Strong second half sees hurlers home

NATIONAL HURLING LEAGUE DIVISION 2A Mayo 0-13 Kerry 2-24

KERRY got their campaign off to a flying start with a comprehensive win over a much depleted Mayo team in MacHale Park, Castlebar on Saturday afternoon. The Mayo lads battled heroically for 45 minutes before a Brandon Barrett goal broke their resistance.

Mayo hung in there with a dogged performance against overwhelming odds in the first half. Thirty minutes into the game, they trailed by just two points which represented a phenomenal effort by the lads in the red and green jerseys.

Kerry closed out the first half with a scoring burst of four points on-the-trot, courtesy of the outstanding Shane Conway, one of which was pure class following a great solo run. This enabled Kerry to retire at the interval with a comfortable 1-11 to 0-8 lead and with the wind in their favour in the second half.

Jordan Conway was their scorer-in-chief in the opening half, accounting for 1-3 from play. The goal came fifteen minutes into the game following a good cross from near the sideline by the impressive Brandon Barrett.

Shane Boland posted six of Mayo’s first half scores from frees and added another from play after a well orchestrated move featuring Conor Henry and Calum Gardner. Mayo goalkeeper Gerald Kelly also landed a point from a huge free deep in his own half.

While two points from the excellent Shane Boland on the restart closed the margin to four points on the 40th minute, this was as close as Mayo would come to the Kingdom.

Shane Conway posted a free for Kerry before the best move of the match involving Shane Conway, Colum Harty and Michael Leane resulted in Shane Nolan blasting for goal only to be denied by another brilliant save by Gerald Kelly, but the rebound fell to Brandon Barrett who batted it to the Mayo net for Kerry’s second green flag oftheday.

There was a total inevitability about the outcome from that moment onwards and Kerry blossomed all over the field as they played some excellent hurling in the closing 25 minutes where they outscored Mayo by 0-12 to 0-3.

Any potential threat from Mayo was more than capably dealt with by the solid Kerry defence where Eric Leen, Mickey Boyle and Tomás O’Connor were especially to the fore.

After Shane Nolan floated over a fine effort from play, Mayo had one chance to renew the fight when Cormac Phillips was deemed by Antrim referee, Colum Canning to have been fouled in the square. Shane Boland’s penalty shot rebounded off the crossbar and was cleared by the Kerry defence.

A succession of Kerry points including five from Shane Conway (four frees) and others from Fionan Mackessy, Brandan Barrett and Michael Leane were part of a tidal wave that rolled towards the Mayo posts in the closing quarter of the game.

Mayo manager Derek Walsh introduced a number of subs with one of them, Shane Crinnigan, firing over a fine point from out the field.

Gerald Kelly, who plays with Galway senior champions St Thomas, made an amazing debut for Mayo hurlers, pulling off two outstanding saves, one from Colum Harty in the first half, and converting a massive long range free.

With Shane Nolan highly influential around the middle of the field, Kerry hurled with style and panache in the closing 25 minutes with Shane Conway, Jordan Conway, Brandon Barrett, Calum Harty and Michael Leane in flying form down the closing straight.

This victory sets them up nicely for a tidy encounter with Offaly in Tralee on Sunday and a game which could have a major bearing on the destination of the Division 2A honours this season.

A minute’s silence was observed before the game in Castlebar as a mark of respect to the late Gerald Whyte, a former secretary and vice-chairman of the County Board.