Donegal forward Patrick McBrearty says the breaking ball was the critical factor in Sunday’s defeat by Kerry.
Paul Geaney’s 2-4 saw Kerry score a 2-17 to 1-17 win in the Allianz League opener at O’Donnell Park.
It was a day when a new-look Donegal were out-muscled by Kerry, even though a late flurry put something of a gloss on the result for the Tir Chonaill men.
Michael Murphy’s penalty briefly had Donegal ahead but the first of Geaney’s goals, just a minute later, had the Kingdom back in command on a day when Donegal lost eleven of their own kick-outs in the first half.
“Too much breaking ball was won by them,” McBrearty said on this week’s edition of Donegal Sports Talk, our new weekly podcast.
“We were told to break the ball. We felt that could get into the game by getting the breaking ball. We didn’t do that and it is an area of concern.
“When we did get the ball, we were well crowded out.
“We are very disappointed with maybe the last ten minutes of the first half and the start of the season half. It was always going to be difficult after that for us to get back into the game.
“We had a mountain to climb at half-time, but we are happy with how we finished and came back. There was just too much of a gap opened up.
“We have positives and negatives, but we’ll look at those and get ready for Roscommon.”
