Kerry 3-14 Cork 2-13 A Colm Cooper goal four minutes from time saw Kerry weather yet another Cork storm late on to book their place in this year's All-Ireland decider. The Kingdom ace hit a decisive 1-8 tally throughout the 70 minutes, which seemed to keep the Champions in front throughout this encounter until the Rebels got themselves level thanks to a Pearse O'Neill goal and a coolly struck Donncha O'Connor point five minutes from time. At one stage Pat O'Shea's charges led this encounter by nine points in an epic second-half of football, but Cork, as they've done all summer, refused to give in and hit seven scores without reply, including O'Neill and O'Connor's final contributions. Daniel Goulding, who hit 1-7, struck his goal late in the first-half to cancel out Tommy Walsh's opening green flag but Declan O'Sullivan's strike seconds into the restart done likewise for Kerry. From there O'Shea's men thundered into a nine-point lead before it was foiled by the Munster Champions' purple patch, but in the end that was to be foiled too by the awesome Cooper. It was Kerry who opened the scoring when Kieran Donaghy and Colm Cooper combined for Cooper to register his first of the afternoon, after the reprieved Donncha O'Connor had sent a simple free wide beforehand. Four more wides were to come from the Cork attack over the next six minutes before Tommy Walsh doubled the lead for the Kingdom with a white flag. There were ten minutes on the clock when the Rebels had their first score after Donncha O'Connor crept through to fist over a single, and when Daniel Goulding sent over his first free of the day on the quarter the Rebels were level. Séamus Scanlon's well struck point in reply made way for Cooper to send over a pair of frees which were met by Donncha O'Connor sending over a placed ball from close range after Noel O'Leary had been fouled. Kerry struck the game's first goal on 24 minutes when a free from Aidan O'Mahony in his centre-back position found Tommy Walsh ahead of Diarmuid Duggan and the corner-forward sharply turned his marker to dart through the centre and deceive Alan Quirke as he netted to the 'keeper's right-hand side for a five-point advantage. Another successful Cooper free followed, and Duggan's misery for the afternoon came to an end on 29 minutes after he had fouled Tommy Walsh for the last time in front of goal as he was withdrawn by Conor Counihan after Kerry's marksman pointed over his fifth of the day. Eoin Brosnan set-up the Dr Crokes clubman to bring his tally to half-a-dozen just past the half-hour and create an eight-point gap, but Cork would hit their rivals with a sucker punch right before the interval to ensure they'd still be in the game come the second-half. While putting in an under-par performance, as did much of the Cork team, through the first 35 minutes, last weekend's penalty hero John Hayes held up possession well in his corner-forward position in stoppage-time to slip a pass inside to Daniel Goulding, who raced towards goal until he hit the under end of Diarmuid Murphy's crossbar and netted to cut the deficit to five at the break for the Munster Champions. The opening sequences of an enthralling second-half saw the same net rattled by Declan O'Sullivan, after he'd one-twoed around the Rebels defence with the assistance of Kieran Donaghy, and when Tommy Walsh grabbed a second white flag a minute later Kerry looked to be in the driving-seat, holding a nine-point lead. Daniel Goulding responded with a free from the trailers before two more of the corner-forward's accurate placed balls were spilt by Kingdom outlet Cooper sending over one of his own. Tomás Ó'Sé and Eoin Brosnan then got in on the scoring act for the Champions, but not before Cork would come into there most prosperous spell of the game on 52 minutes. A fine run from wing-back John Miskella was rewarded with a point in between two more sound Goulding frees. Substitute James Masterson then lashed over another point for the Rebels which was backed up by a Donncha O'Connor finding his range from a central free on the hour. With ten minutes remaining and just four points separating Munster's fiercest rivals, the force was very much with Cork and nothing could suggest that more when Nicholas Murphy released Pearse O'Neill on the dash, who slotted the ball past Diarmuid Murphy at the near post into the Kerry net. With five minutes remaining Donncha O'Connor split the posts for the Rebels to bring the game level for the first time in over 50 minutes, but this was to be the last sign of a comeback that Conor Counihan's charges would produce for the year as Kerry responded like true champions almost instantly. Within a minute, David Moran found fellow substitute Darren O'Sullivan down the left flank and cut inside to the Cork square where he offloaded to an awaiting Colm Cooper who coolly stuck past Alan Quirke, and all but seal a seventh All-Ireland final place for the Kingdom this decade. Two minutes from time calm Kerry possession saw the superb Séamus Scanlon adding on the insurance point for his side, which in the build-up saw Cooper kicked-out at by Derek Kavanagh in frustration and dually red carded. A hard-worked point from Goulding brought his tally to 1-7 a minute into injury-time, but Cooper made sure to go one better as he rounded off his side's 3-14 final score with a straight forward free right at the end that assured Kerry of maintaining their winning record over Cork at Croke Park, while taking their place in a fifth successive All-Ireland decider as they stride towards that elusive three-in-a-row title bid. Kerry - D Murphy; M O Se, T Griffin, T O'Sullivan; T O Se (0-1), A O'Mahony, K Young; M Quirke, S Scanlon (0-2); B Sheehan, C Cooper (1-8, 6f), E Brosnan (0-1); Declan O'Sullivan (1-0), K Donaghy, T Walsh (1-2). Subs - Darren O'Sullivan for Quirke, D Moran for Brosnan, D Bohan for T Walsh, M Quirke for Donaghy. Cork - A Quirke; D Duggan, D Kavanagh, A Lynch; J Miskella (0-1), G Canty, N O'Leary, P O' Neill (1-0), N Murphy; S O'Brien, D O'Connor (0-4, 2f), K McMahon; D Goulding (1-7, 5f), M Cussen, J Hayes. Subs - M Shields for Duggan, F Goold for O'Brien, J Masters (0-1) for McMahon, P Kerrigan for Hayes. Ref - J White (Donegal) Tweet

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