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02nd Jul 2017

Seriously impressive stat doesn’t bode well for future of Munster championship

The gulf is real

Ben Kiely

Munster

“So who are Kerry going to play in the Munster championship final?”

It may sound ridiculous to assume that the Munster championship is essentially Kerry versus everyone else. However, the Kingdom have just picked up their fifth provincial title in a row by hammering Cork 1-23 to 0-15 in Killarney on Sunday.

Kerry have been provincial champions a staggering 79 times. Their next closest rivals, Cork, are a distant second with 37 Munster championships. Since the new millennium, Kerry have only failed to reach the Munster final on three occasions.

So it may be a bit cynical, but it’s a fair assumption to make that Kerry are probably going to win it. Especially when you look at what happened in 2017.

Not only are Kerry dominating the province at senior level, but they’ve also had a clean sweep of Munster this year by also winning the Minor and u-21 titles.

The minors annihilated Clare by 2-21 to 0-03 in Killarney, keeping their terrifying unbeaten run that began in 2013 intact. The u-21s had a slightly tougher time against Cork, although they still breezed past the People’s Republic by 2-16 to 0-06 in their provincial final.

That means Kerry teams won Munster this year by a combined total of 51 points. It’s often hard to quantify the gulf between the Kingdom and the rest of Munster, but that figure speaks volumes.

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