EirGrid GAA Football Under 20 Munster Championship Semi-Final – Kerry 3-22 Waterford 0-1

Kerry defeated Waterford by 3-22 to 0-1 in the EirGrid GAA Football Under 20 Munster Championship Semi-Final on Friday June 22nd at Austin Stack Park Tralee.

Waterford score just one point as Kerry run riot

Kerry 3-22 Waterford 0-01

Report from the RTE.ie web site

Kerry booked their place in next Friday’s inaugural Munster Under-20 football final with a facile 30-point win over Waterford that will serve them little to no use when they face Cork back at the Tralee venue in seven days.

Without any irony, the most memorable moment of the game was Aodhan MacGearailt’s 42nd minute point for Waterford.

It was the Sean Phobal man’s first touch after coming in as a substitute and it was Waterford’s first, last and only score of the game.

Kerry had 1-17 on the scoreboard at that stage, having led 1-11 at half time, the goal courtesy of Donal O’Sullivan in the 24th minute. It’s likely Kerry boss Jack O’Connor had some harsh words for his players at the interval despite them leading by that 14-point margin: the Kingdom were sloppy and wasteful at times, but then who could blame them.

They beat Limerick by 28 points the previous week in the quarter-final and this contest was expected to be easier again for them. David Shaw had kicked Kerry into the lead after 15 seconds and it signalled a long evening for both teams and the 666 spectators at a sun-splashed Stack Park.

Dara Moynihan kicked three points from play in the first period with midfielder Diarmuid O’Connor closing out the half with a neat brace, but the pressure on the Kerry players by an extremely limited Waterford side was virtually non-existent.

Bryan Sweeney, Moynihan and Shaw landed early second half points for Kerry as the second half followed a similar pattern, and the hosts were 20 points to the good when MacGearailt raised that metaphorical white flag for the Deise.

Ciaran Kennedy scored Kerry’s second goal in the 51st minute and the third arrived two minutes later from a Shaw penalty kick after Sweeney was pulled down. That penalty and an earlier ’45’ from Shaw were the only scores not from play as in a contest whre referee David Murnane had little to fuss over.

Kerry have a week now to get down to the serious business of preparing for Cork, when the questions asked of them should be much tougher.

Kerry: B Lonergan, D Naughton, S Okunbar, M Reidy, C Gammell, M Breen, D O’Brien, M Ryan 0-01, D O’Connor 0-02, F Clifford 0-01, C Linnane, D Moynihan 0-05, D O’Sullivan 1-01, B Sweeney 0-02, D Shaw 1-04 (1-00 pen, 0-01 ’45).
Subs: B 0-02 for F Clifford (ht), S O’Leary for M Reidy (38), M Potts 0-02 for C Linnane (40), C Kennedy 1-01 for D O’Sullivan (40), E Horan for D O’Connor (45), M Foley 0-01 for M Ryan (45),

Waterford: A Beresford, T Barron, J Skehan, L Cooney, C O Cuirrin, C Walsh, M Twomey, C Kennedy, D Fitzgerald, J Devine, S Whelan Barrett, B Lynch, B Power.
Subs: C Gough for L Cooney (ht), J Harrington for J Beresford (ht), S Aherne for D Booth (ht), A MacGearailt 0-01 for M Twomey (41), R O’Neill for B Power (46), R Coffey O’Shea for B Lynch (56)

Referee: D Murnane (Cork)