Kerry were crowned TG4 Munster SFC for the third year in succession after a hard-fought one-point victory over a spirited Waterford at Kilmallock GAA grounds.<\/p>\n
Kerry had to be extremely thankful to the brilliance of goalkeeper Mary Ellen Bolger who saved from point-blank range at the death to deny Laura Cusack what surely would have been the winning goal.<\/p>\n
A hugely entertaining first half saw the sides share three goals in a whirlwind opening 30 minutes.<\/p>\n
Niamh Carmody and Karen McGrath shared early scores before the first goal of the game arrived in the third minute after a lightning Kerry move involving Carmody and Niamh N\u00ed Chonchuir saw Leah McMahon palm to the back of the Waterford net.<\/p>\n
Kelly Ann Hogan replied with a free but then in the eighth minute came Waterford’s opening goal when Katie Murray finished to the back of the net after a brilliant run and pass from Aine O\u2019Neill.<\/p>\n
We didn\u2019t have to wait long for Kerry\u2019s second goal, and it came in the10th minute after a brilliant move involving Anna Galvin and Mary O\u2019Connell who passed across goal and Emma Costello raced in to volley past Katelyn Gardner.<\/p>\n
Hogan replied with a point for Waterford but Bolger had to save from Clare Walsh. Frees from Hogan and a Brid McMaugh special from down town pushed Waterford into a 1-06 to 2-01 lead.<\/p>\n
Siofra O\u2019Shea got three on the bounce for the winners (two frees), Hogan replied from a free after a Kerry breach, and with Kerry\u2019s Jadyn Lucey (free) and Lauren McGregor trading scores, the sides went in level at half-time, 2-05 to 1-08.<\/p>\n
Bolger was forced into a superb block from Emma Murray three minutes into the second half before Murray and O\u2019Shea (free) traded scores. McGregor had a chance of a goal but shot straight at Bolger, though Katie Murray did reply to push the D\u00e9ise one ahead, 1-09 to 2-05.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Shea levelled matters with a free but Katie Murray raised another white flag for Waterford. Drama followed when Kerry\u2019s Niamh Carmody was sent to the bin. Kerry’s Roisin Rahilly scored a neat point with McMaugh replying straight afterwards.<\/p>\n
Aishling O\u2019Connell was denied a goal for a small square infringement, but Siofra O\u2019Shea wasn\u2019t to be denied when she slotted over to level the contest.<\/p>\n
With both sides looking for a winner it was Kerry that came up trumps when substitute Danielle O\u2019Leary slotted over, although the winners will be thankful to Bolger who produced that last-ditch wonder save.<\/p>\n
As Munster champions Kerry now go into Group 2 of the All-Ireland series with Kildare and Tipperary while Waterford go into Group 1 and will face Armagh and Cork.<\/p>\n
Kerry: M E Bolger; R Rahilly (0-01), D Kearney, E Lynch; A O\u2019Connell, E Costello (1-00), A Dillane; A Galvin, M O\u2019Connell; N Carmody (0-01), N N\u00ed Chonch\u00fair, C Evans; J Lucey, L McMahon (1-00), S O\u2019Shea (0-05, 3f)<\/p>\n
Subs: D O\u2019Leary (0-01) for J Lucey (ht, 0-01f), E McGlynn for L McMahon (51)<\/p>\n
Waterford: K Gardner; C Murray, L Mulcahy, R Browne; C Walsh, R Casey, K McGrath (0-01); E Murray (0-01), E Power; \u00c1 O\u2019Neill, KA Hogan (0-05, 4f), K Murray (1-01); M Daly, B McMaugh (0-02), L McGregor (0-01)<\/p>\n
Subs: C Fennell for M Daly (49), L N\u00ed Harta for E Power (56), L Cusack for A O\u2019Neill (60)<\/p>\n
Referee: Conor McCarthy (Cork)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kerry were crowned TG4 Munster SFC for the third year in succession after a hard-fought one-point victory over…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":465630,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-465629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465629","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=465629"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465629\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/465630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=465629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=465629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=465629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}