Kingdom come good in second-half to see off Cork for 87th Munster crown

May 10, 2026

Kerry's David Clifford has a shot at goal against Cork during the Munster SFC final at Fitzgerald Stadium ©INPHO/Ryan Byrne

Kerry are Munster senior football champions for the sixth year in-a-row after seeing off rivals Cork by 1-23 to 1-15 in Killarney this afternoon.

After having trailed by 0-13 to 0-10 at half-time, the All-Ireland champions hit the front with a David Clifford goal three minutes into the second-half and increase their advantage with scores from Tony Brosnan, Clifford (two-pointer) and Mike Breen before going on to record an eight-point victory for injured skipper Paul Geaney to raise the newly named Páidí Ó Sé Cup.

Cork had made the better start to this provincial decider played before a 32,961 crowd at Fitzgerald Stadium, where early long-range efforts from Brian O’Driscoll and Mark Cronin helped the visitors get out to a 0-6 to 0-1 lead.

A couple of Clifford points were erased by Sean McDonnell’s two-pointer for the Rebels in the 10th minute, but Jack O’Connor’s side outscored their neighbours by 0-6 to 0-1 over the next quarter of an hour to level matters.

Chris Og Jones, Colm O’Callaghan and Steven Sherlock (‘45’) got the scoreboard moving for Cork again as they went in with a three-point lead at the interval, but they’d conceded a thunderous Clifford goal early in the resumption before eventually falling half a dozen points behind.

A brilliantly taken O’Driscoll goal halved that deficit for John Cleary’s men and a David Buckley point would move them within two, but Kerry powered to an 87th provincial success with scores from Dylan Geaney, Brosnan (2, 1 two-pointer), Killian Spillane and Clifford (free) down the home stretch.


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Kingdom come good in second-half to see off Cork for 87th Munster crown