'The Second Worst Kerry Performance Of My Life': Kingdom All-Ireland Winner On Meath Rout

On a mammoth weekend of gaelic football, the biggest shock came from the first match to finish up. Meath routed Kerry by 9 points in Tullamore to claim a spot in the All-Ireland quarterfinals.

It was an absolutely titanic victory for the Royal County, who are now the first team since Tyrone to beat Kerry and Dublin in the same Championship campaign since 2008. Tyrone won the All-Ireland that year.

However, from a Kerry perspective, the manner of the result feels like the beginning of a full-fledged crisis. Yes, the Kingdom were down 6 players today, including Paul Geaney, Paudie Clifford and Seanie O'Shea. But defeats on this scale do not happen very often for Jack O'Connor and Kerry. They'll have a week to figure out what went wrong and could be in for a hugely dangerous home match next weekend.

Interestingly the last time Kerry lost by this much, Meath were the opposition as well. That match was 24 years ago, in the All-Ireland semifinals, when Sean Boylan's Meath steamrolled them en route to the All-Ireland final.

That result left massive scars on the Kerry psyche, and it was interesting to see it being cited by Kerry All-Ireland winner Billy O'Shea on Radio Kerry after the game.

That is the second worse performance Kerry have produced in my lifetime, the first being 2001 when we lost to the same opposition by 15 points as you can recall.

Everybody associated with the team that day will probably tell you that it was the most lonesome, embarassing, all those horrible words associated with defeat that they would have experienced and I'm sure the players today will probably be feeling the same. It was a game that just didn't happen for Kerry.

O'Shea was in Tullamore for the match and he did not hold back in his criticism of Kerry's performance.

We were lacking the same passion, the same heart, the same hunger. We won nothing around the middle of the field bar one kickout that Joe O'Connor got on the 60th minute. The only ball we won in the whole of the afternoon here in Tullamore. It's hugely disappointing.

I would normally be a bit conservative because I respect anybody who puts on the green and gold and I know the commitments that players make and the sacrifices that players make.

But a lot of what we saw today was rubbish. It's time to call a spade a spade. We lacked an awful lot of passion. Turnover, soft turnovers. We had no bit of direction. We had no game plan. Towards the end of that game they were dictating things exactly like they did in 2001.

That 2001 game saw Kerry fans flee the match early in disgust.

Interestingly, Jack O'Connor was on the bench that day as one of Páidí Ó Sé's selectors.

There's every chance that O'Connor was playing it safe with his selection ahead of the coming knockout games. However, if they get an unkind draw and have to face Division One opposition next week, their Championship run may not even get to Croke Park.