Football / McGrath Cup Final / Cork 1-9 Kerry 0-6: Cork may have taken first blood on their great Munster rivals by winning the McGrath Cup in a low-key final at Páirc Uí Rinn yesterday, but neither team's management would have seen the game as anything more than a precursor to the National League and, especially, a dress rehearsal to Saturday week when they play each other at the same venue with league points at stake.

"Kerry will be back here for a league game in a fortnight's time and there will be far more urgency about them than there was today," was Cork manager Billy Morgan's opinion after the victory. "You cannot read anything into today's game, but any time you beat Kerry is nice. They are capable of playing far better than they did, but it's a start of us. You have to take into account that Kerry didn't look to be fit or too interested in the game."

Nonetheless, Morgan remains positive his men are well primed as they prepare to take on Offaly in Tullamore on Sunday in their opening league encounter. "We can take a few positives from the match," he added. "Defensively we did very well and I thought our forwards worked the ball very well. This is our fourth win on the trot and winning is always very good for confidence. There are far more difficult games ahead and we certainly won't get carried away with this result."

For Kerry too, the result meant little and, although selector Ger O'Keeffe admitted his side were sluggish, he said the game was little more than preparation for the season ahead

"We certainly were a bit lethargic out there," said O'Keeffe, "but to be fair to the lads we had a very hard training session on Friday night and you have to remember this is still only January. There is a long season ahead of us.

"There wasn't a whole lot in the game in the first half but we under-performed in the second. When last did a Kerry team score only six points in a game? We won't be reading too much into today's affair. Others might but we won't."

Kerry made a promising start with Mike Frank Russell opening the scoring in the fourth minute with a point.

That was to be the only time last year's All-Ireland finalists would have the lead and it lasted just three minutes as Robert O'Mahony finished a fine passing movement to the Kerry net. Owen Sexton and Nicholas Murphy were involved with the build-up before O'Mahony beat Kerry goalkeeper Diarmuid Murphy.

Kerry were winning plenty of possession but were unable to convert that to scores and a Aodan MacGearailt point in the 13th minute would be his side's last until half-time as the home side began to dominate, especially at midfield where Nicholas Murphy and Diarmuid Hurley excelled.

At the interval Cork were 1-5 to 0-2 to the good, two of those points being spectacular long-range efforts from Brendan Jer O'Sullivan.

Kerry had started the match with an experimental side but brought on the more familiar faces of Marc Ó Sé and Eoin Brosnan for the second half. That, however, made little difference and Cork's six-point half-time lead remained intact by the end of the third quarter as the sides exchanged four points apiece.

The game began to get very scrappy as it moved into its final minutes with passes going astray and chances being wasted by both sides.

The highlight of the final quarter was the superb save made by Cork goalkeeper Alan Quirke from an effort by Tomás Ó Sé. It was the closest Kerry would come to getting the goal they needed to get back into the contest.

CORK: A Quirke; K O'Connor, G Canty, M Prout; O Sexton, G Spillane, S Levis; N Murphy, D Hurley; A Lynch, BJ O'Sullivan (0-3), N O'Leary; K O'Sullivan (0-4), C McCarthy (0-1), R O'Mahony (1-0). Subs: P Clifford (0-1) for O'Mahony, D Duggan for Prout, S O'Sullivan for Lynch.

KERRY: D Murphy; T O'Sullivan, M McCarthy, A O'Connell; T Ó Sé (0-1), E Fitzmaurice, B Guiney; D Ó Sé, K Donaghy; Darren O'Sullivan, Declan O'Sullivan, P Kelly; MF Russell (0-2), A O'Connor, A MacGearailt (0-1). Subs: M Ó Sé for T O'Sullivan, E Brosnan for Donaghy, P O'Connor (0-2) for A O'Connor, A O'Mahony for Fitzmaurice, S O'Sullivan for MacGearailt.

Referee: B Tyrell (Tipperary).