Kerry 5-9  Meath 0-8

A hat-trick of first half goals from Legion's Conor Keane powered Kerry to a 16-point win over Meath in the Hastings Cup at Kildangan GAA Club, in Puckaun, Tipperary this afternoon.

In the end it wasn't enough to see Daragh Ó Sé's charges into the Hastings Cup semi-finals, but the Kingdom have secured a last-four berth in the Shield competition.

After a 4-12 to 0-1 drubbing last week at the hands of Roscommon, things could only get better for Meath and the Royals handed Kerry a tough test throughout.

Indeed Trim's Shane Lenihan opened the scoring after just 90 seconds with a fine point from play, but Meath's lead in this game was short-lived as Kerry were hungry for goals.

Keane netted Kerry's first goal after four minutes after good link play from Michael Burns and Dara Roche, and six minutes later pushed his side 2-0 to 0-1 in front.

Meath responded with points from Kevin Ryan and Sean Meade, and it wasn't until the 20th minute that Kerry registered their first point, after defender Ronan Murphy slotted a score over the crossbar.

In a very open game of football, with very little wind to talk about - cynical fouling was kept to a minimum, was there was some fine scoring brilliance from open play.

Over the hour all of Kerry's tally came from open play, while just two of Meath's points were from placed balls.

One of these was from midfielder Padraig Harnan, to cut the gap, on a 2-3 to 0-5 score-line after 29 minutes, but Kerry finished the half strongly, with Roche bagging a fine point, and Keane completing his hat-trick on the way to a 3-4 to 0-5 interval lead.

Defences were firmly on top on the restart, with strong efforts from the likes of Kevin Ryan and Sean Meade for Meath to no avail, with Royals keeper Cian Farnan also doing well at the opposite end.

Roche eventually broke the scoring deadlock in the 38th minute for Kerry, but Meath's first score of the second half didn't come until the 51st minute, when substitute Conor Doran left the score at 3-8 to 0-6.

Meath never gave up with further points from Conor Rooney and Ryan O'Rourke to cut the gap to nine points.

But goals were key, and Kerry finished strongly, with Roche and substitute Jack Savage adding further goals in injury-time on the way to a 16-point win.

Scorers for Kerry: C Keane 3-2; D Roche 1-2; M Burns 0-2; R Murphy, J Barry, J Savage 0-1 each.

Scorers for Meath: C Rooney 0-2; S Lenihan, S Meade, K Ryan, P Harnan (1f), C Doran, R O'Rourke (1f) 0-1 each.

KERRY: Darragh Ó Shea; Cormac Coffey, Gavin Crowley; Cathal Murphy; Cathal O Luing; Denis Daly, Ronan Murphy; Jack Barry, Eanna Ó Conchuir; Michael Burns, Brian Crowley, Liam Carey; Dara Roche, Cillian Fitzgerald, Conor Keane. Subs: Jack Savage for Carey (44); Gary O'Sullivan for Ó Conchuir (55); Matthew Flaherty for Fitzgerald (55).

MEATH: Cian Farnan; Michael Flood, Gavin McGowan, Niall Lenehan; Kevin Traynor, Shane McEntee, Ross Blayney; Ben Duggan, Padraig Harnan; Conor Corton, Oisin Reilly, Conor Rooney; Kevin Ryan, Shane Lenihan, Sean Meade. Subs: Liam Ferguson for N Lenehan (HT); Jason Daly for Meade (35); Niall Kane for Traynor (35); Conor Doran for Corton (40); Ryan O'Rourke for Ryan (47); Brian Harnan for Reilly (47).

REFEREE: Paddy Russell (Tipperary)

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