Kerry 1-13
Clare 1-6

Kerry reached their fifth consecutive Munster minor football championship final this evening with a comfortable victory over Clare in Miltown Malbay.

Peter Keane's side controlled proceedings for the majority of this semi-final, with their early goal from Brian Friel putting them on the path despite Clare hitting back with a major of their own via Joseph McGann five minutes before the interval.

The Kingdom owned the remainder of the half afterwards to usher themselves back into a four-point lead by the break and bossed large portions of the second with their captain Sean O'Shea to the fore, as they finished with seven to spare come the long whistle.

It means the holders march on to the provincial decider on July 3rd when they will face either Cork or Limerick, who play tomorrow at Pairc Ui Rinn (throw-in 7pm).

Kerry made a splendid start in the ideal conditions, racing 1-2 in front after six minutes with Rathmore ace Friel crashing in their goal after cutting in from his right corner-forward station.

Ciaran O'Donoghue had Clare off the mark two minutes later but it was the visitors that were threatening the real damage as Mike Breen and Mark Ryan gained an early foothold at centre-field.

O'Shea (free), Ryan and David Clifford stretched the advantage to seven and the one-way traffic looked set to continue until Kieran Kelleher's charges hit a mini purple patch towards half-time.

Two fine frees from midfield marksman Padraig Kelly came either side of a fortuitous goal by McGann, coming off a fantastic block by Graham O'Sullivan which landed to the Clare full-forward and he had the simple task of dispatching the ball to the net.

Kerry's responsed by finishing out the half strong through points from Clifford and O'Shea, which left it a 1-7 to 1-3 when the teams went in at the half.

Keane sent on Brian Sweeney and David Shaw at the start of the second-half for the All-Ireland champions and the latter paid immediate dividends with a superb point inside a minute of the restart.

A Clifford free pushed the difference to six before Kelly's first from play at the other end looked to try and eat into the lead, but O'Shea and Breen rifled over scores in the space of two minutes which all but shut the door on the Banner lads.

O'Shea kept up his captain's display for the would-be winners with his fourth of the evening on 51 minutes, as frees at the far end from Kelly and midfield partner Darragh Bohannon helped to restore some respectability to the scoreboard before Shaw conjured Kerry's last score to seal the deal.

The hosts had Peter Collins sent off in injury-time on a double yellow card.

Kerry - B Courtney; G O'Sullivan, N Collins, M Reidy; M Potts, D Naughton, M Foley; M Breen (0-1), M Ryan (0-1); D Moynihan, S O'Shea (0-4, 1f), D O'Connor; B Friel (1-0), D Clifford (0-4, 2f), F O'Brien (0-1). Subs: B Sweeney for D O'Connor, D Shaw (0-2) for F O'Brien, C Tehan for D Naughton, T O'Connor for M Ryan, D Fitzgerald for B Friel, K Dwyer for M Reidy.

Clare - M Lillis; D O'Loughlin, J Culligan, P Collins; R Danaher, J Hannon, A Shannon; D Bohannon (0-1), P Kelly (0-4, 3f); S Rouine, D Coughlan, R O'Doherty; C O'Donoghue (0-1), J McGann (1-0), T Connellan. Subs: C Lynch for R O'Doherty, T Hannon for A Shannon, D Griffin for S Rouine, G Cooney for D Coughlan (BC), C O'Loughlin for C O'Donoghue.

Referee - J Ryan.

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