Cats out-gun

see him strike 0-8. e visitors opened their account with a lovely point from Blarney’s Shane Barrett, who split the posts from over 50 metres, out on the left side. Drennan and Shane Kingston shared the next ve points, with the young Galmoy attacker hitting three lovely placed balls to the Douglas man’s two, leaving the home side 6-3 ahead after fourteen minutes of action.

Another of the Blarney contingent, Padraig Power sent over a ne score from play, before Drennan punished further indiscretions from the Rebels by notching the next two scores from frees to make it a double score lead for the home side before a brace of score from play via Shane Kingston and Conor Cahalane saw Pat Ryan’s side get within 2 points of their hosts as the game reached the 20 minute marker. e Norsiders response to Cork’s cutting of their lead was emphatic. As an attacking move broke down, Billy Drennan picked up possession and played a lovely pass out to the left to Paddy Deegan. e O’Loughlin’s man surged straight through the middle of the Cork defence, throwing a lovely dummy hand-pass before picking out Martin Keoghan, who had cleverly moved away from his marker, Damien Cahalane. Mossy collected the ball before ring an unstoppable shot past Ballinhassig’s Patrick Collins in the Cork goal to stretch the Cats lead to 5-points.

Typically, e Rebels struck back. ey notched the next two scores with points from play via Conor

Cahalane and Jack O’Connor, but the Cats hit back with scores of their own from Glenmore’s Alan Murphy and the deadly Drennan. Padraig Power then got his second point for the day, and this was swiftly followed by another Shane Kingston free. omastown’s John Donnelly, who has been in great form recently, then tagged on 2 nice points from play, but again, the stubborn Leesiders responded with another pair of free’s from Kingston. Wicklow referee John Keenan then blew the short whistle, and the teams made their way to the changing rooms on a scoreline of Kilkenny 1-12, Cork 0-12. When play resumed, it would be the home side that got the scoreboard moving again, this time another ne e ort from Alan Murphy. As in the rst half, Shane