Meath 1-15
Kildare 1-7
Leinster MFC final
Kildare’s run to the Leinster final has been incredibly encouraging, but on Saturday afternoon the Lilywhites came unstuck when facing a superb Meath side who had little bother in swatting away Padraig Carbury’s youngsters.
Perhaps it was the fact that Kildare had to play two energy sapping games against Wicklow when the semi-final went to a replay while Meath enjoyed a facile win over Laois, but the Lilywhites looked miles off the pace in a game which they trailed from the third minute onwards.
The superior physicality of the Royals was key as Kildare were crowded out when they went forward and couldn’t make the ball stick in the full-forward line.
Kildare will now play Ulster champions Monaghan, who are managed by Seamus ‘Banty’ McEnaney in the All-Ireland quarter-final next weekend.
Kildare were well off the pace for the first quarter as they failed to click in attack whatsoever, and despite some good pressure from the Kildare defence, Meath were able to reel off scores due to the amount of possession they had in the danger zone. By the midway point of the half all six of the Royals’ forwards had hit the target from play, while Kildare had only managed one point coming through a Sam Morrissey free by that stage.
Meath were first off the mark in the third minute when the impressive Luke Mitchell tapped over a free, while Kildare’s initial foray into the opposition half ended with Eoghan O’Haire palming a Jack Smyth shot onto the post.
Meath capitalised on a loose pass in the Kildare backline to aid their second score which was registered by Luke Kelly, and moments later Bryan McCormack opened his account with a fine long range effort to put Joe Treanor’s men three to the good. Darragh Swaine then swung over a point for a confident Meath outfit, before Sam Morrissey finally got Kildare off the mark with a simple free, but the Naas man missed a similarly favourable position soon after, which seemed to suck the momentum from their tracks.
A massive point from Matthew Costello was followed by a score from a tight angle from David Bell, before Mitchell smacked over another as Meath raced into an 0-7 to 0-1 advantage.
Jack Smyth cut into that lead with a pointed free for Kildare, before Liam Broderick made a brilliant interception and break to set up Alex Beirne to score as Kildare looked to have found a rhythm in the game. A number of wides and handling errors meant they could never mount any serious challenge however, and Meath finished the half supremely as Bell launched over a fine point before Mitchell raised another three white flags before the interval as Meath led by 0-11 to 0-3.
Kildare needed a quick start to the second half if they were to have any hope, but that idea soon went out the window as Meath maintained their dominance with a couple of early scores from the effervescent Mitchell. They were looking for the killer goal by this stage and almost had it when Matthew Costello got in on goal, but Kildare stopper John Ball made a brilliant double save to keep the Royals captain out. The Clane man then got up to keep out a looping shot from Swaine that looked destined for the top corner.
Kildare’s only point of the third quarter came through a Smyth free, but the game was finished off soon after when a long ball from Costello found McCormack who rolled the ball into the bottom corner.
Mitchell followed that up with a point from a free, before Costello added his second of the day to put 14 points between the sides. Kildare managed to hit three points in the closing stages through scores from Muiris Curtin, Marcus Kiely and Padraig Behan, while Kiely bundled in a goal in the last play of the game, but it was merely a case of prolonging the inevitable as Meath eased over the finish line to set up an All-Ireland quarter-final meeting with Derry.
Scorers for Kildare: M Kiely 1-1, J Smyth 0-2f, A Beirne, P Behan, M Curtin and S Morrissey(1f) 0-1 each.
Scorers for Meath: L Mitchell 0-8(4f), B McCormack 1-1, M Costello and D Bell 0-2 each, D Swaine and L Kelly 0-1 each.
Kildare
John Ball; John Lynch, Sean Hill, Jack Hamill; Nick Jackman, Kevin Kelleher, Paddy McDermott; Liam Broderick, Marcus Kiely; Sam Morrissey, Alex Beirne, Michael McGovern; Eoghan O'Haire, Aaron Kennedy, Jack Smyth.
Subs used: Padraig Behan for O’Haire 22mins, Muiris Curtin for Morrissey 28mins, Daniel Caulfied for Jackman HT, Oisin O’Loughlin for Hill HT, Drew Costello for Beirne 37mins, Sean Englishby for McGovern 45mins.
Meath
Seán Brennan; James O'Hare, Harry O'Higgins, Cathal Hickey; Conor Farrelly, Conor Harford, Seán Coffey; Adam Reilly, Cian McBride; Darragh Swaine, Matthew Costello, Bryan McCormack; David Bell, Luke Kelly, Luke Mitchell.
Subs used: Oisin McCloskey for Harford 45mins, Colin Hawdon for McCormack 49mins, Adam Treanor for Swaine 54mins, Brian O’Hanlon for Bell 54mins.
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