Jordan Kiely hit two second-half goals as Kerry crushed Clare by 2-16 to 0-7 at Ennis tonight.

After a tentative start, Jack O'Connor's charges took control of midfield and stepped on the gas, hitting six scores in a row to lead by 0-8 to 0-3 at half time.

The teams shared six points during the course of an evenly-contested opening quarter. Kilmurry-Ibrickane clubman Keelan Sexton gave the Banner County the lead but the visitors hit back with points from Kiely and Killian Spillane (free).

The Banner moved back in front but Dr Crokes clubman Kiely's effort levelled the scores at 0-3 apiece.

The victors upped the tempo, with full forward Spillane edging them in front for the first time before Micheal Burns doubled the gap. The hosts suffered a blow when captain Brian Cahill (Lissycasey) was black-carded, Conor Downes coming in to replace him.

Spillane's third point of the evening made it double scores after 22 minutes and Dingle's Matthew Flaherty clipped over a fifth successive Kerry point two minutes before the break; there was time for the winners to add one more score before the short whistle sounded.

Kiely and Flaherty bagged the away team's first two points of the second half and the former then hit the net on 42 minutes to all but finish the match as a contest, 1-10 to 0-4. Spillane tagged on another couple of points as the runaway winners led by ten at the three-quarters stage, 1-12 to 0-5.

The irrepressible Kiely grabbed his and Kerry's second three-pointer ten minutes from time and Flaherty's 53rd-minute point made it 2-14 to 0-7.

Substitute Stephen O'Sullivan completed the scoring in the 60th minute as Kerry marched effortlessly through to the provincial semi-finals, where they will face either Tipperary or Waterford.

Kerry - S Ryan; J Morgan, B Begley, T O'Sullivan; J Foley, A Barry, B Sugrue; B O'Sullivan, M O'Connor; M Flaherty (0-3), B Rayle, M Burns (0-2); J Kiely (2-3), K Spillane (0-6), C Bambury. Subs: S O'Sullivan (0-1) for C Bambury, C Coffey for J Foley, L Kearney for B Rayle, T O Se for B O'Sullivan, I Parker (0-1) for M Flaherty, D Roche for J Morgan.

Clare - K Normoyle; B Cahill, P Lillis, J Woods; C O hAinifein, C Pyne (0-1), C O'Dea; N McCarthy, E Hanrahan; K Sexton (0-2f), E Courtney (0-2), A Rudd; C Finucane (0-1), M Duffy, A Davidson. Subs: C Downes for B Cahill (BC), L Tierney for A Rudd, L Madigan (0-1) for M Duffy, M Byrne for E Hanrahan, L Howard for C Pyne.

Referee - S Lonergan. Tweet

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