Kerry 2-8 Meath 1-7:A low-key Kerry performance was enough to see off the challenge of Meath at Croke Park this afternoon and set up another crack at Cork in next month's All-Ireland decider. Goals at the start of each half and the introduction of Tommy Walsh after 28 minutes were the key factors for Jack O'Connor's side, although their lacklustre showing will again raise questions of the quality of this year's side.
The slippy Croke Park surface did nothing for the game as a spectacle, with players losing their footing throughout the 70 minutes.
Colm Cooper struck fear in the Meath defence from the very start, with Anthony Moyles giving away a penalty after just three minutes when the corner-forward was taken down in the box.
Darran O’Sullivan slipped while taking the kick, but so did Meath goalkeeper Paddy O’Rourke as the ball hit the back of the net.
Meath were rocked by the loss of captain Stephen Bray inside the first ten minutes with a shoulder injury and Cooper would increase Kerry’s lead before Meath got their first score in the 15th minute through Brian Farrell.
Each side added a point before O’Connor made then decision to introduce Walsh just before the half-hour mark in an attempt to put more pressure on the Meath defence.
It was the Royals who finished the half stronger, though, with two points from the boot of Cian Ward narrowing the gap to two at the break as Kerry went in 1-3 to 0-4 ahead.
It may have raised the hopes of the Meath supporters in the 50,000 crowd, but they were soon shattered as Walsh took a towering catch close in to fire home his side’s second goal within a minute of the restart.
He would tag on two points in a purple patch of Kerry play as they hit 1-5 to Meath’s 0-2 in the first 11 minutes of the half to effectively end the game as a contest.
Job done, Kerry took the foot off the gas as the game went flat with Cian Ward’s late consolation goal reducing the deficit and giving the Meath fans still left in the ground something to cheer about.
O’Connor admitted afterwards that the game was always going to be an anti-climax after their startling display against Dublin in the quarter-finals and that he was just delighted that Kerry had made it to their sixth straight All-Ireland final.
“It was never going to happen, because we just hit a day against Dublin when everything went right. And with the slippy ground out there and the Meath backs going in hard on our forwards it was never going to be a pretty game,” said O’Connor, who was delighted with the influence Walsh made on the game at the start of the second half.
“We had to change tack halfway through the first half and put in Tommy Walsh. We needed an aerial route and we didn’t do it properly until we talked about it at half-time and it changed the game basically,” he added.
O’Connor was under no illusions of the task that awaits his side on September 20th, when they face the Cork side that beat them over two games in the Munster SFC Final earlier in the summer.
“I don’t think the way we played today would frighten the daylights out of Cork. But that’s fine, we’re happy enough to get over the line because this was always going to be a very difficult game for us. Those Meath fellas were never going to lie down, they’ve got some good footballers, they went the direct route and really tested us.”