Kingdom ease past Limerick into Munster final

LIMERICK 3-9 KERRY 1-26

Playing well within themselves, reigning champions Kerry pulverised Limerick in this disappointingly one-sided Munster SFC semi-final at the Gaelic Grounds.

It was a very poor performance by Limerick as Kerry, at half pace, will not even regard this as being a decent training session such was the paucity of Limerick.

The only saving grace for Shannonsiders manager Maurice Horan was the fact that his side managed to put three goals past a Kerry defence whose concentration slipped.

The biggest cheer of the night greeted the introduction of Paul Galvin after 50 minutes and with his first touch, he set up a point for Kieran O'Leary. Galvin neatly slotted one over himself a few minutes later.

Kerry manager Jack O'Connor will have learned little from this outing as his side head back into another Munster final, most probably against old foes Cork.

But O'Connor must have been happy with the high tally of scores - all but two of which came from play. Kerry played a terrific style of football and tortured and teased a Limerick defence that was lucky not to conceded more goals as Colm Cooper and Declan O'Sullivan led them a merry dance.

Kieran Donaghy was a huge thorn in Limerick's side and his catching of high balls paved the way for many of his side's scores. Anthony Maher and Bryan Sheehan lorded it at midfield for the winners and Darran O'Sullivan had a great game up front and finished with 1-3.

Limerick will have a lot of work to do for the All-Ireland SFC qualifiers and even without John Galvin and Stephen Lucey through injury, they never threatened apart from going in front inside 35 seconds with a Jim Donovan point.

But it merely served to alert Kerry who then turned in a sparkling 25 minutes during which they blitzed a poor Limerick defence with target man Donaghy being the main tormentor.

He had the levelling point after two minutes and six minutes later Sheehan converted a '45', having missed one previously. Declan O'Sullivan had a point and then came a killer blow for the home side. Donaghy made a great catch and hand-passed to Darran O'Sullivan who raced round a few defenders. He then dropped the ball before stabbing to the net with his left foot.

Kerry went on to lead 1-9 to 0-1. It went from bad to worse for Limerick who lost Dovovan to injury. He replaced by Eoin Joy before he too had to retire injured.

Limerick's spirit could not be questioned though and when Ian Ryan set up Seanie Buckley he raced past the defence and cracked a pinpoint low shot past Brendan Kealy for the hosts' first goal.

Limerick finished the half impressively with points from Ger Collins, Johnny McCarthy and Collins again but they still trailed 1-11 to 1-4 at the break with all but one of Kerry's points coming from play. They also had a goal disallowed and failed to capitalise on a few more scoring chances.

If Limerick thought that Kerry would ease up for the second half, they were wrong as Cooper and Darran O'Sullivan registered two more points and the Kingdom had an ultimately comfortable passage through to the provincial decider on Sunday, July 3.

Scorers: Limerick: G Collins 1-4 (0-1f), S Buckley, S O'Carroll 1-0 each, S Kelly (0-1f), J Donovan, J McCarthy, S Gallagher, M Sheehan 0-1 each

Kerry: C Cooper 0-7 (0-1f), Darran O'Sullivan 1-3, Declan O'Sullivan 0-4, B Sheehan (0-1 '45'), K Donaghy, K O'Leary 0-2 each, K Young, P Galvin, BJ Keane, E Brosnan, D Bohan, D Geaney 0-1 each

LIMERICK: B Scanlon; S Lavin, S Gallagher, M O'Riordan; P Ranahan, J McCarthy, B Fitzpatrick; T Lee, J Donovan; S Buckley, J Kelly, S Kelly; G Collins, J Cooke, I Ryan

Subs used: E Joy for Donovan (28 mins), M Sheehan for Joy (30), E O'Connor for J Kelly (32), J O'Riordan for Fitzpatrick (45), S O'Carroll for S Kelly (60).

KERRY: B Kealy; S Enright, M O'Se, T O'Sullivan; A O'Mahony, E Brosnan, K Young; B Sheehan, A Maher; Darran O'Sullivan, Declan O'Sullivan, D Walsh; C Cooper, K Donaghy, K O'Leary

Subs used: P Galvin for Darran O'Sullivan (50 mins), BJ Keane for Walsh, M Quirke for Sheehan, D Bohan for O'Mahony (all 58), D Geaney for O'Leary (60).

Referee: Rory Hickey (Clare)