Mayo will tell much

ONLY in the Kingdom could you be left with a mild sense of disappointment at the end of a three point win on home soil.

Strictly speaking it was job done. Two points in the bag. The path to the league final opened up once again for the green and gold – sitting as they do just a single point behind the leaders, Galway and the all-conquering Dubs, and level on points with Monaghan.

Nagging away at the Kerry faithful amongst the 8,512 as they made their way out of the old ground was the sense that it wasn’t entirely convincing. Once again we come back to that word: patchy. When Kerry are good, they’re very good and, when they’re not, they can be actually rather indifferent.

Peter Keane even referenced it post-match. He spoke about a certain flatness and maybe, and probably, that flatness was a result of the way the game began with the Kingdom all guns-blazing and storming into a commanding lead early doors.

To go eight points clear inside the opening sixteen minutes of a game you’re already widely expected to win might have a deadening effect to some degree. Could it have bred an amount of complacency? It might.

Then again we’ve got to give Meath their dues too. Once they got to grips with the game, they were more than a match for their hosts. The Royals though will rue that opening quarter when they seemed a little overawed by their surroundings and a little overawed by their opponents.

Inside two minutes Kerry had two points on the board through Paul Geaney (assist Stephen O’Brien) and the debuting David Shaw (assist Séan O’Shea). The loss of Cillian O’Sullivan to a senseless black card (he needlessly hauled Jack Barry to the ground in Kerry’s half of the field) on four minutes only compounded the Royals’ early woes.

To be fair to Meath they coped rather well with being down to fourteen men for those ten minutes. Kerry struggled to break down Meath’s packed defence and only tacked on an additional two points, both from O’Shea frees, both won by the excellent Gavin White rampaging down the left wing.

With the clock ticking into the final minute of O’Sullivan’s time in the bin, Meath boss Andy McEntee would have been satisfied enough with how his men had done. Kerry, however, had the last laugh.

Micheál Burns, excellent again, sent the ball into the dangerzone to be flicked on by fellow Crokes man Shaw for the in-rushing David Clifford to take advantage of a slight mix-up in the Meath rearguard. Fourteen minutes gone 1-4 to 0-0.

It was 1-5 to no score a minute later when Clifford returned the favour and assisted Burns for his first point of the match. Kerry in cruise control then? You’d have imagined so, but O’Sullivan’s return seemed to spark something in Meath.

His point on seventeen minutes broke the Royals’ duck and with Meath beginning to really get a run on Kerry at kick-out time – they won four Kerry kick-outs in-a-row against the head around this time – it was hardly a surprise when a goal followed. James Conlon feeding the hugely effective Dónal Keogan for the finish past Brian Kelly.

By twenty two minutes Meath had hauled themselves back into contention – 1-6 to 1-4. The loss of Dónal Keogan to a back-card on twenty nine minutes, however, allowed Kerry to again regain their composure and push out to a five point lead at the break with a Clifford wonder point on thirty four minutes stealing the show – 1-10 to 1-5.

Meath, though, weren’t about to die away. Once again they brought themselves back into contention as a certain malaise gripped Kerry. It was 1-11 to 1-9 after an Oisín O’Brien point

on forty

eight minutes.

Over the space of the next twelve minutes, however, Kerry went from that slightly diffident posture into the brilliance we know they’re capable of, helped in no small part by the introduction to the fray of both Tommy Walsh and Dara Moynihan who both got on the scoreboard and who both brought fresh energy and impetus to the thing.

Kerry were 1-17 to 1-9 clear on sixty minutes, back to that eight point margin they last held in the first half. A nice cruise then from there to the finish for the favourites? Not quite as for the second time in the match they let that commanding advantage slip.

Meath first struck back with a goal from Bryan McMahon to bring it back to a five point game – McMahon finishing when a Bryan Menton ball lofted into the area was deflected into his path by the defending Paul Geaney.

The goal seemed to rattle Kerry and rally the Royals. Meath very nearly had a second goal a minute later when Thomas O’Reilly forced a save from Brian Kelly, he followed up with a point from the rebound to keep the pressure on the Kingdom.

Meath even fashioned a third second half goal-scoring opportunity when Keogan cut in from the left and forced another save from Kelly.

It was back to a three point game by seventy minutes – 1-18 to 2-12 – and, while Kerry lost two players in injury time to black cards (Burns and second half sub Tony Brosnan), the green and gold were able to compose themselves and see the game out, in large part thanks to another brilliant David Clifford point on seventy two minutes (he played a one-two with Moynihan).

The performance left as many questions as answers. When they had to Kerry could turn it on and, yet, the way the game played out, the ease with which Meath were able to cut through for goal-scoring chances rightly left many Kerry fans uneasy.

MAIN MAN

Micheál Burns was again excellent for Kerry. ShaneEnright andPaul Murphy impressed at different times,but wehave to go with GAVIN WHITE who gave one ofhis best everperformances in the green andgold (or rather than Munster blue). He wasvery effective defensively in the tackle andbroke up the pitch withhis customary gusto.

KEY MOMENT

EitherofBrian Kelly’s savesin the second. Had either Thomas O’Reilly’s or Dónal Keogan’s efforts found the backonthe net, the Kingdom would likely have struggled to hold onto their lead and their two point bounty.

TALKING POINT

Once again it’s probably Kerry’s concession ofgoal-scoring chances. They gave up four on Sunday afternoon and had the Royals been abit moreclinical Kerry wouldhave been looking down towardsthe relegation zone ratherthanuptothe leaguefinal.

WHEN you are seeking to describe Kerry’s performance against Meath at Fitzgerald Stadium, one word immediately springs into your mind: Unconvincing. That sums it up in a nutshell.

Holding an eight-point cushion at two different junctures, Peter Keane’s men and the home supporters in Killarney should never have been put through the wringer to such an extent that they just about scraped over the line in the finish, and had to survive a few scares before eventually doing so.

Bursting into a 1-5 to no score lead in the opening quarter, and with the Royals having already been significantly hampered by a black card issued to key forward, Cillian O’Sullivan, in the fourth minute, it is understandable that the Kingdom were possibly lulled into a false sense of security.

Let’s face it. You are facing the bottom team in the top flight. You are eight points in the clear, against the wind, without basically having to break sweat. It’s no wonder, even subconsciously, that some players may have thought that the game was already done and dusted.

Once bitten, twice shy however. Or so it should be. Not for Kerry on this occasion. By the 60th minute, they appeared to be in cruise control for the second time in the match leading 1-17 to 1-9. The fact that they were unable to properly manage the last ten minutes (and the five minutes of injury time that followed) is more of a cause for concern.

Indeed, by the final whistle, they were indebted to goalkeeper Brian Kelly for making two fine saves from Thomas O’Reilly and the inspirational Donal Keogan, and to centre-back Shane Enright for some heroic body-on-the-line defending, for preventing a very spirited and plucky Meath from heading up the road with a shock victory in the bag.

Finishing with thirteen men, after late sin-binnings for the Dr Crokes duo of Micheal Burns and substitute Tony Brosnan, was not what the doctor ordered when you are looking to complete your job with the minimum of fuss, but Kerry should never have been in that position where they were put to the pin of their collar.

Yet, even on a day where it has to be stated that the ten-minute loss of Meath star man Keogan to another black card also put a big spanner in the works of their victory hopes, there were positives for the Kerry management to mull over this week.

Gavin White probably had his best game at senior inter-county level. Apart from being turned in the