Donegal hammer All-Ireland champs Kerry in Division One decider

By Shaun Casey

Donegal 3-20 Kerry 2-10

Donegal are the new Division One league champions following their landslide victory against All-Ireland champions Kerry. In a repeat of last year’s All-Ireland decider, it was Donegal who dominated this time around.

Man of the match Michael Langan kicked the first five-points for Jim McGuinness’ men, while Keith Evans hit the net for Kerry after David Clifford’s opening score. Michael Murphy soon got in on the scoring act, kicking a two-point free.

Donegal fired over ten unanswered points while Kerry eventually ended their dry spell with a point from Sean O’Shea, leaving Donegal eight up at the break, 0-13 to 1-2.

The back-to-back Ulster champions got off to a dream start in the second half with three goals in as many minutes. Conor O’Donnell, Michael Murphy and Caolan McGonagle rattled the net to essentially end the game as a contest.

Clifford grabbed a second three-pointer for the Kingdom, and Gavin Mulreany pulled off a excellent stop to deny Tomás Kennedy, as Donegal cruised to a comfortable win.

Donegal Scorers: M Murphy 1-5 (2tpf, 1f), M Langan 0-6, C O’Donnell 1-1, M Campbell 0-3, R McHugh 0-3, C McGonagle 1-0, P Mogan 0-1, F Roarty 0-1.

Kerry Scorers: D Clifford 1-1, K Evans 1-1, P Geaney 0-2, A Heinrich 0-2, T O’Sullivan 0-1, T Kennedy 0-1, D Geaney 0-1, S O’Shea 0-1.