Kerry cruised to a 2-16 to 1-9 Division One victory over Galway at Pearse Stadium.

The winners were close to their brilliant best in the second half, while the hosts looked completely rudderless after losing their attacking ace Micheal Meehan to injury.

Galway actually led by 1-5 to 0-6 at half time but their game had dipped alarmingly since they lost the talisman Meehan to a knee problem. Meehan had registered 1-4 of their tally and he injured himself in the process of scoring that goal.

The first half was ragged and a total of seven yellow cards were dished out.

Centre back David Blake and Meehan knocked over a couple of early Galway points before Colm Cooper replied with three Kerry frees. David O'Callaghan added another Kingdom point and a foul on Meehan resulted in a pointed free from the same player for the hosts: 0-4 to 0-3 after 15 minutes.

Another Meehan brace had the Tribemen ahead and the brilliant Galway No.13 then palmed a goal to make it 1-5 to 0-4 in favour of Joe Kernan's men.

Unfortunately for Galway - and for any neutrals who were hoping for any sort of close contest - Meehan injured himself scoring that three-pointer and he was removed from the game, having got 1-4 of his side's 1-5 to date - a huge blow to the hosts.

Kerry pulled back a couple of points before the short whistle…

Cooper pointed on the restart and captain for the day O'Sullivan added a brilliant goal at the end of a 50-meter run. Cooper's fifth point gave the All-Ireland champions a three-point lead seven minutes into the second half, 1-8 to 1-5.

'The Gooch' finished a nice passing move with a lovely Kerry goal and the Kingdom led by 2-10 to 1-5 20 minutes into the second half. David O'Callaghan had scored 0-3 for the victors.

Paul Conroy finally got Galway's first score since the 19th minute of the first half when his shot blazed over the bar.

With the end approaching, Galway had scored 0-4 to Kerry's 2-11 since losing Meehan and the game was long over as a contest before the final whistle sounded.

Bryan Sheehan clipped over his third point as Jack O'Connor's men kept up the pressure and eased to a comprehensive win in the end. Tweet

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