Brilliant Donegal defeat Kerry in Killarney

Kerry 1-16 v Donegal 0-22

The two-pointers proved the difference on the day as Donegal anded their first victory in Kerry since 1988 following their 0-23 to 1-18 win over the Kingdom in Fitzgerald Stadium.

It’s now two wins from two for the Ulster champions, with Ryan McHugh, Oisin Gallen, and substitute Patrick McBrearty all landing two-pointers on the day to gift Donegal a two-point win in Killarney.

The 1988 side won at Austin Stack Park in Tralee, with no Donegal team having ever gone home victorious from Austin Stack Park.

Jim McGuinness’s side led from the fourth minute and although Kerry got back to one point down on occasion, including through a late Diarmuid O’Connor goal, the abilities of the Ulster champions to respond immediately – like against Dublin last week – took them over the line.

On a day that could’ve looked tricky for Donegal following the early withdrawal of Michael Langan through a hamstring injury, they got to grips with the heavy load that Kerry were providing around midfield on kickouts, to find small gaps in Jack O’Connor side’s defence and gain victory.

Ryan McHugh opened the scoring after four minutes as Donegal bided their time to allow the Kilcar man to find an edge of space to fire over in front of the post for his first two-pointer of 2025.

The openness of the game allowed Donegal to run at the Kerry defence and find acres of space to in which resulted in the on-running Conor O’Donnell and St Eunan’s man Shane O’Donnell to capitalise and fire over for their side to run into a 0-4 to no score lead.

Kerry eventually found their rhythm when Dylan Geaney opened the scoring for his side on the 10th minute which was followed by two frees popped over by Seán O’Shea and Conor Geaney to make it a one-score game.

But Donegal didn’t panic with Shane O’Donnell hitting his side’s first point in 10 minutes and his second of the afternoon to push his side back to a two-point lead at 0-5 to 0-3.

The away side were struggling to deal with Kerry on the kick-outs, a position that the Kingdom were seriously taking advantage of with Barry Dan O’Sullivan and Dylan Geaney reaping the rewards to level the scoring at 0-5 each.

Donegal started to come more into the game and capitalised on Kerry’s indiscipline, first when the ball wasn’t handed to the Donegal player in midfield after the Ulster champions won the kick-out, which resulted in the ball being brought forward 50 metres and ended with Patrick McBrearty opting for a two-point free which he nailed over.

Paudie Clifford was caught crossing the halfway line and was punished with McBrearty opting to take another two-point free, but this time narrowly hit the shot wide to keep Kerry in touching distance.

The home side brought the game back level by winning countless breaking ball around midfield leading to long kicks into the full-forward line, finishing with Conor Geaney hitting his second, while Paudie Clifford hammered over a superb score just inside the large arc.

By the end of the half, Donegal looked the stronger side, in winning three kick-outs on the bounce and finishing with three scores from play.

The first came from the on-running Conor O’Donnell who struck off his left, and fell hard in the process, moments after putting the ball narrowly wide.

Donegal’s final two scores from play saw Ryan McHugh and Eoghan Bán Gallagher drift in from the wings to raise a white flag each, with the latter fisting his score over.

Oisin Gallen had the last say of the half with the MacCumhaills man kicking over a close free following an advantage from a Donegal attack to leave it 0-11 to 0-7 at the break in favour of the away side.

At the break, there was a worry over Shaun Patton with Gavin Mulreany doing a pretty thorough warm-up, but the St Eunan’s netminder returned for the second half.

Kerry started the better of the two sides in the opening five minutes of part two when they hit three points on the trot with Seán O’Shea, Dylan Geaney, and Diarmuid O’Connor all pointing over, with the latter nearly finding the roof of the net after a long ball from Mike Breen saw the towering midfielder contest with Shaun Patton, but punch the ball over the bar in the end.

But as soon as Kerry found any sort of purple patch, their three points were immediately cancelled out, first with Oisin Gallen striking over a two-point kick, before Ciaran Moore, after winning the Kerry kick-out, was straight through for a goal, but was unfortunate not to raise a green flag, with the St Eunan’s man hitting the crossbar, with the ball skidding over the post.

Tom O’Sullivan struck a super score, straight in front of the post to ease his side’s nerves, but it didn’t affect Donegal with the Kilcar duo of McBrearty and McHugh linking well to rattle off scores with ease to push them into a six-point lead.

But in the new rules, that means very little, and it showed, with Graham O’Sullivan and substitute Cathal Ó Beaglaíoch both rattling off points for the Kingdom, while Dylan Geaney and Seán O’Shea landed a free apiece to make it a two-point game at 0-17 to 0-15 with 15 minutes left on the clock.

Ciaran Thompson and Peadar Mogan rose to the occasion when needed with two monster shots from the Naomh Conaill man, while the St Naul’s native tapped over with ease, as Donegal still kept Kerry trailing, but only just.

Then came the Kerry goal. Following a great fielding point by Paudie Clifford, the Fossa man was on hand to supply O’Connor with a thundering goal from a crossfield pass, leaving it for the Na Gaeil club man to punch it home, making it 0-20 to 1-16 with 10 minutes remaining.

Donegal stretched their lead out to three with some fine fast-moving ball, with Jamie Brennan hitting over his first of the day, while Conor O’Donnell followed closely after straight in front of the post.

Sean O’Shea brought a shade of light to Kerry’s hopes with his side’s only two-pointer of the day to leave it 0-22 to 1-18, but Brennan had the final say as he kicked the last score of the day and Donegal held on till the hooter went for a win that sees them join Galway on top of Division 1 of the Allianz League.

Kerry scorers: Sean O’Shea 0-5, 1tp, 2fs; Diarmuid O’Connor 1-1; Dylan Geaney and Conor Geaney, 2fs, 0-3 each; Paudie Clifford 0-2; Cathal Ó Beaglaíoch, Graham O’Sullivan, Barry Dan O’Sullivan and Tom O’Sullivan 0-1 each.

Donegal scorers: Ryan McHugh 0-5, 1tp; Patrick McBrearty 1tp, Conor O’Donnell and Oisin Gallen 1f, 1tp, 0-3 each; Shane O’Donnell, Jamie Brennan, Ciaran Thompson 0-2 each; Eoghan Bán Gallagher, Ciaran Moore, Peadar Mogan 0-1 each.

Kerry: Shane Ryan; Damien Bourke, Jason Foley, Tom O’Sullivan; Graham O’Sullivan, Tadhg Morley, Seán O’Brien; Diarmuid O’Connor, Barry Dan O’Sullivan; Paudie Clifford, Seán O’Shea, Cillian Trant; Conor Geaney, Dónal O’Sullivan, Dylan Geaney. Subs: Mike Breen for Morley (29); Ruairí Murphy for Trant (HT); Paul Geaney for Dónal O’Sullivan and Cathal Ó Beaglaíoch for Barry Dan O’Sullivan (51); Killian Spillane for Conor Geaney (59).

Donegal: Shaun Patton; Finbarr Roarty, Brendan McCole, Peadar Mogan; Ryan McHugh, Eoghan Ban Gallagher, Ciaran Moore; Michael Langan, Ciaran Thompson; Daire Ó Baoill, Conor O’Donnell, Shane O’Donnell; Hugh McFadden, Oisin Gallen, Caolan McGonagle. Subs: Patrick McBrearty for Langan (3); Jamie Brennan for McFadden (50); Eoin McHugh for Ó Baoill (58); Mark Curran for McHugh (60); Odhran Doherty for Gallen (66).

Referee: Brendan Cawley