Kerry 4-21 Waterford 1-04: Despite a frustrating opening half, Kerry simply crushed hapless Waterford in the second half of this desperately disappointing Munster semi-final and few in the 4,719 who paid into the Fitzgerald Stadium in Killarney on Saturday evening, could have felt elated by another Kerry rout, this time by 26 points.
The gulf between the top half dozen sides and the rest has widened and Waterford boss Niall Carew admits his side were on a hiding to nothing
“We competed well in the first half. It was 0-8 to 0-4 at half time and we had a great shout for a penalty as well and we were very unlucky not to get that. I found it amazing that the referee then gave Kerry a penalty when they were 17 points up. It was disappointing but look we are where we are, we are in Division Four.
“We played Kildare in a challenge game two weeks, and it was the same, it was 8-4 at half time and I was probably fearful of this in the second half. Our level of fitness would not be near where Kerry or any of the top five or six teams are. We are miles away from that standard”
The drubbings
Carew added the GAA must do something or the drubbings will continue. "I think we are a full half (35 minutes) away from the standard that Kerry are at. That is how big the gap is at the moment. I think maybe getting up two divisions would be realistic for Waterford.
“If we were a Division Three team or a bottom of Division Two team, then we would compete very well with them. There is a huge gap between us and the top teams in Division Two and all the Division One teams.
“The gap is going to get bigger if we are not careful. I don’t know what the answer is but if you look at it in terms of preparation for ourselves, we struggle because our finances are very low, it costs money to run a team . . . I am just talking about preparation . . .
"Maybe there should be an opportunity to make funds available to weaker counties, to try and get up to that level
. . . "
Kerry struggled in the opening half as they led 0-8 to 0-4 at half time with James O’Donoghue looking lively and kicking two points. Johnny Buckley contributed 0-3 including two frees, Tomás Ó Sé kicked a trademark point, but Kerry were not breaking down the blanket defence with Waterford having 13 men behind the ball.
Kerry boss Eamonn Fitzmaurice was not happy at the interval. “We did not cope that well with it in the first half as we found it hard to find space up there,” he said.
“Patience is very important when you are coming up against that blanket defence, but at the same time we went in four points up at half-time.
“It’s a work in progress every time we come across it, it is going to be awkward to break it down . . .
“We will have to look back at the video and see how well we coped with it, but we missed a couple of goals in the first because we were not that clinical in front of goal.”
However Kerry regrouped at half-time and once Kieran Donaghy finished a high Tomás Ó Sé centre to the net in the second half, it was game over.
Declan O'Sullivan added a second goal four minutes later as the Waterford challenge completely collapsed, Peter Crowley was very impressive for Kerry from wing back.
Target practice
Anthony Maher stole in for a third goal in the 48th minute as Kerry turned the match into target practice, and by the time Bryan Sheehan rolled an injury-time penalty past Stephen Enright, Kerry were already 3-21 to 1-4 ahead. Tony Grey got Waterford's solitary second half score , a goal gifted by Kerry in the 60th minute but it was a no contest.
“We felt at half-time that we were sloppy and careless in the first half, and we felt that we needed to up the tempo.
“One of the words we were preaching this week was patience, because we knew that they were going to get bodies behind the ball and we knew that it might take until the second half before we could get momentum . . .
"We played at a Division 4 tempo in the first half and in the second half we played at a Division One tempo and that was the difference."
KERRY: B Kealy; M Ó Sé (0-1), A O'Mahony, F Fitzgerald (0-1); T Ó Sé (0-2), K Young, P Crowley (0-1); A Maher (1-0), J Buckley (0-4, two frees); P Galvin (0-2), C Cooper (0-4, two frees), D Walsh (0-1); Declan O'Sullivan (1-0), K Donaghy (1-0), J O'Donoghue (0-2). Subs: Darran O'Sullivan (0-1) for D Walsh (44mins), E Brosnan for T Ó Sé (50 mins), B Sheehan (1-1, goal pen, one free) for Maher (51 mins), S Enright for M Ó Sé (56 mins), K O'Leary (0-1) for Donaghy (60 mins). Yellow cards: None.
WATERFORD: S Enright; T Ó hUallacháin, N Walsh, T O'Gorman; C Phelan, S Briggs, J Hurney; M O'Gorman, T Prendergast; T Grey (1-1), S Aherne (0-1), A Doyle; P Whyte (0-2, one free), G Hurney, R Aherne. Subs: C O'Keeffe for C Phelan (47 mins), L Ó Lionain for A Doyle (47 mins), P Hurney for R Aherne (53 mins), S O'Hare for Prendergast (66 mins). Yellow Cards: J Hurney (47), T Ó hUallacháin 53.
Referee: Martin Higgins (Fermanagh).
