David Clifford shines as Kerry book All-Ireland final place by beating Tyrone

They gave them a rigorous pat down for 35 minutes here, a bit of a stretch before the All-Ireland final that could be O’Connor’s last game in management. Nothing more, nothing less.

The form had it that Kerry’s attack was more or less unstoppable. The evidence backed up the theory. Were they to reproduce that claustrophobic press they crushed Armagh with, who conceivably could live with them?

That didn’t transpire here. Kerry were good. They dominated the quarter and O'Connor called it "a more rounded performance" than the Armagh win. But Tyrone more or less fell apart, their attacking phases for a long period of the second half a series of mini tragedies.

In the last act of the game, Mattie Donnelly floated a shot well wide from behind the two-point arc after the hooter sounded. It was fitting.

When Seánie O’Donnell cut back inside to score his second point of the game in the 64th minute, it was Tyrone’s first score in 22 minutes. In that time, they had sprayed the ball creatively into the sky; to the left and right of the posts at the Canal End, but never over it.

Kerry just kept ticking along. A game that seemed fraught with peril became an exercise in keeping their opponents from scoring a goal and generally, at arm’s length.

The first half never hinted at such a weird finale. In the 20th minute, Kerry’s main players took to cajoling their supporters. Whether it was a pre-meditated thing or not, Kerry looked to the stands for energy.

First David Clifford tried the defibrillator pads after sailing a glorious two-pointer over and then Seán O’Shea gave it the full Munster hurling double fist pump after Kerry had been denied a walk-in goal by Niall Morgan.

By then, the game had yet to decide which template it would follow. It wasn’t looking like a celebration of Kerry football neither had it the traits of a Tyrone ambush either.

Attempting to dominate the energy in the stadium might have been Kerry’s way of manifesting the former.

The Kerry crowd are a discerning type, though. They are more inclined to respond to what they see rather than pre-empt it. And Kerry’s shooting was curiously off. It lacked calibration.

By the 27th minute, when David Clifford skewed a ball violently off the outside of his left foot with a goal on, Kerry had scored 0-7. They had had the aid of a significant and direct wind, yet three times they dropped shots short to Niall Morgan and twice they hit an upright.

Tyrone, meanwhile, were dominating the kick outs. They had punchy forwards with the ability to create scoring chances from one-on-one situations. These are the conditions for a nervy Kerry crowd.

You could feel their angst. It almost created a buzzing noise in Croke Park. And then, suddenly, you felt it lift. David Clifford. Who else?

Typically, it was as much for how he did it as what he did. Taking a pass on a loop, he surged clear of two Tyrone defenders. Morgan was sharp off his line and on Clifford foot but he dummied a shot, taking the Tyrone goalkeeper out of the play and

At half-time, Kerry led by three. That bit was fair. But worryingly for them, on every other metric, Tyrone were ahead.

Malachy O’Rourke’s side had won a greater percentage of the kick outs. They had created a higher, albeit only slightly, number of scoring chances: 14 to 13. They had turned the ball over less frequently.

A repeat of those numbers in the second half, with the redrawn shooting zone due to the wind, gave them at least a puncher’s chance.

The big factor, inevitably, was Clifford.

Pádraig Hampsey had embraced the task of marking Clifford, slowing down his initial movements, but by the end of the half, was just about hanging on the back of the Kerry phenom’s jersey. Literally.

The first two attacks of the second half gave us a false steer. First Darragh Canavan kicked a two pointer to bring Tyrone back to within one. Then a long ball into Clifford bounced off his face and away from any harm.

But Tyrone’s curious inability to get men behind the ball was presenting Kerry with chances for goal.

By the 50th minute, it was slipping away from Tyrone. Joe O’Connor had steamed through for two points. Four Tyrone attacks had come and gone without a score.

When Paudie Clifford zoomed through to kick his second point, it marked Kerry’s fifth on the spin and a six-point lead. Tyrone’s shooting was catastrophic in that part of the game.

They kicked just four points in the first 20 minutes of the second half. Their slow build up play allowed Kerry to gather en masse around the two-point arc.

It was all very underwhelming. The big Kerry powerplay never came. They didn’t need it.

Afterwards, O'Connor bemoaned Kerry's inability to polish off a spate of goal chances, having gone to the bother of engineering them. If they manage to iron out that kink, O'Connor's seventh All-Ireland final should bring the sweetest of endings.

Scorers – Kerry: D Clifford 1-9 (4f, 1 2p), S O’Shea (2f) 0-3 each, K Spillane, J O’Connor, P Clifford 0-2 each, G O’Sullivan, D Geaney 0-1 each. Tyrone: D Canavan 0-7 (2f, 1 2p), C Daly, M Donnelly, S O’Donnell, R Canavan (2p) 0-2 each, K McGeary, E McElholm 0-1 each.

Kerry: S Ryan; P Murphy, J Foley, D Casey; B Ó Beaglaoich, M Breen, G White; S O’Brien, J O’Connor; M O’Shea, S O’Shea, G O’Sullivan; D Clifford, D Geaney, P Clifford. Subs: K Spillane for Geaney (48), E Looney for Casey (58), T Morley for Breen (62), M Burns for O’Brien (62), T Brosnan for P Clifford (65)

Tyrone: N Morgan; C Quinn, P Hampsey, N Devlin; P Teague, B McDonnell, K McGeary; B Kennedy, C Kilpatrick; S O’Donnell, M Donnelly, C Daly; E McElholm, D Canavan, D McCurry. Subs: M McKiernan for McDonnell (48), M Bradley for McCurry (48), P Harte for Daly (52), M O’Neill for O’Donnell (67)

Referee: J McQuillan (Cavan)