Meath sweep past Kerry and into the All-Ireland quarter-finals
Meath booked their place in the All-Ireland SFC quarter-finals in a fortnight with a royal performance to sack the Kingdom by nine points and consign the Munster champions to a preliminary quarter-final next weekend in Killarney.
That's not something Kerry would have neither expected or wanted, but their growing injury list finally caught up with them in Tullamore.
They paid a hefty price against a Meath team that backed themselves fully to go after a weakened Kingdom rather than play the percentages to guarantee themselves second place in Group 2 and a home preliminary quarter-final.
Even without James Conlon, Meath went after Kerry from the very start, and in Eoghan Freyne, Ruairi Kinsella and Conor Duke they had a trio that scored 15 points between them, which included four two-pointers.
More about Meath in a moment, but an obvious place for Kerry to start their post-mortem would be with their walking wounded – Sean O'Shea joining with Paudie Clifford, Paul Geaney, Diarmuid O'Connor, Barry Dan O'Sullivan and Brian O Beaglaoich on the treatment table – as Kerry's injury list seems to grow by the day.
Quite who they will have available for next week's game remains to be seen, but Jack O'Connor has much to work on with his fit players in the next seven days given the woefulness of this performance.
Whatever about Kerry's woes, though, this game was all about Meath and their renaissance under Robbie Brennan. Exactly a year ago Meath were mugged by 15 points by Kerry in Navan; in Tullamore they were once bitten, twice shy.
Despite missing James Conlon from their attack, Freyne, Kinsella and Duke more than compensated, with Bryan Menton icing the win with a second half goal, and wing back Ciaran Caulfield putting in a tour de force display.
Kerry kicked two early wides before Meath goalkeeper Billy Hogan converted a '45' and that seemed to set the tone: Kerry scraggly and loose, Meath crisp and on point.
Meath led by three points but quickly fell 0-5 to 0-3 behind with Micheal Burns, Dylan Geaney and Brosnan and a two-pointer from David Clifford getting Kerry in front. That should have been the platform for Kerry to kick on but they couldn't. Or Meath wouldn't allow it.
Kerry were still ahead by two, 0-7 to 0-5, after 20 minutes but then Freyne and Kinsella converted a two-pointer EACH, with Duke, Jordan Morris and a couple of Freyne frees giving Meath a fully deserved 0-14 to 0-8 half time lead.
Meath had Cathal Hickey sin binned 30 seconds into the second half but Kerry only took a point off Meath's lead by the time he returned.
By the 50th minute Kerry were within two points, 0-16 to 0-14, but not exactly pulling up trees, while Meath never flinched as Kerry breathed down their necks.
Kinsella pointed from play, then within two minutes Kinsella and Duke scored two-pointers, and then Menton raised the game's only green flag. Meath ahead by 10 points with 13 minutes left to play. The Meath supporters in the 8,265 crowd not wanting it to end; the Kerry players on their knees by the time the final hooter sounded.
Meath: Billy Hogan 0-01 (0-01 '45'), Seamus Lavin, Sean Rafferty, Ronan Ryan, Donal Keogan 0-01, Sean Coffey 0-01, Ciaran Caulfield 0-01, Bryan Menton 1-00, Adam O'Neill, Conor Duke 0-05 (1tp), Ruairí Kinsella 0-05 (2tp), Cathal Hickey, Jordan Morris 0-02 (0-01f), Keith Curtis 0-01, Eoghan Freyne 0-05 (0-02f, 0-01tp).
Subs: Cian McBride for A O'Neill (ht), Eoin Harkin for C Hickey (53), Shane Walsh for E Freyne (58), James McEntee for R Kinsella (68), Diarmuid Moriarty for S Rafferty (68). Black card: C Hickey 35-45
Kerry: Shane Ryan, Paul Murphy 0-01, Jason Foley, Tom O'Sullivan, Tadhg Morley, Mike Breen, Gavin White, Joe O'Connor, Mark O'Shea, Graham O'Sullivan, Tony Brosnan 0-02, Micheal Burns 0-01, David Clifford 0-05 (1f, 1tp), Killian Spillane 0-03 (0-02f), Dylan Geaney 0-02.
Subs: Dylan Casey for M Breen (48), Ruairi Murphy for M Burns (48), Conor Geaney for G O'Sullivan (58), Sean O'Brien for M O'Shea (58), Dara Moynihan for K Spillane (66).
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