Slick Kerry breeze past Monaghan in Killarney

Any residual regret or resentment lingering after their opening weekend loss away to Donegal was thoroughly rinsed from Kerry's system with an accomplished 11-point win over a Monaghan team still looking for its first League points.

Second half goals from Darragh Roche and substitute Paudie Clifford put the result to rest with 20 minutes to play, while Donal O’Sullivan cemented the 'man of the match’ award with a goal in additional time to go with the three points he kicked from play.

Clifford’s goal was a particular delight as the Fossa man soloed the ball from deep inside his own half all the way to the penalty spot before passing the ball past Rory Beggan to the delight of the majority of the 10,232 crowd.

The goals were the obvious bright spots on a very open game that was high on scores but low on intensity, not that the defending League champions Kerry will worry too much about that.

As Jack O’Connor had said a week ago in Ballybofey, it is all about getting points on the board, and to that end Kerry were emphatic in Killarney this afternoon.

Monaghan boss Vinnie Corey has plenty of work to do ahead of the visit of Donegal to Clones in a fortnight, while O’Connor will look forward to a testing trip to Castlebar the same weekend with a collective spring in his team’s step.

It took six minutes for Monaghan to get the game’s first score, via a Conor McCarthy free, and a minute later Tony Brosnan opened Kerry’s account, also from a free, and there was never any more than two scores between the teams until the last few minutes of the half when the home side widened the gap to four points at the interval.

It was a curious first half, one that produced 16 points from that sixth minute opener until Micheal Burns slipped over