Tyrone lay down marker against Kerry with first Killarney win in 19 years

Other results secured Tyrone's survival, but a first win in Killarney in 19 years was no less sweet for the All-Ireland champions as they got the better of Kerry on a 1-15 to 2-11 scoreline.

The Kingdom, with their place in the Division 1 decider already secured, didn’t make this one easy for the visitors, whose best performance of the season to date gave them the result they deserved.

Darren McCurry’s 1-07 haul led the Red Hands to the perfect result as they fine-tune for their Ulster Championship opener against Fermanagh in three weeks’ time.

Kerry, who face Mayo in next Sunday’s decider, could have been forgiven for affording themselves a relaxed saunter in the Killarney sunshine.

But not an inch is surrendered willfully in any clash with their great rivals from the north, and every opportunity to inflict pain is gratefully accepted.

The venue has been a graveyard for Tyrone teams in recent season, a place where they hadn’t won since 2003, and furthermore, here was the perfect chance for the Kingdom to exact a measure of retribution for last summer’s shock All-Ireland semi-final defeat. But it didn’t work out like that.

McCurry fired over three early scores for the visitors, but Kerry hit the front in the 14th minute with a brilliantly worked goal.

David Clifford slipped a pass to Joe O'Connor as he charged through the middle, and the midfielder unselfishly crossed for Tony Brosnan to bury his shot in the net.

With Peter Harte pressing relentlessly and Darragh Canavan drifting deep to link play, the Red Hands hunted in packs, and prised the gaps in the home defence from which McCurry, Canavan and Niall Sludden sent over points as they went three clear after half an hour.

Paul Geaney and Stephen O’Brien worked effectively to