Kerry 1-26 Limerick 3-9
Kerry advanced to another Munster Final appearance with a facile win over a hapless home side in the Gaelic Grounds, Limerick this evening.
In front of a sparcely populated crowd, the official attendance given at just over 6,000, James Horan's charges were unable to cope with the livewire Kerry forward line and in particular the aerial dominance of Kieran Donaghy.
The loss of inspirational midfielder John Galvin and full back Stephen Lucey in the lead up to the game was too much for the home side even though they did open the scoring inside the first minute through midfielder Jim O'Donovan.
The Kingdom men however were soon in to their stride and the warning bells were set off when they had what looked like a legitimate goal chalked off in the 3rd minute for a sqaure ball offence. Points were tagged on by Bryan Sheehan and Declan O'Sullivan before Darren O'Sullivan scythed through the home sides defence and finished to the net after great build up play by the influential Donaghy.
With Limerick struggling really badly to win any sort of decent posession around the middle of the field, Kerry pressed home their advantage with further points added on by Cooper (2), Sheehan, Declan and Darren O'Sullivan.
Having not registered a score since the first minute of the game the home side finally showed some attacking promise in the 27th minute with a well worked goal by wing forward Seanie Buckley. This score stemmed a mini Limerick revival and they tagged on further points in injury time at the end of the half to leave the half time score Kerry 1-11 Limerick 1-4.
If the home side had any chance of clawing their way back in to this game they really needed to start the second half positively. Instead, however, Kerry continued where they had left off in the first and reeled off further scores through Cooper again, Donaghy and wing back Killian Young who had been afforded the time and pace to roam forward and punch over the bar.
The biggest cheer of the night was then received with the introduction of sub Paul Galvin for Darren O'Sullivan midway through the second half. The Finuge man was immediately on the ball and looked eager for work after his injury troubles of late.
Limerick were really struggling to stem the wave after wave of Kerry attacks at this satge but they did put a move of note together themselves in the 19th minute and after good interplay the ball was finished to the net by hard working corner forward Ger Collins.
Jack O'Connor had the luxury of emptying his bench at this stage and subs Daniel Bohan, Barry John Keane and David Geaney all got on the scoresheet before a final consolation goal for Limerick by sub Seamie O'Carroll.
The Kerry manager will be very pleased with the penetration of his forward unit heading in to another Munster Final but may have a sleepless night or two trying to figure out how his defence managed to leak three goals against a home side whose forwards were living off scraps throughout the game. For James Horan he will be glad that there will not be forward units as razor sharp as the Kingdom's in the qualifiers but he will be concerned how the heart and spine of his team seems to be sucked from it with the absense of John Galvin.
Kerry Team and Scorers:
Brendan Kealy, Shane Enright, Marc O'Se, Tom O'Sullivan, Killian Young (0-1), Eoin Brosnan (0-1), Aidan O'Mahoney, Anthony Maher, Bryan Sheehan (0-2, 1 free), Darren O'Sullivan (1-3), Declan O'Sullivan (0-4), Donncha Walsh, Colm Cooper (0-7), Kieran Donaghy (0-2), Kieran O'Leary (0-2)
Subs: Paul Galvin (0-1) for Darren O'Sullivan, Michael Quirke for Anthony Maher, Daniel Bohan (0-1) for Bryan Sheehan, Barry John Keane (0-1) for Donncha Walsh, David Geaney (0-1) for Kieran O'Leary
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