All-Ireland SFC Round 2B: Kildare 0-17 Kerry 3-22For a while there at the start of the championship, Jack O’Connor felt that Kerry were on “life support”, such was the impact of injuries on his ravaged squad.Their rehabilitation is far from complete, of course, given that injuries are still an issue while, on the playing side of things, overwhelming an out of sorts Kildare was widely anticipated.Still, there were signs of the old joie de vivre coming back with David Clifford, their scorer in chief again, even allowing himself a trademark arms-outstretched celebration after his game-clinching 54th-minute goal.Three minutes later, Diarmuid O’Connor found the net too, putting an end to any outside hopes Kildare may have been harbouring of doing a Cork and taking down a heavyweight.Three weeks after losing to Donegal in Killarney, this was a positive response from Kerry, who will go into Monday morning’s draw for Round 3 with fresh momentum.Gavin White, one of eight substitutes brought on by Kerry, scored their third goal with only seconds remaining when he palmed home a David Clifford assist.It was a win achieved without Seán O’Shea, Shane Ryan and Tom O’Sullivan, while Brian Ó Beaglaoich, Jason Foley and Paudie Clifford were all taken off under the temporary sub rule.“You still would think that we’re a small bit undercooked but we’re definitely in a healthier position than we were a month ago,” said O’Connor of Kerry’s ongoing rehabilitation. “I’d say we were on life support. We’re off the life support now but that’s about as much as we can say!”O’Connor highlighted the character and quiet determination of his team after ruthlessly ending Kildare’s championship campaign.Kerry’s David Clifford gets a shot away under pressure from Brian Byrne and Colm Dalton of Kildare. Photograph: James Crombie/Inpho “Really happy with the second half, I thought we controlled it really well,” he said. “And a lot of that was down to Shane Murphy’s kick-outs, he had a great day in goal. He got 17 out of 20 of our own kick-outs away and I think we won 15 out of 26 of Kildare’s. That’s a lot of possession, so we were able to control possession, mainly from restarts.”Kildare’s season is over after heavy defeats to Galway and Kerry. They were relegated from Division Two of the league too and some clubs turned on manager Brian Flanagan at the most recent county board meeting.“Blaming the manager is a well worn path in this county,” said Flanagan, who criticised the “timing” of the comments and said he’s happy to discuss the situation now that the season is over.“Personally, I pay very little attention to it [the criticism]. It doesn’t hold a lot of water with me. People can say what they want at these meetings. As I said, I felt it was poorly timed. As regards my own future and what this means, today’s not a day to be making decisions.”Kildare briefly got it going in the second quarter but were already eight points down, 0-10 to 0-2, and the Kingdom were good value for their 0-16 to 0-8 half-time lead.The Clifford and O’Connor goals in the 54th and 57th minutes killed the game, but the punishment wasn’t over as Clifford played in White for a third goal at the death.KILDARE: E Sheehan; R Burke, M Dempsey, H O’Neill; J McGrath, P Spillane, B Byrne (0-0-1); K Feely, B Gibbons; S Farrell, D Kirwan (0-2-2), C Dalton; B Loakman (0-0-1), A Beirne (0-0-2, 1f), J Robinson (0-0-5).Subs: B McLoughlin (0-1-0) for Farrell (44 mins); R Sinkey for Dalton (49); E Cully for Robinson (53); T Gill for O’Neill (62); D Swords for McGrath (64).KERRY: S Murphy; E Looney, J Foley, D Casey; B Ó Beaglaoich (0-1-1), M Breen, G O’Sullivan (0-0-2, 1f); M O’Shea, S O’Brien (0-0-2); J O’Connor (0-1-0), P Clifford (0-1-1, one 45), D O’Connor (1-0-0); P Geaney (0-0-2), D Clifford (1-0-4), D Geaney (0-1-2).Subs: G White (1-0-0) for Ó Beaglaoich (inj, 50 mins); K Evans for J O’Connor (53), T Brosnan for J O’Connor (both 53); A Heinrich for Breen, P Murphy for Looney (both 57); K Spillane for D O’Connor (62); T Morley for Foley (inj, 64); T Kennedy for P Clifford (inj, 66).Referee: N Cullen (Fermanagh).