Hurlers hammered in Kerry
A miserable weekend for Meath GAA was completed in Tralee this afternoon as Nick Fitzgerald's hurlers slumped to a disappointing 1-9 to 3-19 loss to a rampant Kerry outfit in NHL Div 2A.
With a place in the NHL Div 2A final still up for grabs and off the back of an encouraging performance despite losing to Westmeath just eight days earlier Meath might have fancied their chances of scoring a second successive win over Kerry to add to their Leinster SHC victory over the Kingdom last summer.
However, what transpired wasn't in the script and despite getting off to a fine start with an Alan Douglas goal after just 90 seconds they quickly found themselves 1-1 to 2-4 adrift after just nine minutes as Kerry ran riot despite playing into the teeth of a strong wind.
That deficit increased to 1-1 to 2-7 by the 23rd minute as Meath struggled to get back into the game and trailing 1-3 to 2-9 at the break the Royals needed a bright start to the second period to have any hope, but instead they conceded a soft goal two minutes after the resumption when Daragh Kelly dropped Shane Conway's long distance free into his own net.
That left Meath with no way back and without hope of securing a second successive promotion, so it is back to the drawing board for Nick Fitzgerald and his management team ahead of next Sunday's final round clash with Carlow in Pairc Tailteann.
Kerry - Martin Stackpoole (0-1 free); John Buckley, Bryan Murphy, Sean Weir; Tomás O'Connor (0-1), Mikey Boyle, Daniel Collins; Brandon Barrett (0-2), Dáithí Griffin (0-1); Paudie O'Connor, Padraig Boyle (1-5 two frees), Brendan O'Leary (0-1); Jack Goulding (1-3 one sideline), Shane Conway (1-4 frees), Jordan Conway. Subs – Colum Harty (0-1) for Griffin 35 mins, Daniel O'Carroll for O'Leary, Darren Dineen for Collins both 53m, Fionan Horgan for O'Connor 60m, Pat Quill for S Conway 67m.
Meath - Shane McGann; Sean Geraghty, Darragh Kelly, Niall Weir; Keith Keoghan, Damien Healy (0-1), Shane Brennan; Joey Keena (0-1), James Toher; Jack Regan (0-4 frees), James Kelly (0-1), Alan Douglas (1-1); Neil Heffernan, Adam Gannon, Paddy Conneely (0-1). Subs – Eoin Marsh for Heffernan 31 mins, Anthony Forde for Keena half-time, Steven Morris for Kelly 44m, Cathal McCabe for Kelly, Sean Quigley for Gannon both 53m,
Referee – Rory McCann (Clare).