Dublin questions continue as Kerry ease to victory

A second Dublin wash-out in a week leaves more questions than answers for Dessie Farrell after Kerry blew the visitors away in atrocious conditions in Tralee to get their first win of the Allianz League in fairly emphatic fashion.

Even though Kerry only scored a single point in the entire second half, context is needed. Kerry won this game in the first half, and they took a 13-point lead to the interval, and thereafter it was a fire-fighting exercise from Dublin.

That they won the second period by 0-07 to 0-01 will be of very small solace to Farrell. Dublin looked in as much trouble tonight as they did after their first-round loss to Armagh.

For Kerry it was almost all good, so good in fact that they could afford the luxury of a missed penalty from David Clifford in the first half.

The penalty miss came just after Sean Bugler had pointed for Dublin to have them trailing 0-04 to 0-05, and it prefaced a Kerry assault on the Dublin posts in the driving wind and rain.

Dublin did have the ball in the Kerry net in the first half when Dean Rock's shot went in through a combination of the post and Shane Murphy’s hand, but a foul by Niall Scully in the build-up saw him black carded and the goal scratched off – even if it appeared that referee Conor Lane cited the wrong man.

It was a let-off Kerry were happy to play, and thereafter they went to town on the Dubs for the remainder of the half.

In the 26th minute, Loran O’Dell overcooked his pass to Rock with just Murphy providing the Kerry cover at that stage, but Kerry weren’t nearly as wasteful.

'Normal' service has been resumed. But there's nothing normal about some of the scores David Clifford kicks. Even with the wind at his back this is special#rtegaa