REPORT: Kerry Hurlers Suffer Heavy Defeat To Waterford In Tralee

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Mike O’Halloran on Kerry’s defeat to Waterford this afternoon in the Munster Hurling League tie at Austin Stack Park in Tralee…

Kerry 1-10

Waterford 4-23

The Kerry side which faced Waterford. Photo by Mike O’Halloran

A 22 point demolition of Kerry by a Waterford team in transition showed to gulf in class between the top tier teams and the likes of Kerry.

Kerry had hung in during the first half and only trailed by three points at the end of the first half 1-05 t0 0-11, all the Kerry scores coming from placed balls by Shane Conway while Jordan Conway had a point from play.

The Kerry goal was a converted penalty by Shane Conway following a pretty bad foul on Michael Slattery, which looked like it should have been punished by a dark coloured card.

Waterford were playing lots of combinations with cross field tasing and diagonal balls trying to manufacture scores by going all round the houses.

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That was all to change at the beginning of the second half where they added one goal and three point within a few minutes.

The Waterford goal was powered to the net by Calum Lyons giving Martin Stackpoole no chance in the Kerry goal, Stackpoole had pulled off a great save in the opening minutes, this was to be one of four super saves he was to deliver during the game.

Within sixteen minutes of the resumption, Waterford led by double scores 2-16 to 1-08 after Stephen Bennett blasted to the net after he styled through a hapless Kerry defence. Daragh Lyons also goaled.

Michael Leane had a point from play for Kerry with 20 minutes on the clock, before Dessie Hutchinson blasted to the net having come on for Shane Ryan.

Waterford added six more points before the end to one point for Kerry, that point from play from Shane Conway.

This was a pretty tough day in Tralee for the Kerry boys, where they learned the true depth and width of the gulf between the likes of Waterford and themselves.

I’m not privy to how well training has gone for Kerry in the closed season, but if today is anything to go by, they have a lot of work to do between now and the start of the league.

But I’m sure they will knuckle down during the coming weeks and learn from the lesson dished out by Waterford today.

The defence will certainly have to be shored up and the forwards will have to manufacture scores from play to augment the scores from placed balls.

Kerry team:
Martin Stackpoole, Sean Weir, Bryan Murphy, Eric Reen (Donal Hunt) Conor O’Keefe, Michael Boyle, Evan Murphy (Eamonn Shanahan), Sean Sheehan, Shane Nolan (Declan O’Donoghue) Michael Leane 0-01, Fionan Mcassey, Colum Harty (Brandon Barrett), Jordan Conway 0-01, Shane Conway 1-08 1 penalty 7 frees 1 point from play, Michael Slattery (Padraig Boyle)

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