David Clifford starred as Kerry kept alive their All-Ireland title defence with a commanding 13-point victory over Armagh to ease into next weekend’s quarter-finals.
The reigning Footballer of the Year picked off 1-10 as the home supporters at Fitzgerald Stadium went home happy with a convincing win against the 2024 champions.
The Kingdom finished strongly with two goals in each half in front of almost 25,000 spectators in Killarney.
First-half goals from Clifford and Paul Geaney were the difference as Kerry took a six-point lead into the half-time break – 2-08 to 0-08 – before goals from Joe O’Connor and Keith Evans ultimately put an emphatic gloss on the scoreline, ending Armagh’s interest in the championship.
Kerry now await Monday morning’s draw to see who they face in the last eight.
Clifford celebrates his first-half goal
After an understandably nervy start to this All-Ireland series Round 3 knockout tie, it was Kieran McGeeney’s side that took an early stronghold on proceedings, leading 0-04 to 0-01 early on with Ross McQuillan, Jason Duffy, Oisín Conaty and Cian McConville raising white flags.
The sides were level on the 13th minute as Kingdom talisman Clifford took full advantage of a superb defence-splitting pass from Dylan Geaney to raise the game’s first green flag, finding himself in space behind the cover defence.
It was nip-and-tuck before a Dylan Geaney two-pointer put the hosts three points up for the first time. Conor Turbitt (free) and Conaty pointed without response to narrow the deficit to one, but a Clifford orange flag restored the three-point advantage.
The Kingdom got their second goal seconds before the break, a well-taken counter-attack finished off by Paul Geaney whose effort trickled along the ground into the empty net as Armagh goalkeeper Ethan Rafferty could only watch on from the Kerry half.
Seconds later, the buzzer sounded for half time as Kerry took a healthy six-point lead into the break.
Joe O’Connor scores Kerry’s third goal against Armagh
It was all but game over in the 45th minute when the impressive Joe O’Connor scored Kerry’s third goal, making it a 11-point game with 25 minutes remaining on the clock, Geaney providing the assist once again.
By the time Clifford slotted over a two-point five minutes later, Kerry’s fifth score without reply, Jack O’Connor’s men had opened up a very comfortable 15-point lead.
Armagh briefly stopped the rot when substitute Oisín O’Neill tapped over a free in the 51st minute to reduce the gap to 14.
However, that proved nothing but a mini-revival as Kerry scored the next two points with full-back Jason Foley and wing-back Graham O’Sullivan getting involved in the scoring action.
Séan O’Shea’s introduction from the bench minutes later was met with a loud cheer from the Kingdom faithful as the Kenmare man returned from injury to make for his first championship appearance this year.
Armagh to their credit continued to battle, with Conaty and Andrew Murnin both adding two-point scores, but Kerry had the final say.
As stoppage time approached, substitute Keith Evans burst through a stretched Armagh defence, looping the ball over an outcoming Rafferty for Kerry’s fourth goal to complete a dominant second-half performance and end Armagh’s interest in this year’s championship.
Kerry: Shane Murphy; Paul Murphy, Jason Foley (0-01), Dylan Casey; Brian Ó Beaglaoich, Mike Breen, Graham O’Sullivan (0-01); Mark O’Shea, Seán O’Brien; Joe O’Connor (1-00), Paudie Clifford, Diarmuid O’Connor; David Clifford (1-10 1tpf, 2f, 1tpf) Paul Geaney (capt.) (1-01), Dylan Geaney (0-05, 1tp)
Subs: Gavin White for Ó Beaglaoich (52 minutes), Seán O’Shea for Paul Geaney (54), Keith Evans (1-00) for O’Brien (56), Evan Looney for Murphy, Tony Brosnan for O’Shea (both 61), Armin Heinrich for Casey (65)
Armagh: Ethan Rafferty (0-02, 1tpf); Peter McGrane, Aaron McKay, Gareth Murphy; Paddy Burns, Tiernan Kelly, Jarly Óg Burns; Andrew Murnin (0-02, 1tp), Joe McElroy; Cian McConville (0-01f), Darragh McMullen, Ross McQuillan (0-03); Conor Turbit (0-02, 1f), Jason Duffy (0-02), Oisin Conaty (0-04, 1tp)
Subs: Oisín O’Neill (0-01, 1f) for Óg Burns, Tómas McCormack for McElroy (both 47 minutes), Callum O’Neill for McConville (52), Rory Grugan for McKay (61), Greg McCabe for Turbitt (65)
Referee: David Coldrick (Meath)