Kerry cruise but stiffer tests await

Kerry 1-18 Waterford 0-7: That his charges never went beyond second gear didn’t bother Jack O’Connor. The Kerry U21s travelled to Dungarvan to do a job and did it with the minimum of fuss. Statements of intent can wait for Páirc Uí Rinn in two weeks.

Within 20 seconds of the start of yesterday evening’s Munster U21 semi-final, the visiting attack had prised open Waterford for what would prove the first of many goal chances. Lee O’Donoghue put Cathal Bambury inside the cover and, but for the intervention of the right post, Kerry would have been on their way to the significant victory that had been widely forecast before throw-in.

Mind you, they didn’t have long to wait to assert their dominance on the scoreboard. Killian Spillane, Andrew Barry, and Cathal Bambury had them three clear by the fourth minute. Bambury, Sean O’Shea, and Matthew O’Flaherty doubled that advantage by the 10th.