THE GAME IN 60 SECONDS

KERRY’S place in this Friday’s inaugural Munster U-20 football final comes on the back of 28 and 30-point wins over Limerick and Waterford respectively, with the larger victory being the most recent – a facile win over a Deise team that will serve Kerry as little as it will the visitors to Austin Stack Park last Friday evening.

The official attendance in the Tralee ground was 666 and it was hard not to imagine the devil at work here, pairing up David with Goliath but giving the latter the sling shot and all the armoury. It was pitiful and pointless stuff – and though that was hardly the fault of either team or county, surely the Munster Council need to consider the value of these miss-matches to either party.

It was without any irony that the most memorable moment of a thoroughly forgettable game was Áodhan 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. Needless to say there weren’t too many visiting supporters to cheer the moment, but it was the ‘magic moment’ of the game.

Kerry were coating at that stage with 1-17 on the scoreboard at that stage, having led by 14 at half time, the goal courtesy of Donal O’Sullivan in the 24th minute. Nevertheless, it’s probable that Kerry manager 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. A week earlier they had beaten Limerick by 28 points in Newcastlewest in the quarter-final and this contest, on home soil, was always going to be easier again for Kerry.

David Shaw kicked Kerry into the lead after 15 seconds and it signalled a long evening for both teams and those 666 spectators. Swift scores from Dara Moynihan (2), Shaw again, Donal O’Sullivan and Bryan Sweeney had Kerry six points ahead by the 10th minute. In the 13th minute O’Sullivan’s shot on goal was blocked by a Waterford defender but the Kilgarvan man got his goal nine minutes later after Aaron Beresford had initially made a good save. Late points from Fiachra Clifford, a Shaw ‘ 45 and two from midfielder Diarmuid O’Connor made it 1-11 to no score at half-time, with Waterford mustering

MAIN MAN

Hard to assess the Kerry players given the total absence of any Waterford pressure on them, but DARA MOYNIHAN showed good composure and accurary to kick five points from play

KEY MOMENT

Again, given the paucity of the Waterford challenge few, if any, of Kerry’s scores needed to be spectacular or inventive, so it was more or a memorable moment than a key one when Waterford substitute Aodhan MacGearailt scored his team’s only score of the game, and with his first touch after being introduced

TALKING POINT

The only thing people were talking about was the value of such a fixture and result for either county. What can be done to avoid such maulings is the bigger question and how can this be in any way useful for tghe development of Waterford football. A few people also considered what the final result might have been had David Clifford and Seán O’Shea been available to play with the Under-20s. It doesn’t really bear thinking about!

just one meaningful shot at the target, which went wide.

Sweeney, Moynihan and Shaw landed early second half points for Kerry and the half followed a similar patternas the first, with Kerry content to work the ball through a near non-existent Waterford defence and clip over their points. The hosts were 20 points to the