Kilmacud Crokes dispatch St Mullin's without major fuss

Kilmacud Crokes 1-24 St Mullin's 1-12

A double of AIB Leinster senior hurling and football club title successes remains within Kilmacud Crokes' grasp after their hurlers powered through to next weekend's final against Ballyhale Shamrocks.

Led again by the in-form Oisin O'Rorke who finished with 0-11, Crokes took care of Carlow champions St Mullin's with relative ease to qualify for their first ever provincial decider.

Croke Park will host a double header of senior finals next Sunday and powerhouse Dublin club Crokes will be involved in both of them, a historic day for the southside stronghold.

That does raise a problem for their solitary dual player, defender Brian Sheehy, a point scorer in both semi-final wins.

Aside from that it's all good news for Crokes with Fergal Whitely, Micheal Roche and goalscorer Ronan Hayes also impressing for the hurlers who may feel they made up for last year's surprise semi-final defeat.

St Mullin's were looking for a fast start as they sought to pull off a win similar to their 2019 success against then Dublin title holders Cuala.

St Mullin's went on to contest the provincial final with Ballyhale Shamrocks on that occasion and knew in advance of facing Crokes this time that the Kilkenny side had once again made it through to the decider.

Any hopes of a St Mullin's/Ballyhale provincial final rematch were quickly wiped out though as Crokes opened up at a thunderous pace and immediately put significant daylight between the teams.

Crokes moved 0-04 to 0-01 ahead thanks in part to back to back points from O'Rorke and a further burst of 1-07 without response between the 16th and 23rd minutes went a long way to deciding this tie.

Micheal Roche got that blitz of scoring underway and the back to back Dublin