Kildare pass the stress test

FOR a long time, this game was moving towards an apparently inevitable Kildare victory without the bite or intensity you expect from games between these two, no matter what’s at stake.

In the end, the Lilywhites did prevail but the temperature had raised enough by the final whistle that Meath manager Seamus McEnaney was squaring off with his Kildare counterpart, Kieran McGeeney, over a decision to award a hop ball when Ronan Sweeney had appeared to have over-carried.

McEnaney dismissed it afterwards as “spur of the moment” and McGeeney described it wonderfully as “tickling bellies”, although he did chastise himself for losing his discipline.