Kerry shake off dogged Meath to reach semi-final

Kerry 1-23  Meath 2-18: Kerry booked their place in the last four of the Christy Ring Cup after overcoming a stern test from a skilful Meath side at Austin Stack Park, Tralee on Saturday.

The visitors operated a sweeper system which caused their hosts huge problems for much of the game. It’s an approach which didn’t find favour with Kerry boss Eamon Kelly. He explained: “Meath played very well. That sweeper system is difficult to counteract. I hope it does not ruin hurling, the way it’s going. It’s difficult to break down, and they scored 2-18 but we should not have conceded that goal at the end. They were very strong in the air, and I thought we defended that side of it very poorly. We need to break down the sweeper system, so we will have to work on that. But we scored 1-23 which is good total to post.”

Meath started well with Jack Regan unerring from frees and then scoring a goal from a 20th minute penalty. Kerry were relying on Shane Nolan from frees after Colm Harty goaled in the opening minute and they trailed by four (1-9 to 1-13) at the interval. Kerry were much improved on the restart with Patrick Kelly, Keith Carmody, John Egan and Podge Boyle to the fore yet they still trailed 1-18 to 1-15 by the 50th minute.