Royal flush against sluggish Kerry

LEINSTER SHC ROUND ROBIN, 1ST ROUND

IT wasn’t supposed to go like this for Kerry.

Granted Meath were and are a team on the up, but Kerry had just spent two years competing in Division 1B of the league, Kerry had a year of Leinster championship hurling under their belts.

All that experience was supposed to tell, but instead Meath made light of it on their return to the senior grade for the first time in thirteen years. Not even an early goal for Kerry through Shane Nolan could dent their sky-high confidence.

The Royals even experienced a second blow after thirteen minutes when they lost inspirational captain and full-back Damien Healy to a hamstring injury. Healy was replaced by Sean Geraghty, but midfielder Joey Keena was also deployed as an extra defender in a effort to curtail the influence of Kerry’s Shane Nolan.

Kerry, of course, also had their share of problems and had to start without corner-forward Padraig Boyle who was also on the injured list with Ballyheighue man Philip Lucid deputising until he too was replaced midway through the second-half.

Kerry looked comfortable during the opening exchanges, but they had to rely on Nolan for the majority of their scores and he also picked up a yellow card in the 28th minute.

Nolan showed his predatory instincts from the off as he claimed that opening goal and added five more points, four frees, but the Kerry men failed to capitalise on that bright start.

Jordan Conway and Lucid added the other points for the Munster men who last played in Navan a decade ago when they lost a Christy Ring Cup tie by 10 points (0-13 to 2-17).

After that nervy opening Meath settled into the game and were boosted by a somewhat fortunate Sean Quigley goal in the 11th minute when his sideline cut from about 50 metres dropped under the Kerry crossbar despite the best efforts of custodian Aiden McCabe – it was a soft goal.

Quigley, Stephen Clynch and Adam Gannon added two points each while Gavin McGowan, Mark O’Sullivan, Keith Keoghan and Darragh Kelly also split the posts to help Meath to that three-points interval advantage after playing with the benefit of a slight breeze.

Meath looked sharper immediately after the resumption and eased into a 2-17 to 1-12 advantage by the three-quarter stage with substitute Kevin Keena finding the Kerry net with practically his first contribution after he replaced James Kelly.

By that stage it could have been worse for Kerry who had to rely on McCabe to make a superb double save from Forde and Clynch. Nevertheless, Meath added the crucial points from Clynch (four), O’Sullivan, Quigley and Forde with Kerry labouring in the Navan sunshine as they mustered four Nolan points and, crucially, an inspirational score from Causeway’s Bryan Murphy.

Kerry substitutes also began to make an impact as the Munster men began to scrap for survival and they reeled off points from Michael O’Leary (two), Jack Goulding and Maurice O’Connor.

That certainly had an unsettling impact on the hosts who could only counter with points from Gannon, Neil Heffernan and Clynch (free) as the clock ticked towards 70 minutes.

Mikey Boyle added another Kerry point and then got in for a scrambled goal as Meath hit the panic button and failed to clear the danger. That reduced the deficit to three points (2-17 to 2-20) in the first of three added minutes.

Kerry surged forward again and Boyle looked certain to hit a dramatic equaliser, but Shane McGann blocked the sliotar which fell for substitute Colm Harty and he was also denied by McGann.

Meath gained possession in their own goalmouth and Forde surged clear running more that 70 metres before releasing Cathal McCabe for a third goal – at that stage there was no way back for Kerry as the first shock of the championship was delivered by the underdogs from the Royal County.

Kerry can have no complaints and a tally of 15 wides, 10 in the second-half, ultimately proved costly against a Meath team that extended a winning sequence of games to seven in-a-row following an unbeaten run on the way the 2B title at the beginning of April.