Cork 6-19
Kerry 2-9

Damien Gore fired a hat-trick of goals as Cork defeated an experimental Kerry side by 22 points in this afternoon’s McGrath Cup opener in Tralee.

Goals from Gore (3), Cathail O’Mahony, Shane Forde and Sean Powter cruised the Rebels to victory in this one, having gone in at the break leading by an unassailable 1-15 to 0-5.

The scoreboard read 0-8 to 0-4 when O’Mahony netted the visitors’ first major on 14 minutes against a Kerry side under the rule of John Sugrue, with manager Peter Keane and his squad currently holidaying in Thailand.

The home side had outscored their opponents 0-2 to 0-1 early in the restart before Gore pounced for his first goal in the 52nd minute and from there the flood gates really opened.

The Kilmacabea sharpshooter netted twice more (once from the penalty spot) to register his hat-trick in the space of just seven minutes.

Consolation goals from Sean Quilter and Paul Walsh helped to cancel out the majors of Forde and sub Powter but didn’t serve to take the tarnish off the score-line as the men from Leeside, starting former AFL star Ciaran Sheehan for the first time in six years, romped to a massive margin win on their first assignment of the new season. 

The only downside for the Leesiders on this occassion was that they had the luckless Nathan Walsh stetchered off in the early stages of the second-half which could see the young defender ruled out for some time. 

Cork - A Casey; M Shanley, A Browne, N Walsh; K Crowley (0-1), P Murphy, M Taylor (0-2); I Maguire (0-1), P Walsh (0-1); S Forde (1-0), S White (0-2), R Harkin (0-2); D Gore (3-5, 1-0pen), C Sheehan (0-1), C O'Mahony (1-4). Subs: P Ring for P Walsh, C Kiely for M Taylor, S Powter (1-0) for S White, R Deane for C Sheehan, B Hartnett for P Walsh.

Kerry - B Lonergan; ST Dillon, J McCarthy, L Brosnan; D McCarthy, S O'Connell, C Coffey; G Wharton, B Mahony; R Buckley, P O'Shea (0-2), A Donoghue (0-1); P Walsh (1-1), D O'Sullivan (0-3, 1f), S Quilter (1-2, 0-1f). Subs: T Sugrue for G Wharton, O Fitzgerald for ST Dillon, K Falvey for T Sugrue, S Og Moran for J McCarthy, D Rahilly for D O'Sullivan.

Referee - D O'Mahoney.

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