NEVER mind the journey -- it's all about the destination. Darran O'Sullivan slips as he scores Kerry's first goal from a penalty in yesterday's All-Ireland SFC semi-final against Meath

Kerry head into September in familiar territory, having qualified for the All-Ireland final for the sixth successive year and for the eighth time this decade.

The voyage hasn't been without its troubles but they survived all the squalls and will sail into the final quite confident that they can mark the GAA's 125th anniversary in the company of Sam Maguire.

They will have to play a whole better than they did against Meath in yesterday's semi-final but, as they proved against Dublin, they are well capable of turning up the power when the occasion demands.

They needed to do it early on against Dublin to convince themselves that the inertia which had clung to them up to then wasn't a permanent condition and while they dropped back considerably yesterday, they were still far too good for Meath in a terribly disappointing game.

The final score flattered Meath, who trailed by 2-8 to 0-6 heading into stoppage time before a pointed free by Brian Farrell and a consolation goal from Cian Ward ate into Kerry's lead, even if there was never a possibility of it being completely wiped out.

Indeed, from the moment Tommy Walsh scored Kerry's second goal in the first minute of the second half, Meath were chasing a lost cause. Even then they didn't do it particularly well, scoring just two points (one from a line ball) in 35 minutes before finally making some progress in stoppage time.

Kerry didn't have to do anything especially impressive to put daylight between themselves and their sloppy pursuers, who were in trouble in every line, starting with goalkeeper Paddy O'Rourke, whose kicking put his side under pressure on several occasions.

It was an added problem in a long line for Meath, but it was far from the perfect display from Kerry either. The sides kicked 32 wides between them while they managed a total of 18 scores, which is unusually low for any game, let alone an All-Ireland semi-final played on a calm, damp afternoon.

Pre-match rain left the pitch extremely slippy and, with some players obviously wearing the wrong boots for the conditions, there were several examples of players falling over as they tried to turn. Bouncing the ball was also a hazardous business as it tended to squirt away from the carrier.

Still, the conditions can't be blamed for all the poor kicking and most certainly not for the inaccurate passing which led to a remarkably high number of possession turnovers.

Meath were especially culpable in this regard and since they were operating off a lower possession ratio than Kerry, they could ill-afford to be so careless.

Just as they had done against Dublin, Kerry struck early in the first half, albeit with considerable help from Meath in the form of a rash tackle by full-back Anthony Moyles on Colm Cooper in the third minute. The main danger appeared to have passed as the ball had squirted away but Moyles took Cooper's legs, prompting referee Gearoid O Conamha to signal for a penalty.

Darran O'Sullivan slipped as he made contact with the ball but his shot still beat O'Rourke, who also lost his footing, to set Kerry on their way. However, unlike the quarter-final, where Dublin melted under the early heat, Meath hung on in there and created enough chances to build up a decent score, but were betrayed by poor shooting.

Farrell's 15th-minute point was their only score of a first quarter, during which they shot seven wides. By half-time, their wides tally had reached 10 (to Kerry's seven) but two late points from Ward had cut the deficit to two points, 1-3 to 0-4.

Farrell's point was Meath's only score from open play, a truly dismal return, but Kerry weren't a whole lot better, as 1-1 of their total had come from placed balls.

Meath had to begin repair work after just seven minutes when captain Stephen Bray was forced out with an injured collar bone, and Jack O'Connor began unloading his subs after 28 minutes when he sent Tommy Walsh in for Donncha Walsh. It was to prove hugely significant as Walsh went on to score 1-2.

His goal came a minute into the second half when Tadhg Kennelly targeted him with an accurately delivered diagonal ball which Walsh fielded expertly before spinning away from Moyles and beating O'Rourke with a crisp drive. By the 46th minute, Kerry had opened up an eight-point advantage (2-7 to 0-5) and the contest was effectively over.

The only remaining item on the agenda was whether or not Kerry would gallop on towards the sort of score they produced against Dublin, but Meath kept battling on, even if a recovery was never on the cards. Still, they restricted Kerry to one point in the closing 25 minutes but could make no impression at the other end until stoppage time.

By then, Kerry could afford to lose concentration as they had banked enough to withstand a few raids. If Walsh's arrival led to a major improvement in the Kerry attack, they had several other plus factors too which underpinned their efforts to become the first team since Dublin in 1974-'79 to reach six successive All-Ireland finals.

Kennelly and Paul Galvin were industrious all through the game; Seamus Scanlon did well at midfield, while Mike McCarthy locked the defence tightly from his centre-back look-out point. His return to the scene has greatly strengthened the Kerry defence, and Marc O Se and Tom O'Sullivan also did well in front of goalkeeper Diarmuid Murphy, who is enjoying a really good season.

O'Connor was in the happy position of being able to withdraw Darragh O Se and Cooper on the hour mark, with Declan O'Sullivan following some minutes later.

Meath manager Eamonn O'Brien also emptied his bench, but it made no appreciable difference on a day when the Meath attack found the Kerry defence far more security-conscious than Mayo had been in the quarter-final.

Cork manager Conor Counihan, who was among the 50,770 crowd, won't have learned anything about Kerry that he didn't already know. They won with the minimum of fuss yesterday and will be happy to have conceded so little but, at the same time, will not be satisfied with their final return, especially as they shot 16 wides, nine of which came in the second half.

reaction

Ten scores is remarkably low in a 70-minute game, but then Cork won the Munster final after scoring just eight times against Limerick. Bookmaker reaction to yesterday's game was to install Cork as marginal favourites to win the final, leaving Kerry in the most unusual position of being outsiders on the big day.

It's a rating they will relish. For while they were far from foot-perfect yesterday, they still did more than enough to grab control of a game that certainly won't go down as one of the classic semi-finals.

Meath had taken full advantage of the 'back door' to re-build their season and then gave their supporters real hope when they hit Mayo for 2-15 in the quarter-final but it was back to reality yesterday against a superior force who would probably have found another gear had the occasion demanded.

Scorers -- Kerry: T Walsh 1-2, Darran O'Sullivan 1-1 (1-0 pen), C Cooper 0-3 (2f), T Kennelly 0-2. Meath: C Ward 1-4 (0-2f, 0-2 sidelines), B Farrell 0-2 (1f), J Sheridan 0-1.

Kerry: D Murphy 7; M O Se 7, T Griffin 6, T O'Sullivan 7; T O Se 7, M McCarthy 8, K Young 6; D O Se 6, S Scanlon 7; P Galvin 7, T Kennelly 8, D Walsh 5; C Cooper 6, Declan O'Sullivan 6, Darran O'Sullivan 6. Subs: T Walsh 8 for D Walsh (28), A O'Mahony 7 for Young (51), M Quirke 6 for D O Se (60), P O'Connor 6 for Cooper (60), B Sheehan for Declan O'Sullivan (66).

Meath: P O'Rourke 5; C O'Connor 6, A Moyles 5, E Harrington 7; S Kenny 5, C McGuinness 6, C King 5; N Crawford 5, B Meade 5; S Bray 5, J Sheridan 6, P Byrne 5; C Ward 7, D Bray 5, B Farrell 6. Subs: M Burke 6 for S Bray (7), J Queeney 6 for Kenny (45), N McKeigue 5 for D Bray (48), M Ward 5 for Crawford (54), K Reilly 5 for King (58).

Referee: G O Conamha (Galway)