Kerry boss Peter Keane insisted the result was irrelevant after watching his side annihilate Galway.
In what is likely to be the defining year of his Kerry tenure, Keane and his charges got off to the best possible start with a 4-21 to 0-11 victory in the Division One South Allianz League tie at Tralee’s Austin Stack Park.
Kerry led by 2-10 to 0-6 at the break with the Clifford brothers, David and Paudie, bagging a goal each before David netted another two within five minutes of the restart.
Kerry now go on to play Dublin in Thurles next Sunday while Galway have a home tie against Roscommon.
“I wouldn’t pay a blind bit of notice to the result,” said Keane. “The key thing for us today was to try and get out injury free and hopefully we have come out of it injury-free. That was the main focus.
“To be ready for three games on three consecutive weekends is a big ask.
“No question about it, I wouldn’t pay any attention to it. That result could have gone the other way just as handily.
“In normal circumstances we would have a game like this behind closed doors as a challenge game with another county.”
Galway manager Padraic Joyce was at a loss to explain why his side were so far off the pace, with the game effectively out of their reach after the first quarter.
He said: “It’s very disappointing that we let them in very handy but, look, we have to give Kerry credit, they were well up for the game.
“Their movement was fantastic, they scored two goals in the first half, could have got four or five. They cut straight through us at times and they looked very aggressive and hungry and our lads unfortunately didn’t match that and the scoreline reflected the difference in that.
“It’s Division One National League, you’re going to be playing good teams and if you don’t get to the level that’s required you’re going to get beatings like that every other week.
“Lookit, we’ve a lot of work to do. We’ll go back to the drawing board and we’ll meet during the week and get ourselves dusted down and get ready for Roscommon coming to Galway next week.”
