Cork captain Hugh O'Connor and Tipperary captain Charlie King pictured before their Munster U20 football championship clash.
EirGrid Munster U20FC phase 2 round 1
Tipperary 0-7 Cork 0-14
Clare 0-5 Kerry 1-13
EirGrid Munster U20FC B final
Limerick 2-10 Waterford 1-5
By Stephen Barry
Cork and Kerry motored smoothly through the gears to open their Munster round-robin campaigns with victories, while Limerick ended theirs with a B final victory over Waterford.
At Fethard, the Rebels earned a double-scores victory over Tipperary. Captain Hugh O’Connor (0-5) and midfielder Rory O’Shaughnessy (0-3) kicked a perfect eight points from eight attempts, while O’Connor came close to adding a pair of goals in the first half.
They didn’t need any. Going in 0-8 to 0-3 ahead having played with the breeze, Tipp could never get nearer than four points. Cork coasted to the finish and will move on to next Wednesday’s encounter with Kerry sharper for this run-out.
A notable feature was their emphasis on attacking marks. They claimed three inside the opening 20 minutes and converted each via Dara Sheedy (0-2) and O’Connor.
O’Connor almost found the net in the fourth minute but his palmed effort was saved by Robbie McGrath. He would later rattle the post after battling through some Tipp tacklers.
Midfielders Eoin Doocey and O’Shaughnessy traded classy left-footed points but Cork had the greater range of scorers. As well as Sheedy’s marks, Olan Corcoran and Bryan Hayes swung over skyscraping efforts to lead by five at midway.
O’Connor resumed with an amazing acute point on the wrong side for a right-footer but Tipp edged back into contention with a long-range beauty by Orrin Jones (0-5) and another from Shane Ryan.
The gap was back to four, 0-10 to 0-6, but Cork reasserted their control with two O’Connor frees bookending an O’Shaughnessy score. Substitute Aaron O’Sullivan capped their victory with a stoppage-time point.
In Quilty, Kerry rushed into a 1-1 to no-score lead despite beginning against the wind. The major arrived in the seventh minute when Evan Boyle’s wonderful handpass found Charlie Keating ghosting in to finish.
With Darren Keane converting two frees, Clare battled back to level by half-time, 0-5 to 1-2.
The Kingdom would do all the scoring in the second half, adding 11 points against no Banner response. Cormac Dillon finished with 0-7, four from play, while Eddie Healy and Rob Stack came forward to pick off a pair apiece.
At Mallow, Limerick captain Aaron Neville rattled two late goals to collect the John Kerins Cup with a 2-10 to 1-5 victory over Waterford.
The Déise led 1-4 to 0-3 at half-time, with Sam Pender contributing 1-2 of that tally.
Five consecutive points after the resumption pushed Limerick ahead, with Ronan Quirke (0-4) and Darragh Murray (0-3) leading the way. But it was Neville’s goals that would seal the silverware.