Kingdom cruise to victory over Royals

Meath struggled to deal with Kerry's firepower in attack on Saturday in the All-Ireland ladies SFC quarter-final at Austin Stack Park.

Kerry 2-0-14

Meath 0-0-8

Kerry put Meath to the sword in the All-Ireland ladies SFC quarter-final as Wayne Freeman's Royals’ season came to a close on Saturday at Austin Stack park.

In truth, once Kerry scored a second goal and opened up a five-point gap after 20 minutes, Meath were always going to struggle to get back into contention as a favourable strong breeze awaited the home side in the second-half.

The Royals trailed by six at the interval and were only able to muster two points for the remainder as Kerry pulled away from Meath and booked their spot in the All-Ireland SFC semi-final.

Saturday’s defeat closed the curtain on a somewhat underwhelming first year in charge of the Meath ladies for Freeman. The positives that the Kildare native can take away from the year is that Meath managed to maintain both their senior and FL Div 1 status.

On the day, there were a few good individual performances from the Royals' perspective. Katie Bermingham has been very consistent for Meath this year. She was vital in the victory over Tyrone last time out and she was impressive on Saturday again as she made several interceptions and broke down a number of Kerry attacks.

For her standards, it has been a below-average year for Emma Duggan but on Saturday she was a lot more prolific and accounted for 0-5 of Meath’s tally. The midfield pairing of Sinead Murphy and Niamh Gallogly both put in good shifts while Rachel Casserly made a big impression from the bench.

Overall though, Meath lacked creativity going forward and generally struggled to deal with Kerry’s talented forwards.

After two minutes, Gallogly took a quick solo-and-go and set up Ciara Smyth who opened the scoring. However, Kerry responded impressively and after points from Niamh Carmody and Niamh Ni Chonchuir, Caoimhe Evans pierced open the Meath defence, rounded Robyn Murray and finished to an empty net.

Meath seized a bit of momentum when Smyth won a brace of frees in quick succession and Duggan split the posts with both. Soon after, Bermingham set up Gallogly for a nice score.

Kerry kept the Royals at arms length though with points from Aishling O’Connell and Danielle O’Leary and at the end of the first quarter the home side led 1-4 to 0-4. A nice move that included some good link-up play between Olivia Gore and Orlaith Sheehy was polished off by Duggan which reduced the gap back to two points.

Meath were then dealt a big blow when what appeared to be an attempt at a fisted point from Ni Chonchuir dropped short but Mary O’Connell was on hand to fist the ball into the back of the net which gave Kerry a five-point advantage.

The Royals then gave a handy opportunity to Kerry when they were penalised for a three-up breach. Siofra O’Shea took full advantage of the short-range free before she followed up with another point two minutes later.

A good interception from Megan Thynne preceded some composed play on the ball from Smyth before she set up Duggan for a point. A few minutes later, Barry Redmond sounded the half-time whistle and at the break Kerry led 2-6 to 0-6.

Now playing with the wind at their back, Kerry quickly stretched the lead to eight courtesy of points from O’Shea and Evans. After only being introduced to the contest, Casserly took an optimistic shot on goal which almost caught May Ellen Bolger off guard and she did well to deny the St Ultan’s forward a green flag.

O’Shea put the Kingdom nine points clear before Duggan and Casserly pulled two points back for the Royals in quick succession. However, Meath failed to register another score as Kerry cruised to the finish line with points from Evans, Aishling O’Connell and Erica McGlynn along with a brace of frees from O’Shea in the closing stages.

Kerry - Mary Ellen Bolger; Roisin Rahilly, Deidre Kearney, Eilish Lynch; Aisling O’Connell (0-2), Emma Costello, Aoife Dillane; Anna Galvin, Mary O’Connell (1-0); Niamh Carmody (0-2), Niamh Ni Chonchuir (0-1), Caoimhe Evans (1-1); Jadyn Lucey, Danielle O’Leary (0-1), Siofra O’Shea (0-6 four frees). Subs - Mikala Mulvihill for Rahilly, Leah McMahon for Lucey both 43m, Erica McGlynn (0-1) for Ni Chonchuir 50m, Katie Brosnan for Dillane, Eabha Ni Laighin for Evans both 56m.

Meath - Robyn Murray; Aoife Farrell, Aine Sheridan, Amy Gaffney; Orlaith Sheehy, Olivia Gore, Katie Bermingham; Sinead Murphy, Niamh Gallogly (0-1); Lauren Woods, Emma Duggan (0-5 two frees), Megan Thynne; Meadhbh Byrne, Orla Finnegan, Ciara Smyth (0-1). Subs - Rachel Casserly (0-1) for Finnegan 36m, Alanna Reilly for Murphy, Orla Smith for Byrne both 43m, Ciara Lawlor for Gore, Ali Sherlock for Thynne both 51m.

Referee - Barry Redmond (Wexford).