Kerry's 39-match unbeaten home championship run came to end as Mayo defeated the All-Ireland champions with five points to spare in this Group 1 Round 1 All-Ireland SFC round-robin tie in Killarney.
In front of 23,128 at a sun-drenched Fitzgerald Stadium, Mayo were much stronger then their Kerry counterparts and first to the ball, and got their all-decisive goal ten minutes from time when substitute Eoghan McLaughlin, who was only on the field four minutes, raised the game’s only green flag.
The result sees Kerry lose the longest held unbeaten home championship record in the history of the GAA.
Mayo made five changes to their Connacht championship quarter-final defeat to Roscommon six weeks ago, while Kerry remained unchanged from their 14-point defeat of Clare in the Munster final two weeks ago.
It had been 41 days since that defeat to the Rossies, but Kevin McStay’s side showed no sign of rustiness and were quickest out of the traps. Mayo could have, and should have, taken the lead inside two minutes, but Kerry 'keeper Shane Ryan superbly saved a Diarmuid O’Connor shot on goal.
Three minutes later, James Carr was denied a certain goal after linking up well with Matthew Ruane, but again Ryan excellently saved from point-blank range to keep Mayo at bay.
Ruane did well to ease through the Kerry defence after collecting the ball from Jordan Flynn, seconds after Seán O'Shea was turned over in the middle of the field.
Points from play from the impressive Ryan O’Donoghue and Aidan O’Shea gave Mayo a well-deserved lead inside seven minutes.
Paul Geaney kicked over Kerry’s first point of the afternoon in the ninth minute after a quick-thinking Graham O’Sullivan split the Mayo defence with a lovely through ball from a fast free.
The point of the game came just shy of the 13th minute mark. A tightly marked David Clifford, in almost no space, somehow managed to kick straight over the black spot from the 45-metre mark to draw both sides level for the first time.
Mayo responded well and points from Pádraig O’Hora, James Carr, and a Ryan O’Donoghue free had Mayo three points midway through the opening half.
An Aidan O’Shea free put Mayo four points by the 25th minute – 0-7 to 0-3 in favour of the visitors - but two quick-fire frees from Seán O'Shea had Kerry back to within two points with 27 minutes on the clock.
Dara Moynihan and David Clifford brought it back to a one-point game after the in-form Carr had put Mayo three ahead.
However, after O’Donoghue got his third point of the game, the momentum really started to swing in Mayo’s favour with McStay’s charges scoring the next three points – four without response – to go five points ahead at the half-time break – 0-12 to 0-7 in favour of the visitors.
It could have been a lot worse for O’Connor’s men at the break, but Ryan again denied O’Donoghue the opening goal of the game right on the verge of half-time - his third goal saving chance of the day.
Mayo extended their lead to six after the restart with Ruane and Jason Doherty pointing either side of a David Clifford free, before Geaney slotted over his second point to again make it a five-point game – 0-14 to 0-09.
Kerry were in search of that all-important goal at this stage and Colm Reape did superbly well to save a low David Clifford shot on goal.
The younger of the Clifford brothers had yet another goal-scoring chance just minutes later but Mayo corner back Sam Callinan blocked on the line.
Just seconds after Ryan made his fourth goal chance save of the afternoon, David Clifford pointed to narrow the deficit to three points, but
Mayo got their goal 10 minutes from time – the impressive O’Donoghue laid off to Eoghan McLaughlin before the Mayo substitute drilled low into the Kerry net putting McStay’s charges six points up – 1-16 to 0-13.
Two David Clifford points lifted the home crowd as Kerry came back to within four points, but after Paddy Durcan slotted over an excellent point from out wide to make it a five-point game, Mayo scored the last two points to run out 1-19 to 0-17 winners.
Kerry now face a trip to Cork on the June Bank Holiday weekend, while Mayo face Louth at home, also in two weeks’ time.
Kerry: Shane Ryan; Dylan Casey, Jason Foley, Tom O'Sullivan (0-02); Graham O'Sullivan, Tadhg Morley, Gavin White; Diarmuid O'Connor, Jack Barry; Dara Moynihan (0-01), Seán O'Shea (0-03, 0-02f, 0-01 ‘45) Paudie Clifford; Tony Brosnan, David Clifford (capt.) (0-08, 0-03f), Paul Geaney (0-03)
Subs: Paul Murphy for Morley (blood sub 25-28 minutes); Paul Murphy for Casey, Adrian Spillane for Brosnan (both half-time); Ruairí Murphy for Moynihan (46 minutes), Brian Ó Beaglaíoch for Morley (59 minutes), Stephen O’Brien for Barry (64 minutes)
Mayo: Colm Reape; Jack Coyne, David McBrien, Sam Callinan; Pádraig O’Hora (0-01), Conor Loftus, Donnacha McHugh (0-01); Matthew Ruane (0-02), Diarmuid O’Connor; Jason Doherty (0-01), Jack Carney (0-01), Jordan Flynn (0-01); Aidan O’Shea (0-03, 0-02f, 0-01m), James Carr (0-03), Ryan O’Donoghue (0-05, 0-2f)
Subs: Paddy Durcan (0-01) for Doherty, Enda Hession for Callinan (both 48 minutes), Tommy Conroy for Carr (53 minutes), Eoghan McLaughlin (1-00) for O’Hora (56 minutes), Stephen Coen for Coyne (60 minutes)
Referee: Seán Hurson (Tyrone)
