The first successful trip of the week for a Cork football team across county bounds. John Cleary\u2019s seniors would take even one-tenth of the winning margin so strikingly achieved by Keith Ricken\u2019s minors on Monday evening.<\/p>\n
For the first time in exactly three years, Cork have bettered Kerry in a Munster minor championship fixture. For the opening 40 minutes or so, the Cork minor class of 2026 didn\u2019t so much better their Kingdom hosts as they stylishly and tenaciously battered them.<\/p>\n
A five-game losing run to Kerry at this level is no more. Said losing run had been reversed long before the final whistle.<\/p>\n
Come the game\u2019s 40th minute, Cork led by 1-14 to 0-5. The visitors’ tuned-in attitude dipped somewhat slightly thereafter, and understandably so for a group of kids commanding a 12-point advantage on Kerry soil.<\/p>\n
Marc \u00d3 S\u00e9\u2019s Kerry team twice cut the margin to seven. A meaningful comeback was never threatened or allowed. Goals from Cork subs Riley O\u2019Donovan and Luke O\u2019Neill, on 47 and 64 minutes respectively, shoved the Cork advantage back into double-digits.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Donovan\u2019s was an important score. Green and gold replacement Daith\u00ed Laide had goaled two minutes earlier. With referee Eoin Keane playing an advantage on a skewed Eoghan Ahern point effort, O\u2019Donovan gathered and goaled.<\/p>\n
The Cork sub pointed in the very next play, profiting from teammate Peadar Kelly\u2019s excellent win on the Kerry kickout. He’d finish with 1-3 beside his name.<\/p>\n
Following last week\u2019s facile victory over Clare in their round-robin opener, this second result propels Cork into the provincial decider on May 18, irrespective of how next Monday\u2019s game against Waterford pans out.<\/p>\n
The half-time scoreline was a most unusual half-time scoreline for recent Cork-Kerry underage fixtures in Tralee. It was a half-time scoreline that read 1-10 to 0-4 in Cork\u2019s favour. It was a scoreline that told so accurately the story of the half.<\/p>\n
Darragh Keane kicked Kerry into a 0-2 to 0-1 advantage on three minutes. They wouldn\u2019t score for another quarter of an hour. They would manage only one shot during this period.<\/p>\n
The hosts lacked penetration in the scoring zone. Their passing in the final third was too often telegraphed. Cork grew from the many turnovers they were executing. The last of these arrived in first-half stoppages when the excellent Conor Downing comfortably intercepted a Kerry pass. The breakaway move ended with Ben Hegarty\u2019s fourth converted free of the half and a nine-point Cork lead.<\/p>\n
Hegarty was hurting Kerry far more than just from the dead-ball. The Ballinora youngster was part of a towering middle-third effort that pummelled and poached Kerry restart after Kerry restart.<\/p>\n
Kieran O\u2019Shea, Darragh O\u2019Sullivan, Peadar Kelly, and \u00c9anna Lynch are others who merit mention for their fine contributions in this red-owned department.<\/p>\n
It was this restart dominance that fuelled Cork\u2019s unanswered 1-6 between the fifth and 18th minutes. Joe Miskella, Jacob Barry, and Lynch won converted frees. Eoghan Ahern, who converted two early frees, finished the game\u2019s opening goal.<\/p>\n
The same as so many other first-half Cork scores, it was confidently and coherently constructed. Kelly and Jacob Barry were central characters in the defence-opening movement.<\/p>\n
Ahern, same as Hegarty, was effective in different facets of the game. The half-forward\u2019s smart running in the opposite direction offered him as a valuable restart outlet for \u2018keeper Rory Twohig.<\/p>\n
Cork stood 1-7 to 0-2 in front at the end of this period where they dominated the game\u2019s shape, flow, and just about everything else. L\u00fac Mac Gearailt and Keane ended Kerry\u2019s barren spell. Another 13-minute barren spell followed to finish out their miserable half.<\/p>\n
Cork, who didn\u2019t register their first wide until the 28th minute, closed out a half of very few blemishes with two further Hegarty frees either side of a Kieran O\u2019Shea kick. The latter was the standout red pupil upon the change of ends.<\/p>\n
And although less sustained in the second period, Cork\u2019s tackling and transitioning of play was just so impressive. Structure and organisation were spot on. The trick now will be to repeat the dose in the Munster final.<\/p>\n
For the wider Cork football picture, a most pleasant start to this week of Kerry journeys.<\/p>\n
\n Scorers for Cork: R O\u2019Donovan (1-3); B Hegarty (0-6, 0-5 frees); E Ahern (1-2, 0-2 frees); A O\u2019Herlihy (0-3); L O\u2019Neill (1-0); R Twohig (tp free), K O\u2019Shea (0-2 each).<\/p>\n
\n Scorers for Kerry: D Keane (0-7, tp, 0-2 frees); D Laide (1-1); D Lane (0-3, 0-1 free); D Murphy, L Mac Gearailt, C Moynihan (0-1 each).<\/p>\n
\n CORK: R Twohig (Kilmeen); R McCormack (Midleton), G Oronsaye (Liscarroll\/Churchtown Gaels), C Garvey (St Finbarr\u2019s); \u00c9 Lynch (Ballincollig), C Downing (Adrigole), P Kelly (Naomh Ab\u00e1n); K O\u2019Shea (Urhan), B Hegarty (Ballinora); D O\u2019Sullivan (Erin\u2019s Own), J Miskella (Ballincollig), E Ahern (Carrigaline); D Herlihy (Shamrocks), A O\u2019Herlihy (St Finbarr\u2019s), J Barry (Aghinagh).<\/p>\n
\n SUBS: R O\u2019Donovan (Barryroe) for Barry (43); L O\u2019Neill (Carbery Rangers) for Herlihy, P O\u2019Connor (Lisgoold) for McCormack (50); M Corkery (Nemo Rangers) for Miskella (51); M Power (Charleville) for Garvey (58).<\/p>\n
\n KERRY: C O Donnell (Tarbert); E Mangan (Austin Stacks), J Breen (Emmets), C Clifford (Dr Crokes); D Murphy (Listry), S Clifford (Listry), M Corridon (Ardfert); M \u00d3 S\u00e9 (An Ghaeltacht), T Slattery (Na Gaeil); L\u00fac Mac Gearailt (An Ghaeltacht), S Scroope (Legion), J Collins (Ballymacelligott); D Lane (Austin Stacks), D Keane (Kilcummin), O Buckley (Beale).<\/p>\n
\n SUBS: J Ziober (Milltown\/Castlemaine) for Clifford (11-13, temporary); D Laide (Finuge) for Buckley, C Moynihan (Rathmore) for Scroope (both HT); T Lenihan (Churchill) for Slattery (45); P O\u2019Sullivan (Firies) for Corridon (51); T Kennelly (Listowel Emmets) for Collins (55).<\/p>\n
\n Referee: E Keane (Clare).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The first successful trip of the week for a Cork football team across county bounds. John Cleary\u2019s seniors…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":432509,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[4365,6937,72371,1964,42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-432508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-gaelic-football","tag-kerry-gaa","tag-munster-gaa","tag-cork-gaa","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=432508"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432508\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/432509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=432508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=432508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=432508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}