Rampant Rebels rock out of sorts Kerry
It was Cork's 25th title at this grade and rarely has a Kerry team been on the receiving end of such a drubbing by Cork in a provincial final, and supporters of the Kingdom will be hoping it's not a forerunner of things to come at the weekend.
There was never a hint of a Kerry victory as a finely tuned Cork side led from the throw in and playing some great football, had the title well and truly won long before the final whistle.
Cork had the wind advantage in the first half and were quickly off the mark with a brace of points by Daniel Goulding, the second one a marvellous effort from midfield. The wind was clearly a help to the home side, who pinned Kerry in their own half for the opening 10 minutes at the end of which Cork led 0-5 to nil.
On the two occasions Kerry did manage to break out of their own defence, they wasted two close range frees.
However a couple of shrewd position switches, principally the placing of Darren O'Sullivan at full forward worked well for them as he began to pose a lot of problems for full back Enda Wiseman, who was eventually taken off the Glenbeigh youngster, but not before O'Sullivan landed two points.
Cork's midfield dominance gave their forwards a lot of quality ball but a rather fortuitous goal by Alan O'Connor helped them to a half time lead of 1-6 to 0-3.
Kerry were expected to make a match of it on the change over with the elements in their favour but Cork were in no mood to surrender their nine point advantage and in the space of seven minutes kicked over five unanswered points to give the visitors a mountain to climb.
With Ger Spillane and Michael Prout, two senior panellists outstanding in defence, Cork never gave Kerry a look in and eventually closed the door on their great rivals with a second goal when Ger Spillane was on the end of a great move to billow the net from close range, and there was no way back for Kerry.
There was still 20 minutes to go but Kerry couldn't make an impression and a rampant Cork side, inspired by Spillane, Daniel Goulding and Pat Dunlea ran out convincing winners to set up an All-Ireland semi-final meeting with the Connacht champions on July 16 next.
Scorers Cork: D. Goulding 0-5 (0-2 frees); P. Dunlea 0-4 (0-3 frees); G. Spillane, A. O'Connor 1-0 each; J. Russell 0-2; M. Prout, J. Buckley 0-1 each. Kerry: D. O'Sullivan 0-4 (0-2 frees); M. Corridan, D. Geaney, C. Foley (free), M. Murphy 0-1 each.
CORK: A. Quirke; C. Murphy, D. Wiseman, M. Prout; M. Fehilly, G. Spillane, E. Wiseman; A. O'Connor, S. O'Sullivan; J. Buckley, S. Hayes, J. Russell; D. Goulding, V. Hurley, P. Dunlea. Subs. N. O'Riordan for Hurley; D. O'Connor for Buckley; C. Brosnan for Hayes; E. O'Connor for Russell; N. Buckley for Goulding.
KERRY: M. Drummond; K. Quirke, J. Costello, P. Reidy; S. Hegarty, S. Flynn, D. Griffin; S. Scanlon, A. O'Sullivan; D. O'Sullivan, M. Corridan, M. Horgan; F. O'Rahilly, F. O'Sullivan, K. Foley.
Subs. S. O'Sullivan for Scanlon; D. Geaney for Horgan; M. Murphy for O'Rahilly; M. O'Mahony for Griffin; S. Cremin for Foley.
Referee: B. Tyrell (Tipperary).
