Kerry easily booked their place in the Munster final, beating Waterford by 4-21 to 1-4 in Killarney.

Playing their second easy game in seven days (not six!!!), the Kingdom showed their Division Four opponents no mercy in the second half, blasting home three goals during a devastating third-quarter effort to consign Na Deise's spirited first-half display to forgotten history.

With 15 different Kerry players grabbing scores, this was without doubt one of the most one-sided matches of the year. But, at the end of that competitive opening period, Kerry led by just four points, 0-8 to 0-4.

Throw-in was delayed by 15 minutes due to a traffic accident in Killarney and the fact that the curtain-raiser had gone to extra time.

Once the action started, James O'Donoghue, Colm Cooper (with his 250th championship point) and Donnchadh Walsh got the Kingdom off to a flying start.

O'Donoghue, Johnny Buckley and Tomas O Se added further points after the Decies got off the mark with a Paul Whyte free: 0-6 to 0-1 at the end of the first quarter.

Niall Carew's charges weren't prepared to roll over and they struck the next two points courtesy of Shane Aherne and Whyte to trail by just three with twelve minutes left in the first half.

Tony Grey slotted over a third successive point for the underdogs but Buckley's free steadied the red-hot favourites - 0-7 to 0-4 after 27 minutes.

Buckley made it double scores at the break when he banged over another free in the 32nd minute.

With the words of manager Eamonn Fitzmaurice no doubt ringing in their ears, Kerry came out for the second half in determined fashion and put the game to bed as Kieran Donaghy and Declan O'Sullivan both found the net within eight minutes of the restart.

Tomas O Se, Peer Crowley and Cooper added points as the hosts led by 2-11 to 0-4.

Marc O Se got forward to add a point and Anthony Maher was on hand to fire a third Kingdom goal in the 48th minute. The hosts' 0-8 to 0-4 interval lead had now been extended to 3-12 to 0-4!

By the time Grey netted a consolation goal for the visitors in the 58th minute, Kerry had rattled over four more points via Fionn Fitzgerald, Cooper (free) and Paul Galvin (2).

Buckley and Bryan Sheehan added to the runaway winners' swelling tally and substitute Kieran O'Leary became the 14th different Kerry player to score on the night - 3-20 to 1-4.

Darran O'Sullivan tagged on a point and Sheehan converted a last-minute penalty as Kerry won by a whopping 27 points.

Kerry - B Kealy; M O Se (0-1), A O'Mahony, F Fitzgerald (0-1); T O Se (0-2), K Young, P Crowley (0-1); A Maher (1-0), J Buckley (0-4); D Walsh (0-1), C Cooper (0-4), P Galvin (0-2); Declan O'Sullivan (1-0), K Donaghy (1-0), J O'Donoghue (0-2). Subs: Darran O'Sullivan (0-1) for Walsh, E Brosnan for T O Se, B Sheehan (1-1) for Maher, S Enright for M O Se, J O'Leary (0-1) for Donaghy.

Waterford - S Enright; T O hUallachain, N Walsh, T O'Gorman; J Hurney, S Briggs, C Phelan; M O'Gorman, T Prendergast; S Aherne (0-1), T Grey (1-1), A Doyle; P Whyte (0-2), G Hurney, R Aherne. Subs: C O'Keeffe for Phelan, L O Lonain for Doyle, P Hurney for Aherne, S O'Hare for Prendergast.

Referee - M Higgins. Tweet

Most Read Stories