Brilliant Kerry crush Cork to retain Munster football title

Cork 0-12 Kerry 0-24

Kerry easily retained their Munster senior football title with a comfortable win over Cork in Páirc Uí Chaoimh.

All Star James O’Donoghue was their scorer-in-chief with 0-10, but Kerry dominated all over the pitch.

Even the most ardent Kerry fans had to pinch themselves to believe the half-time score line of 0-13 to 0-5 as the Kingdom made excellent use of the strong wind.

They monopolised possession around the middle, latching on to every breaking ball and forcing Cork on the defensive even though the home side led 0-3 to 0-2 after six minutes.

Kerry responded with a scintillating 11-point scoring burst and Ken O’Halloran denied the dangerous O’Donoghue with a fine save, dropping low to his left.

But splendid points from O'Donoghue, Paul Geaney, Declan O'Sullivan, Johnny Buckley, Bryan Sheehan and Stephen O'Brien kept the scoreboard ticking along to leave Cork almost shell-shocked at the break.

Cork hit the opening three points of the second-half, but Kerry regained control to have the game in the bag long before the end.

Cork's day was summed up in the closing seconds, when substitute John Hayes was red carded for an elbow on Declan O'Sullivan.

Kerry could afford to empty their bench with Kieran Donaghy earning a huge ovation from the visiting fans, when he was introduced for the closing five minutes.

KERRY: B Kelly; M Ó Sé, A O'Mahony, S Enright; P Murphy, K Young, F Fitzgerald (capt); A Maher, B Sheehan (0-4, two frees, one'45); D Walsh (0-1), D O'Sullivan (0-1), J Buckley (0-4); S O'Brien (0-1), P Geaney (0-3), J O'Donoghue (0-10, two frees).

Subs: P Crowley for O'Mahony (48 mins), Darran O'Sullivan for O'Brien (52 mins), D Moran for Sheehan (56 mins), K O'Leary for Walsh and BJ Keane for Geaney (both 60 mins), K Donaghy for Buckley (65 mins).

CORK: K O'Halloran; M Shields (capt), E Cadogan, N Galvin; D Cahalane, T Clancy, L Loughrey; A Walsh (0-1), F Goold; B O'Driscoll, P Kelly, J O'Rourke; D Goulding (0-7, three frees, one '45), B Hurley (0-4, three frees), P Kerrigan.

Subs: C O'Neill for Kelly and C O'Driscoll for O'Rourke (both half-time), M Collins for B O'Driscoll (45 mins), J O'Sullivan for Clancy (50 mins, inj), J Hayes for Walsh (59 mins), T Clancy (Fermoy) for Galvin (61 mins, inj).

Referee: C Reilly (Meath)