Kerry Advances to All-Ireland SFC Final as Tyrone Falters

Kerry powered their way into an All-Ireland SFC decider thanks to a dominant second-half display, Tyrone's challenge fizzling out badly after a bright opening.

David Clifford racked up 1-09 but the game's most influential figure was undoubtedly Joe O'Connor, who delivered an extraordinary, all-action display both defensively and in attack.

It all started so well for Tyrone, who dominated the Kerry kickout in the opening 15 minutes, going into an early 0-04 to 0-01 lead.

After belatedly gaining a foothold around the middle, the Kerry attack began to crank into gear, creating a huge volume of goal chances, most of which were butchered.

Trailing for most of the opening half, it was David Clifford who found the net shortly before the half-hour mark, collecting a looped pass from Mike Breen, sending Niall Morgan to the deck with a dummy bounce and slipping home what would turn out to be the game's only goal.

Malachy O'Rourke's side only trailed by three points at the break and would have the wind at their back for the second half.

Darragh Canavan landed their first two-pointer to reduce it to a one-score game but Tyrone's prospects imploded in a scoreless 20-minute spell, Kerry taking a stranglehold of the game.

The Munster champions continued to fritter away goal chances but, crucially, they were creating them at will and beginning to dominate the middle third battle.

It was the inspirational O'Connor who led the way, powering through the heart of the Tyrone defence to drill over a brace of points.

Tyrone shrank out of the game as Kerry hit 0-09 without reply, with David Clifford accounting for 0-03, and substitute Killian Spillane chipping in with 0-02, alongside O'Connor.

Seanie O'Donnell finally landed a point to ensure that Darragh Canavan wasn't their only scorer in the second half but Tyrone's 11th-hour salvo came far, far too late to save the game.

More to follow...