The Kerry semi-final had absolutely everything.
Missed penalties, red cards, wonder-scores, heroes and villains. It’s a good thing then, that East Kerry and Dingle will put on another show next weekend after they couldn’t be separated this time around.
A late, great Tom O’Sullivan point levelled it up for Dingle at the death, a replay the least they deserved.
Got a draw despite the referee, mighty courage shown by our lads!
— CLG Daingean Uà Chúis (@DingleGAA) October 14, 2018
It was a month to the day when East Kerry wiped the floor with Dingle in their group game meeting in the Kerry SFC. The district outfit put 6-15 past past the Gaeltacht men in a 17 point hammering.
So it was hardly surprising then that the bookies had the men of the east as overwhelming favourites to do the business again going into this last four clash.
They’d brought that explosive form to the quarter finals too, with the Clifford brothers David and Paudie starring as they put four goals past south Kerry a fortnight ago.
Dingle had their own ideas, however.
Riled up by that loss and having been written off by many going down to Austin Stack Park, they had plenty of reason to be fired up coming into this one and they began like a side with a point to prove down in Tralee.
Mikey Geaney scored from play in the first minute of the game and they were off. The sides traded blows in the first half with Paul Geaney frees and Barry O’Sullivan from play firing them into a 0-5 0-3 lead after 15 minutes of the action.
It was on the quarter hour mark when referee Sean Joy awarded a penalty to East Kerry, a decision the Dingle Twitter account moderator felt was extremely soft.
Absolutely disgraceful decision by referee to award East Kerry a penalty
— CLG Daingean Uà Chúis (@DingleGAA) October 14, 2018
With Clifford scuffing his penalty wide, this game exploded into life.
A David Clifford missed penalty for East Kerry. They trail 0-5 to 0-3 after 19 mins to Dingle #GAA pic.twitter.com/aEFo8fOrz2
— Donal Barry (@BarryDonal) October 14, 2018
That man Clifford was in the thick of it all day long. He responded well to that penalty miss with a point from play before his elbow sparked a melee that would eventually see a Dingle man red carded.
A David Clifford elbow off the ball after he scores starts a full schmoozle, bet the referee does nothing
— CLG Daingean Uà Chúis (@DingleGAA) October 14, 2018
Both sides were down to 14 men before the break with a Paul Devane red card leaving this game nicely poised at the break, Dingle leading by 0-8 to 0-4 with the teams in the dressing room.
Dingle kept it up into the second, with a Tom O’Sullivan goal after 45 minutes blasting them into a six point, 1-10 to 1-07 lead with only 15 minutes left to play.
Come the hour, come the man. David Clifford didn’t even let his East Kerry teammates drop the head after that goal as he responded with a green flag of his own literally seconds later.
The momentum was with East Kerry now. David Clifford was coming to his milk.
The Fossa club man did it again less than five minutes later as his second goal of the day tied the scores with eight minutes of normal time remaining.
It was turning into a bit of a shootout between two thirds of the Kerry full forward line, with Geaney pointing and Clifford again responding for the district side.
It looked for all the world as if East Kerry had taken one giant step closer to their first Bishop Moynihan Cup in 18 years as they led with the clock striking 67, but then up stepped that man Tom O’Sullivan.
Bring on the replay.
