This is not a drill.
It may have been a dead rubber, and it may have been a severely depleted Cork outfit but the Kingdom’s senior hurlers and their manager Fintan O’Connor won’t give a damn.
“We’ve done a nice bit of work pre-Christmas. It’s nice not to be behind, we felt we were behind some of the other counties last year,” said O’Connor to Radio Kerry recently.
They sure weren’t behind in Austin Stack Park in Kerry on Sunday. The men in green and gold got off to a flying start in this Round 3 Munster Senior hurling League clash, scoring the first two points of the game.
Christ the Kerry hurlers are beating Cork????😂👏🏼
— Sinéad (@sineadddxx) January 14, 2018
From there, they never looked back, as a strong, experienced Kerry team took advantage of what was quite the opposite from their neighbours Cork.
The home side blitzed their way to a 1-13 to 0-6 lead by half-time, and things weren’t set to change after the interval.
@radiokerrysport The scoreboard does not lie @Kerry_Official 1.13 @OfficialCorkGAA 0.06 HT pic.twitter.com/qQC9YnJwtA
— Mike O'Halloran (@StageandSport) January 14, 2018
Call us ignorant, but the only household name in the Cork line-up was their captain, last year’s new kid on the block, Luke Meade.
A number of player’s from last year’s under-21 team made their debuts for the Rebels, but it didn’t go as planned for John Meyler’s youngsters, with three of them called ashore at the break.
HT Subs Eoghain Clifford for Richard Cahalane, Aaron Myers for Brian Mulcahy and Stephen Condon for Ian Cahill
— Cork GAA (@OfficialCorkGAA) January 14, 2018
Kerry picked up where they left off, stretching their lead to 13 points at one stage of the first half.
In the end, they won by 10 on a scoreline of 1-23 to 1-13.
Shane Nolan was typically class in the full forward line, and he was ably assisted by Shane Conway, Sean Weir and Padraig Boyle.
In truth, everyone of them did themselves and their county proud.
Meanwhile, in the Walsh Cup semi-final, Wexford recovered from a three point deficit at half-time to defeat Dublin by in Parnell Park.
A second half goal from lively corner forward Cathal Dunbar turned the tie in the Yellow Bellies’ favour. They will now progress to face Kilkenny in the final next weekend.
Result:@DubGAAOfficial 0-16@OfficialWexGAA 1-20#WalshCup ½ Final
Supported by #Allianz Insurance https://t.co/Fx4QV8GtTn #Gaa RT pic.twitter.com/Beq5ZkYHXO
— 𝘿𝙪𝙗𝙈𝙖𝙩𝙘𝙝𝙏𝙧𝙖𝙘𝙠𝙚𝙧 (@DubMatchTracker) January 14, 2018
Limerick defeated neighbours Clare in the Munster Senior Hurling League final by 0-15 to 0-9, with Aaron Gillane and Seamus Flanagan again devastating up top for the Treaty County.
