For 35 minutes Kerry must have been having nightmares about 2003, 2005 and 2008. It was all about to happen again. Their All-Ireland hopes and dreams torpedoed by the Red Hand.
That was until Kerry came out early for the second half and decided to reassert their dominance over Tyrone.
“When the fight was really brought to Tyrone they surrendered way too easily for me. That’s the most alarming thing for me,” Anthony Moyles said on OTB AM on Monday morning.
It wasn’t supposed to go this way for Mickey Harte and his team who were seeking to make it back to the All-Ireland final after last year’s disappointment against champions Dublin.
And in many ways, this game played out similarly. Tyrone racing into an early lead only to freeze when they realised what was actually happening. Kerry couldn’t cope with them in the first half.
“Kerry were dire in the first half. It was like they were told on the bus coming in that they were playing Tyrone,” the former Meath captain noted.
Kerry didn’t reel Tyrone in with the quality and sheer speed that Dublin possesses, but it extends the Red Hand’s dismal run of form against the elite of Gaelic football.
They haven’t beaten Mayo, Dublin or Kerry in the championship since 2008.
Kerry hesitance
Perhaps it was less Tyrone ability than Kerry’s hesitance to back themselves that saw Mickey Harte’s team winning at half-time.
“Kerry were caught between two stools majorly. They were caught overthinking Tyrone and they actually didn’t go out and play their own game.
“The second half was then completely different from the get-go.
"They just backed themselves, ran hard, pressed right up on Tyrone and decided, ‘let's not worry about him [McShane], let’s do our own damage,’” Moyles said.
Kerry’s forward line has been talked about incessantly throughout this championship.
Experts have said they can become the next great iteration in the county’s unmatched history in Gaelic football.
It is for that reason alone that Anthony Moyles gives Kerry a chance at ending Dublin’s Drive for Five.
“Their individual brilliance is the only reason I give them a chance against Dublin.
"They had five points in the first half yesterday and if it was any other team in the country, bar Dublin, it would’ve been two.”
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