The floodlights were deployed for the second half at Croke Park as the stars of the show failed to illuminate a sodden All-Ireland final. Instead it was a day for the lesser lights with Dublin achieving three consecutive Championship wins over Kerry for the first time in their history.
Kevin Heffernan’s great side of the 1970s couldn’t win three on the spin against the Kingdom, despite a team stuffed with legends like Jimmy Keaveney, Brian Mullins and Robbie Kelleher. However this historic, if attritional, triumph was built on the efforts of Dublin’s supporting cast – as tactics and conditions saw the expected heroes overshadowed by others.
Diarmuid Connolly began to pull the strings late on as the game was stretched by an increasingly desperate Kerry but, until then, the summer’s most in-form footballer had been restricted largely to defensive duties. The Vincent’s man finished scoreless for the first time this summer.
Paul Galvin was introduced on 57 minutes, his brother-in-law Éamonn Fitzmaurice recognising that his side needed to inject a bit of dog if they were going to find a way back into the game. The three-time All-Star failed to turn the tide of a game that saw the Kingdom’s match-winners pushed to the periphery.
Galvin did pump one ball long to fellow substitute Kieran Donaghy and from the resulting throw-ball, the Kerry captain put Killian Young through on goal but the defender, in his sixth All-Ireland final, took his eye off the ball. It was one of those days for the defending champions, but the lack of sparkle was not restricted to the losing side.
Before throw-in the Sunday Game panel were championing the case of Bernard Brogan, somehow suggesting the top scorer from play in this year’s Championship was arriving in Croke Park under the radar, despite his haul of 6-19.
It took almost half an hour for the Dublin corner-forward to make it to 6-20 – his opening score created more by accident than design. The bar of O’Neill’s soap eventually landing in Brogan’s hands after eluding the grasp of a scrum of players in front of the Kerry goal.
Until that point Brogan had endured a difficult afternoon as he failed to hold on to his first three possessions, stripped twice and penalised for handling on the ground.
Before opening his account in the 28th minute Brogan’s best moment had come following another error. The off-colour James O’Donoghue had just given Kerry their first lead of the game, on 17 minutes, when Dublin worked the ball forward to their talismanic inside forward.
Again Brogan failed to retain possession but gainfully battled and by immediately winning back the ball forced the foul on Jack McCaffrey that allowed Dublin to level the match.
Brogan the concert pianist was being asked to perform the role of piano lifter and he was not alone. As Dublin got on top in the second quarter Colm Cooper spent more time marking Philly McMahon than asking the Ballymun defender to defend, Paul Flynn’s vital first half touches nearly all came inside his own 14-yard line, while Connolly and Dean Rock also spent huge amounts of time in their own half.
The traffic went both ways and just as the Dublin attackers funnelled back, their defenders did some of the Leinster champions’ best offensive work. Until Flynn kicked two points in the final third, the Dublin defence had as many scores from play as their star-studded attack (two).
The second of those came in the dying moments of the first period, McMahon nailing arguably the score of the match from near the right touchline, despite the attentions of eight-time All-Star (forward) Cooper.
I suppose Philly McMahon will state that Donaghy moved his eye towards McMahon's finger.
— Edwin McGreal (@edmcgreal) September 20, 2015
If philly mcmahon was playing a different sport #cheeky
— Diarmuid O'Sullivan (@dsully3) September 20, 2015
Philly McMahon is a disgrace with that eye gouch. He got away with murder there with it
— Pádraig Amond (@padraigamond21) September 20, 2015
It says much about the nature of the lowest scoring final since Tyrone’s much-maligned 2003 win over Ulster rivals Armagh that their was more post-match discussion around McMahon’s alleged eye-gouge on Donaghy than his spectacular point.
It may not have been pretty but Jim Gavin’s panel hardly cared about aesthetics as they celebrated under lights with their saturated fans on the Hill.
Their third title in five years, and 25th in total, was proof positive that this Dublin team can win ugly. They are still the great entertainers, but today belongs to the piano lifters.
It was the concerted effort concerto.
