Kerry win highlights standards gulf

Kerry 4-21 Waterford 1-4

Kerry claimed their second Munster football championship win in six days after they destroyed an inferior Waterford at Killarney.

All four goals arrived in the second-half for the hosts, with Declan O'Sullivan and Kieran Donaghy's early strikes ending what was,until then, a tight contest.

But the manner of Kerry's win for the second week in a row – their two wins came on an aggregate score of 43 points – will surely result in more questions about the viability of the Munster football championship.

In the early exchanges Kerry struggled to penetrate the Waterford rearguard, but once they began to find the target they did so with ease on occasion.

James O'Donoghue was particularly impressive in the opening quarter, firing two good scores, while Donnchadh Walsh also weighed in with a good score to give Kerry and early cushion.

Up front for Waterford, Paul Whyte caught the eye with a couple of fine points, while Tony Grey – who went on to score a late consolation goal – also weighted in with a good point from play.

However, Kerry closed out the first half the stronger and a pair of late frees from the impressive Johnny Maher gave them a 0-8 to 0-4 lead at the break.

Any doubts that Kerry would win this game healthily were cast aside in the 39th minute when Donaghy punched Tomas O Se's high ball to the net.

And five minutes later Declan O'Sullivan rattled the net after a great move to kill off Waterford fully.

But Kerry were not satisfied to ease off on their weaker opponents and after Marc O Se added a love point on the break, Anthony Maher scored Kerry's third goal to give his side a 3-12 to 0-4 lead.

At that stage Kerry had turned the match into target practice, and by the time Bryan Sheehan rolled an injury-time penalty past Stephen Enright Kerry were already home and hosed.

Tony Grey had crept through the Kerry defence to score a consolation goal past Brendan Kealy but Kerry’s minds were already on a Munster final meeting with Cork or Clare in five weeks.

In the end up the scoreboard did not reflect the Waterford challenge in the first 35 minutes, but the savage gap in standard overall was evident by the huge 26-point margin of victory.

Kerry: B Kealy; M O Se (0-1), A O'Mahony, F Fitzgerald (0-1); T O Se (0-2), K Young, P Crowley (0-1); A Maher (1-0), J Buckley (0-4, 2f); D Walsh (0-1), C Cooper (0-4, 3f), P Galvin (0-2); Declan O'Sullivan (1-0), K Donaghy (1-0), J O'Donoghue (0-2).

Subs: Darran O'Sullivan (0-1) for Walsh (45), E Brosnan for T O Se (50), B Sheehan (1-1, 1-0pen, 1f) for Maher (53), S Enright for M O Se (57), J O'Leary (0-1) for Donaghy (60).

Waterford: S Enright; T O hUallachain, N Walsh, T O'Gorman; J Hurney, S Briggs, C Phelan; M O'Gorman, T Prendergast; S Aherne (0-1), T Grey (1-1), A Doyle; P Whyte (0-2, 1f), G Hurney, R Aherne.

Subs: C O'Keeffe for Phelan (48), L O Lonain for Doyle (48), P Hurney for Aherne (54), S O'Hare for Prendergast (66).

Referee: Martin Higgins (Fermanagh)