Cork are through to the Munster final following a surprisingly comfortable 1-17 to 0-12 win over Kerry at Pairc Ui Chaoimh this evening. The Leesiders were simply awesome as they were very impressive all over the field, but none more so than Anthony Lynch, who was simply outstanding, holding Colm Cooper scoreless from play over the 70 minutes. Cork manager Conor Counihan made two changes to the side with Ray Carey named at corner back. The versatile John Miskella recovered from the hamstring injury which forced him off early in the second half of the drawn game to line out at centre back. The towering Michael Cussen, who replaced James Masters in the first half in Killarney, is kept in reserve once again. Noel O'Leary came in for Ger Spillane. Kerry on the other hand made a number of positional changes as Tommy Griffin went to centre field to partner Darragh O'Se, while Aidan O'Mahony slotted into centre back. Tadgh Kennelly went to wing forward as Michael Quirke lost out. Brian Sheehan came in for the injured Darren O'Sullivan, while Killian Young returned to the half back line. Donnacha Walsh had to settle for a place on the bench. A big talking point before the game was whether or not Tommy Walsh would start and a decision was not made until just before the game and the towering full forward did pass a late fitness to take his place in the side. The game was delayed for 25 minutes as the crowd had trouble entering the grounds and this just increased the anticipation ahead of the match. When the action finally got under way, there was a number of positional switches with Graham Canty picking up Kennelly. The first score of the match came when Sheehan fielded an O'Sullivan pass and fired over in the second minute. Almost six minutes elapsed before the next score and it was Sheehan again, this time from a placed ball after Walsh had been fouled by Michael Shields. An off the ball incident resulted in Tommy Griffin being booked and from the resultant free, Donnacha O'Connor pointed. The same player levelled matters after good work by John Miskella and in particular Anthony Lynch, who was on top of the Gooch early on. The first goal chance of the match fell to Daniel Goulding, but Diarmuid Murphy quickly smothered the shot and James Masters' follow up was tame. However, Goulding soon made up for the miss and the corner forward put Cork in front for the first time with a fine point of his weaker right foot. Cork were having the lions share of the possession, but by the 18th minute they had kicked four wides. A trademark run by Pierce O'Neill looked like yielding yet another goal, but this time his effort went narrowly wide as Kerry were struggling to contain the Cork forwards. O'Connor was causing problems in the full forward line and he kicked Cork's fourth point. The fifth soon followed as Miskella raced forward to lot over and make it 0-5 to 0-2 after 22 minutes. Then both sides had a player each sent off as Noel O'Leary and Paul Galvin were dismissed by referee Pat McEnaney in an off the ball incident. Paddy Kelly stretched Cork's lead further with another point as the Rebels looked to be adapting to the loss of a man better than their opponents. In the 27th minute, Kerry manager Jack O'Connor made his first change when Darren O'Sullivan replaced Sheehan, a surprising move considering Sheehan was the recognised free taker. Straight away Kerry were awarded a free and Cooper slotted over to leave three between the sides. O'Connor extended the Cork lead to five points, but Kennelly responded with a good score to keep Kerry in touch, but they needed to win more possession around the middle of the park where Nicholas Murphy, Alan O'Connor and O'Neill were dominant. Goulding was then fouled by Reidy and the same player converted the free to make it 0-9 to 0-4 at half time. O'Connor made a change at half time when David Moran replaced Mark O'Se as the Kerry manager looked to get his side back into the match. Tommy Griffin went to centre back as O'Mahony went to the wing and Young dropped back into the corner. Straight from the throw in, captain Darren O'Sullivan raced through the Cork defence and scored a fine point to rally his charges. Then, an excellent run by Declan O'Sullivan ended with another point and there was just three points between the teams. Cooper made the gap just two points when he converted a free as Kerry started the second half in emphatic style. The introduction of Moran saw Kerry won more ball in the middle of the park. At the other end, Goulding had Cork's first chance of the half, but his free went well wide to add to their tally of wides that was now reaching double figures. Kerry's style of running at the Cork defence seemed to be paying off as veteran Darragh O'Se raced down the line unmarked and slotted over to put the minimum between the sides. Cork were up against it at this stage and Darren O'Sullivan fed namesake Declan who in turn passed to Walsh, but his effort was knocked out for a '45 and Moran kicked over to level matters at 0-9 each after 44 minutes. Then Cork got a reprieve when Goulding was fouled by Reidy and a penalty was awarded. O'Connor stepped up and excellently picked his spot to give Murphy no chance. Aidan O'Shea came on for Reidy a minute later as Cork also made a change with Fintan Gould coming on for the injured Murphy. Another Goulding free made the score 1-10 to 0-9. Miskella was then adjudged to have fouled Declan O'Sullivan and Cooper converted the 13m free to leave three between the sides once again. Another raiding run by Darren O'Sullivan ended with the Kerry captain being fouled and for his protestations, Lynch was booked and the ball was moved to on front of the goals, giving Cooper an easy free to convert. Donnacha Walsh replaced Tommy Walsh who was clearly hampered by the ankle injury. Cork were the next to score though when Masters kicked a great point as the Leesiders kept their noses in front. Both sides made further changes as Cork introduced Paul O'Flynn for Paul Kerrigan, while Eoin Brosnan replaced Darragh O'Se at midfield. O'Flynn made an immediate impact when he kicked a point to open up a four point lead. Goulding had a great chance to kill the game off when he got through on the Kerry goal, but his effort hit the outside of the post and went wide. The impressive Michael Shields won a free 35 metres out from goal and O'Connor kicked over to make it 1-13 to 0-11 as Cork looked to have weathered the Kerry comeback. However, Kerry kept in the hunt with another Darren O'Sullivan point. Goulding, Gould and Miskella responded for Cork as there looked no way back for the Kingdom at this stage. The rest of the match was played out at a pedestrian pace as Kerry gave up the fight. Goulding hit his fifth point in injury time Cork - A Quirke; R Carey, M Shields, A Lynch; J Miskella (0-2), G Canty, N O'Leary; A O'Connor, N Murphy; P Kelly (0-1), P O'Neill, P Kerrigan (0-1); D Goulding (0-5, 2f), J Masters (0-1), D O'Connor (1-5, 1pen, 3f). Subs - F Gould (0-1) for Murphy (45); P O'Flynn (0-1) for Kerrigan (55); J Hayes for Kelly (64); F Lynch for O'Connor (68). Kerry - D Murphy, M O'Se, T O'Sullivan, P Reidy; T O'Se, A O'Mahony, K Young, D O'Se, T Griffin, T Kennelly (0-1), D O'Sullivan, P Galvin; C Cooper (0-4, 4f), T Walsh, B Sheehan (0-1, 1f). Subs - Darren O'Sullivan (0-2) for Sheehan (25); D Moran (0-1, 1 '45) for M O'Se (ht); A O'Shea for Reidy (44); D Walsh for T Walsh (53); E Brosnan for D O'Se (56). Ref - P McEnaney (Monaghan) Tweet

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