Kerry blow away Cork to continue Munster U20 dominance
Kerry won their fourth successive Dalata Hotel Group Munster U20 Football Championship title by defeating Cork 2-15 to 1-10 at SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh on Monday evening.
It was another day, another provincial success for The Kingdom, and on this occasion it was game over at half-time with the scoreboard reading 1-8 to 0-3.
The group of players managed by Tomás Ó Sé were relentless, with nine different green and yellow shirts putting the ball over the bar.
For Cork, it goes down as another loss in a fixture they have not tasted success in at minor, U20, or senior levels since May 2023.
The Kingdom did what they always did, and it started with a Paddy Lane point inside 60 seconds.
Darragh Clifford responded for the home side and for a brief period it looked like it was going to be a close encounter.
This feeling continued when Kerry's Ben Murphy had a goal chance stopped by Billy Curtin and Cork's Dylan O'Neill had a close range shot blocked on the line by Killian Dennehy.
Eddie Healy also had a chance to raise a green flag, and the midfielder volleyed the ball wide at the City End.
Kerry then started splitting the posts and scores from Tomás Kennedy and Ronan Carroll saw them go in front at 0-4 to 0-1.
Cork retaliated with an Edward Myers 45', though it was immediately cancelled out by white flag raised by Aodhna Ó Beaglaoich.
Kerry went up a gear after that and hit 1-3, with the stand-out moment being a close range Dennehy goal after forcing the Cork back-line into dropping the ball by the square in the 29th minute.
The close range finish was joined by points from Kennedy, Ciarán Collins, and Lane and it was 1-8 to 0-3 at the break.
The Kingdom restarted by rattling off 1-02, with Kennedy goaling on '33 and Lane and Ben Murphy adding the points.
Cork responded with an Aaron O'Sullivan two-point free, but Kerry's class shone through as they reeled off four points without reply.
Donagh O'Sullivan started it off after replacing Dennehy and Kennedy continued the drive. Evan Boyle and Jack Tagney finished it off and it was 2-14 to 0-5 with just 53 minutes played.
Cork finished with a flourish, with Colm Clifford punching the ball in and O'Sullivan curling over a brace of two-point frees. That helped cut the gap to seven points at 2-14 to 1-10 as the clock turned red.
A Lane free ended things however and made it four-in-a-row in Kerry for the first time since 1998.
Cork: Billy Curtin; Niall O'Shea, Colin Molloy, Colm Clifford (1-0), Matthew Woods, Gearóid Daly, Seán O'Leary, Darragh Clifford (0-1), Colm Gillespie, Edward Myers, Dara Sheedy (0-1), Aaron O'Sullivan (0-5, 1 45, 2 2pt from frees), Bryan Hayes (0-1, 1f), Danny Miskella, Dylan O'Neill.
Subs: Dylan Harrington for Myers (HT); Ben O'Connell for Woods (37), Micheál Maguire for O'Neill (44), Darragh Gough (0-2, 1 2pt from free) for Hayes (46).
Kerry: Michael Tansley; Aodhna Ó Beaglaoich (0-1), Gearóid Evans, Maidhcí Lynch, Liam Evans, Darragh O'Connor, Ben Murphy (0-1), Eddie Healy, Daniel Kirby, Ciarán Collins (0-2), Evan Boyle (0-1), Killian Dennehy (1-0), Paddy Lane (0-4, 2f), Tomás Kennedy (1-3, 1m), Ronan Carroll (0-1).
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