defence. Jack O’Connor could justifiably point out that it’s six from six championship games, and that the terms of reference in this quarter-final were not of his or Kerry’s making. What he did concede was that the first-half efforts from Kerry, who came in fresh as paint after a two-week run-in, were harmless. It’s open to a good argument whether Derry’s ground rules were sufficiently examined by Kerry, who played keep ball while rarely looking interested in puncturing Derry’s defensive arc.

It was par golf from Kerry, never threatening the hole.

At the other end, Shane McGuigan’s well-advertised loop and score routine continued without undue molestation in the first period. Indeed, Derry were a foot away from the dream opening, when Gareth McKinless was found free inside the Kerry cover after 35 seconds of the game. Once McGuigan levelled at 0-3 each on 11 minutes, the sides went score for score to the break. Kerry had a 12th minute goal situation, but in keeping with the general malaise in their play, Paul Murphy’s fisted effort came back off the upright and attempts to finish to the net from Gavin White and Tadhg Morley were both blocked – the first one by Shane McGuigan, no less.

There’s still something not right with Kerry. A facile assessment would conclude they are playing with the handbrake up, but it’s no less true for that. O’Connor made his case afterwards that the game no longer allows street football (and no one’s suggesting it does), but it feels like the ingredients in Kerry’s mix are just not right.

They are a side that look afflicted and weighed down by data and statistics, the fear of a misplaced pass or a failure to find the target. Twenty four minutes in Dara Moynihan – or at least an instinctive Moynihan – had the moment to swing over a point into the Canal End, because at this altitude that’s all one gets, and one should need. Instead he eschewed the chance of a shot and turned away from goal to recycle. He was not alone in that respect. More renowned scorers than the Spa man also looked shy in pulling the trigger. Wides don’t look good on the stats graphic.

By the 40th minute, Derry had edged ahead by the power of stealth, McGuigan, naturally, putting them 0-7 to 0-6 in front. It felt like Kerry needed either a Derry goal or an assault on the person of David Clifford to stir them. The Fossa man got in a tangle with Chrissy McKaigue on 50 minutes (Clifford looking as culpable as his shadow), but while they were extricating themselves from one another, Paul Cassidy was levelling the game at the other end. The crowd of 47,406 stirred for the first time.

Finally, Kerry began to inject a bit of life into their afternoon, though this did coincide with the 52nd-minute introduction of Burke for Moynihan – and a few minutes later, Killian Spillane for Paul Geaney.

Tony Brosnan – Kerry’s second-best player on the day after Ó Beaglaoich and Paul Murphy – kicked a fine point under pressure, and was immediately replaced. There’s no criticism in that: his replacement Dylan Geaney would cut through intelligently to claim the penultimate score of the day. The point? Kerry got serious value from their last quarter replacements.

In fact when statisticians are colour-coding Kerry’s post-game review, there will be a lot of green in the final 15 minutes. Forcing Odhran Lynch to go longer down the stretch, Kerry pilfered a 64th-minute kick out that yielded a Sean O’Shea point. It was the only score from play for the Kenmare man, whose performance was a microcosm of the team’s: stuttering.

However three points to the good and, dare we suggest, emboldened, Burke won the free that allowed O’Shea put Kerry four to the good. The Derry talisman, Conor Glass, was reduced to piking a late centre on top of Kerry’s small square. Diarmuid O’Connor collected cleanly but the most revealing part of the moment was the reaction around him – Kerry players punching the air and high-fiving.

It appeared a celebration. It was probably relief.