IT WAS NOT a moment of scoring glory like one of David Clifford’s sweetly-struck first-half points, the brilliant drilled finish to the net from Cormac Costello in the second half or above all the magnificent injury-time kick from Seán O’Shea that settled the contest.
But with 54 minutes on the clock it was a passage of play that encapsulated one of the themes running through the heart of yesterday’s meeting of Kerry and Dublin.
Kerry, in possession of a two-point lead, attacked the Hill 16 goal, profiting from a long raking Shane Ryan kickout that had spied Paudie Clifford in space. The Fossa man launched the move as Kerry sought to push clear on the scoreboard.
And then, at a stage when Dublin’s challenge looked to be flagging, Kerry were met with a show of resistance.
James McCarthy stood up as Adrian Spillane reached the 20-yard line, Spillane bouncing off the Ballymun Kickhams man and the ball spilled loose. Diarmuid O’Connor tried to get to the breaking ball but McCarthy was ahead of him as he prodded it away. Killian Spillane was next to attempt to win it back for Kerry near the Cusack Stand but again it was McCarthy who raced in first, lunged in and managed to steer it up the wing to team-mate Seán Bugler.
It was an extraordinary show of determination and summed up the spirit that underpinned Dublin’s second-half revival. The flow of the game for long stages pointed to a Kerry win, and a comfortable one at that with the control they exerted in the first half, yet it all boiled down to a miraculous shot from distance by O’Shea to land the spoils.
The Dublin team that has mowed down all before them over the last decade is gone, stripped of several parts that made them look so formidable.
They still have a couple of survivors, Michael Fitzsimons and Brian Fenton kept pushing on in that second half, Ciaran Killkenny was their best attacker, particularly pulling the strings in that period.
Yet it was the defiance of McCarthy that sent them hurtling into contention in those closing stages. Into the 62nd minute of play, Kerry were ahead by three and Dublin hadn’t scored in 15 minutes when the ball was worked out to the right wing as McCarthy moved onto it. From just outside the 20-yard line he fired a shot up into the air as Killian Spillane flung himself at the ball. The angle was judged perfectly, McCarthy let out a roar as he ran out the field and then rose from the resultant kickout to fiercely punch it down to Cormac Costello. A quick transfer into Kilkenny and he pointed to shave the gap to one.
The input didn’t secure ultimate success. It was a day for O’Shea and the Clifford brothers to steer their team to a landmark win.
They were the stars of the show but when Marc Ó Sé was pressed for his man-of-the-match choice on The42 GAA Weekly podcast today, he had to single out Dublin’s leader in the bunch of contenders.
“I’ll tell you James McCarthy for me goes very close. Had some shift. There was one stage where Kerry were going through the middle and sniffing a goal. McCarthy puts his body on the line and just comes at it again. I thought he was absolutely massive.”
Last week the pre-match countdown was dominated by the health checks over Con O’Callaghan and David Clifford. Con didn’t make the start line, Clifford did.
Yet the third injury doubt, who had missed the quarter-final stage, was almost overlooked as a result of the attention on the attacking maestros. McCarthy’s availability in the squad was a boost to Dublin, the announcement before throw-in that he was starting a confirmation that Dublin’s cause would be strengthened.
It wasn’t all plain sailing for him at the start. He got slightly caught with his positioning four minutes in and a gap opened up on the endline for O’Shea to charge into before rolling a shot to the net. Minutes later McCarthy himself was powering in from the right wing at the opposite end but when he booted in a shot, Shane Ryan was able to deny him the goal he sought.
Yet from there McCarthy’s influence grew inexorably with his second-half display a towering one.
“James McCarthy, I don’t know what else you can say about the man,” remarked Paul Flynn, his old Dublin team-mate on today’s Second Captains podcast.
“He was probably stuck together with glue just to get out on that pitch and then he puts in a shift that like…I didn’t even think he still had that in him.
“Not the point, it was the tackles, it was the contact. Kicking a point, sprinting back 50 yards and then winning the punch back from the kickout. He just dominated every player that came near him. A pure warrior of the game.”
There was a sense of awe in Flynn’s tone as he described McCarthy’s performance. It is 12 years since McCarthy made his Dublin senior debut and 11 years since he was part of their famous Sam Maguire breakthrough. He has been integral to all eight of Dublin’s All-Ireland triumphs in that time, four All-Star awards illustrating his personal contribution to their dominance.
There aren’t as many of his contemporaries still knocking around now, Fitzsimons the only other one left from the 2011 team. Dublin have slipped from the dominant position they occupied but McCarthy was still powering them forward yesterday as they tried to dig out a win.
His performance left Dessie Farrell in no doubt about how he remains a critical component.
“Some of that crew have a lot of miles on the clock and have given the most immense service to Dublin football. But I’d be hoping for Dublin football that they, James in particular stays around because the group dynamic has changed demonstrably over the, even the last year, but definitely the last number of years.
“A lot of young players, new players, many of them got game time today. Those players need the likes of James McCarthy and the Jonny Coopers and those lads to stay around and lead the way, because they follow brilliantly, to be fair to those young lads. And having that type of leadership at the helm is really important. So I’d be hoping that that crew have more to give.”
McCarthy turns 33 next March, in the Dublin camp they will hope he’s in the midst of a league campaign when that milestone occurs.
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