Meath see off Kerry despite internal dispute

Meath 1-10 Kerry 0-11

But in the aftermath, the talk was not of victory but of a row between Royals manager Martin Barry and County Board chairman Fintan Ginnity over the playing, or not, of Garry Rodgers, who the Board claimed was ineligible. Barry claimed that the chairman refused to hand over numbers 14, 23 and 24 jerseys in an attempt to prevent Rodgers from participating.

“There is no reason why Gary shouldn’t play,” he said.

“No matter what happens Gary Rodgers will still be part of our panel for the final. He has trained all along with us and I certainly won’t be dropping him from the panel for the final no matter what the county board may decide. The county board argue that Gary hadn’t played with his club all season but he played with them last Tuesday night which makes him eligible to play for us.”

But Ginnity retorted by stating that Rodgers did not assist his club all season, and played “a token game on Tuesday” in order to be eligible to play on Saturday

“It has to be pointed out that all the players were prevented from playing any other game 10 days before this semi-final, so what makes Gary Rodgers so different from the rest.”

On the field of play, this was vintage Meath as they hounded Kerry at every opportunity. Playing into the strong wind Kerry made the early running and with Kieran Foley in sparking form at left corner forward, they moved ahead 0-4 to 0-2.

However Meath wing forward Stephen Bray, who was posing a lot of problems for Kerry, eventually got the goal he deserved when he slammed home a rebound following an excellent save by ‘keeper Humphrey Shanahan.

The dominance of Kerry’s Tommy Griffin and EJ O’Donoghue at midfield ensured an excellent service to their forward colleagues who took full advantage to kick over three unanswered points after that goal and the Munster champions were sitting pretty at half time, leading by a point ahead of a wind-assisted second half.

However Kerry could never cope with the brilliance of Cathal Sheridan whose magnificent free taking had the sides level twice in a closely contested second half.

Kerry failed to register a score in the last quarter and it was fitting that Sheridan, with two late points, should ensure Meath stay on course to regain a title they last won in 1997.

Scorers for Meath; C. Sheridan 0-7 (0-4 frees); S. Bray 1-1; P. Duff (free), A. Fox 0-1 each.

Kerry: K. Foley 0-4 (0-3 frees); J. Dennehy 0-3; D. Galvin 0-2; T. Griffin, B. Scanlon 0-1 each.

MEATH: J. Curry; C. McLoughlin, T. Bannon, P. Nugent; N. Horan, F. McMahon, B. Keirns; I. McManus, J. Gallagher; C. Sheridan, P. Duff, S. Bray; A. Fox, A. Sheehan, R. Russell.

Subs. B. Farrell for Sheehan; S. Smith for Bannon; W. Byrne for Duff.

KERRY: H. Shanahan; S. O’Sullivan, L. Keane, K. Burns; N. Sheehy, D. Murphy, S. Flynn; EJ O’Donoghue, T. Griffin; D. Galvin, R. Donovan, S. Dennehy; B. Scanlon, P. Kennedy, K. Foley.

Subs. J. Shanahan for Galvin; B. O’Neill for Scanlon.

Referee: M. Daly (Mayo).