Jack O'Connor's late point ensured Kerry another berth in a Munster minor (U17) football final after downing Cork by the minimum at Austin Stack Park in Tralee, where it finished 1-11 to 1-10 in the hosts' favour.

Conor Corbett's 61st minute goal looked like denying the Kingdom their 26th straight win in minor championship football before O'Connor stepped up to the plate and delivered the winning score a minute later.

This provincial semi-final tie was a close one throughout despite the holders registering an unanswered 1-1 in the opening six minutes, after Paul Walsh had backed up Dan McCarthy's opening point with a splendidly taken goal.

The young men from Leeside hit back with three points on the trot via Corbett and Aodhán O'Luasa (2 frees) before Darragh Rahilly sailed Kerry's second point over in the 17th minute.

A brace from Corbett put Cork into their first lead in the run up to half-time and they looked to have the interval lead until Walsh steered over a free in the fourth minute of injury-time.

Niall Harnett and Ruaidhri O Beaglaoich swapped scores early in the restart to keep things even before the home side put some daylight between the teams again through singles from Jack Kennedy, O Beaglaoich (free), Walsh, O'Connor and McCarthy.

It left the Rebels with a mountain to climb in the final quarter and they managed to scale it! O'Luasa struck another pair of frees and Jack Kelleher rifled over to outweigh another Kerry point prior to Corbett making it 1-10 each after finding the Kerry net from close range.

It was anybody's ball game after that and when the chance presented itself to O'Connor he took sublimely to continue his county's remarkable winning run in this grade.

It means that Peter Keane's side will now face Clare in the final as they go in search of their county's sixth Munster MFC title in-a-row, with the Banner County having defeated Tipperary by 1-9 to 2-4 this evening.

A brace of late points from Shane Meehan helped Clare past the Premier County in Thurles where throw-in was delayed by over 20 minutes.

Kerry - M Kelliher; C Flannery, K O'Donoghue, D Mangan; C Moriarty, D McCarthy (0-2), D Murphy; D Rahilly (0-1), D Lyne; P Walsh (1-3, 0-2f), P O'Shea, K Falvey; P D'Arcy, J Kennelly, R O Beaglaoich (0-2f). Subs: J O'Connor (0-2) for D Rahilly, D Dineen for J Kennelly (0-1), S Quilter for P D'Arcy.

Cork - D Doody; D Connolly, D Buckley, C O'Donovan; F Cronin, D Phelan, E Nation; N Hartnett (0-1), J Harte; H Murphy, D O'Sullivan, E Cooke; S McDonnell, A O'Luasa (0-4f), C Corbett (1-4). Subs: M O'Neill for S McDonnell, J Kelliher (0-1) for D O'Sullivan, G Carey for J Harte, R Lombard for H Murphy, J O'Shea for C O'Donovan.

Referee - S Lonergan.

**

Clare - M Garrihy; J Reidy, D Connelly, J Murphy; C Carrig, C Rouine, A O'Connor; C Okoye, E McMahon (0-3, 2f); T Kelly, C McDonagh (0-1), P O'Donoghue; K Keane (1-0), S Meehan (0-5, 3f), M McInerney. Subs: G Daurio for P O'Donoghue, S Lillis for K Keane.

Tipperary - C Scully; T McDonagh, S Lowe, C McDonagh; M O'Meara, G Meagher, J Ryan; K Ryan, K Hayes; M Hackett (1-0), D Ryan, C English (1-1, 0-1f); K Shelly (0-1), S O'Connor (0-2, 1f), E Daly. Subs: R Byron for K Hayes, B Murphy for G Meagher, J Holloway for D Ryan, P Creedon for S O'Connor, J O'Sullivan for R Byron.

Referee - D Murnane.

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