Walsh marks the way as Kerins O'Rahilly's take Munster

Kerins O'Rahilly's (Kerry) 2-06 Newcastle West (Limerick) 1-08

Kerins O’Rahilly's have won their first Munster Club football title as the high fielding of Tommy Walsh helped secure a second-half turnaround against Newcastle West.

The Strand Road Club become the eighth Kerry team to take provincial honours thanks to two goals in the space of five minutes from Walsh and Barry John Keane, either side of a Mike McMahon goal, to give them a lead that was closed to a point but never equalled.

Both sides threw caution to the wind and pumped long balls into their towering target-men in the second half.

A game which featured seven scores and one goal chance in the first half suddenly had three goals and another saved inside nine minutes.

Walsh caught three high balls in the first 10 minutes, the first two of which resulted in goals. At the other end, McMahon gathered two balls fed in, leading to a goal and another goal chance.

Gavin O’Brien started the second half as he did the first, catching the throw-in and charging forward to set up a point – this time for substitute Ben Hanafin to score with his first touch.

Jack Savage was notably quicker feeding the ball in to the full-forward line and it paid off in the 34th minute; Walsh dancing in behind the full-back and his shot, half-blocked by Darren O’Doherty, found the net. Cormac Coffey burst forward to make it a four-point lead, 1-05 to 0-04.

McMahon served fair warning of his danger, forcing a save from Shane Foley. However, after winning possession again, he set up a Cian Sheehan shot which McMahon, goal-hanging, finished the rebound after it came off the post. A one-point game, but only for a matter of seconds.

David Moran won the kick out and was fouled. He launched another rocket.