Mesmerising Meath bring Kingdom crashing down

ALL-IRELAND SFC Royals secure first quarter-final knockout spot in 15 years

Meath.....1-4-14 (25)

Kerry.....0-1-14 (16)

FERGAL LYNCH

When it's not always raining, there'll be days like this.

The heavens opened and unloaded torrential downfalls of rain in the hours before today's All-Ireland SFC round three clash with Kerry in Tullamore, but when the skies cleared Meath produced one of their finest performances for many years to secure direct passage into the quarter-finals in two weeks time.

This performance was simply sensational. It wasn't perfect, but then again football never is.

When Meath were good they were very, very good and when Kerry enjoyed their purple patches, Meath were also impressive in the way they weathered the storms.

When the young Royals saw their early three-point lead turned into a two-point deficit in a matter of minutes, they never dropped their heads and finished the half strong to lead by six at the break.

When Kerry cut that deficit to just two points by the three quarters stage, Meath again showed a maturity beyond their experience to settle and re-establish total control.

Kerry had no answer to Meath's dominance. They threatened to blow the house down, but build on a foundation of outstanding defending and magnificent creativity going forward, Meath were solid and not for wavering.

To a man they produced a magnificent display and even thought they handed Kerry the initiative at the start of the second-half, when Cathal Hickey picked up a black card, they never panicked and wrapped up the win with Bryan Menton's goal.

That goal came at the end of a three minute flurry that saw Hickey and Sean Coffey go close to finding the net before both Ruairi Kinsella and Conor Duke kicked memorable two-pointers.

For the goal Ciaran Caulfield's mesmerising pass picked out Menton and he spun out of a tackle before finishing low to the net to make it 1-21 to 0-14 - the Meath fans were in disbelief.

This time last year Meath lost to Kerry by 15 points in Navan, yet with six minutes remaining the Royals led by 10 in Tullamore on Saturday - what a turnaround -it was easy to understand the Loyal Royals disbelief.

However, this was not a dream. This was a fully deserved, hard earned victory over a Kerry side who will bemoan the absence of key players, but such was Meath's brilliance the Kingdom may well have struggled anyway against a Royal side who were also missing several key men.

The signs were ominous early on as Meath set traps and disrupted Kerry all over the field.

Sean Rafferty did a great job wrapping up David Clifford and after a couple of missed early chances for the Kingdom Meath took over with Billy Hogan landing a '45', Keith Curtis scoring after a superb move and Jordan Morris converting a free after Adam O'Neill's first time pull on a loose ball was saved by Shane Ryan.

Kerry sprinted their way back into the game with Micheal Burns, Dylan Geaney and Tony Brosnan adding to a David Clifford two-pointer to take a 0-5 to 0-3 lead by the 13th minute.

Donal Keogan and the magnificent Conor Duke restored parity, but again Kerry looked in command with a soft free for Killiane Spillane and a second point from Geaney making it 0-7 to 0-5 to the kingdom.

That was as good as it got for the Sam Maguire favourites.

Frayne landed two points (one free) to level it up in the 26th minute and in the next four minutes Frayne and Kinsella kicked two-pointers, while Duke also lofted over to push Meath 0-13 to 0-7 clear - they never trailed again.

Morris and Frayne, with a free after the hooter, sandwiched a Clifford free as Meath led by 0-14 to 0-8 at the break.

Hickey was black carded 20 seconds after the restart for a needless trip and Kerry looked set to take full advantage as they used their numerical advantage to close the gap to 0-11 to 0-14 with two points from Geaney and one for Spillane.

More great defending from Caulfield helped Menton link up with Coffey for a point as Meath settled and remarkably they added another point from Duke to restore a five-point cushion.

After Hickey returned Kerry turned the screw again with points from Spillane (free), Paul Murphy and Clifford, but Meath never stuttered.

Kinsella clipped over a settling score and after both Hickey and Coffey went close to finding the net Kinsella and Duke lofted over two-pointers and Menton added the goal to put the issue beyond doubt.

Kerry had loads of possession in the closing 10 minutes, but found nothing to break down Meath.

Points from Clifford and Brosnan was all they could manage before Caulfield capped a magnificent industrious performance with the closing score to ensure a day the loyal Royals will never forget.

Meath - Billy Hogan (0-1 one '45'); Seamus Lavin, Sean Rafferty, Ronan Ryan; Donal Keogan (0-1), Sean Coffey (0-1), Ciaran Caulfield (0-1); Bryan Menton (1-0), Adam O'Neill; Conor Duke (0-5 one two-pointer), Ruairi Kinsella (0-5 two two-pointers), Cathal Hickey; Jordan Morris (0-2 one frees), Keith Curtis (0-1), Eoghan Frayne (0-5 two frees, one two-pointer). Subs - Cian McBride for O'Neill half-time, Eoin Harkin for Hickey 54m, Shane Walsh for Frayne 62m, James McEntee for Kinsella 72m, Diarmuid Moriarty for Rafferty 73m.

Kerry - Shane Ryan; Paul Murphy (0-1), Jason Foley, Tom O’Sullivan; Tadhg Morley, Mike Breen, Gavin White; Joe O’Connor, Mark O’Shea; Graham O’Sullivan, Tony Brosnan (0-2), Míchéal Burns (0-1); David Clifford (0-5 one free, one two-pointer), Killian Spillane (0-3 two frees), Dylan Geaney (0-4). Subs - Dylan Casey for Breen, Ruairí Murphy for both 48m, Seán O’Brien for O'Shea, Conor Geaney for G O'Sullivan both 60m, Dara Moynihan for Spillane 70m.

Referee - Joe McQuillan (Cavan).