St Brendan’s College Killarney 5-21 HS Clonmel 0-7

St Brendan's College Killarney captured their 21st Corn Ui Mhuiri title at Mallow on Saturday and the result speaks for itself. It was never a contest, as St Brendan's steamroller their opponents, but they have been winning games by wide margins throughout this Corn Ui Mhuiri and were clearly a class above anything else in Munster this year.

Ironically Clonmel got the opening score when Mark Kehoe fetched the throw in and was fouled going through, and Michael O’Reilly converted the free.

St Brendan’s response was immediate and deadly as Dara Moynihan picked up a ball that should have been cleared and parted to Evan Cronin, who drilled the ball low to the Clonmel net.

From the kick-out Lee O’Donoghue found David Clifford, who fed corner forward Michael Casey, who completed a two goal salvo in ninety seconds.

Clonmel had no answer to Billy Courtney and Lee O’Donoghue at midfield,

Chris O’Donoghue, Dan O’Brien and Niall Donohoe mopped up sporadic Clonmel raids at the back while upfront St Brendan’s had too much firepower for an overrun Clonmel rear-guard. .

Points flowed from the boot of David Clifford and the towering David Shaw, who enjoyed too much freedom once fullback Stephen Ryan was black, carded in the 25th minute. Clonmel were simply chasing shadows as David Clifford finished to the net just before half time, after Cronin’s shot was parried and St Brendan’s retired 3-10 to 0-6 at the interval - it was game over.

The game fizzled out to its inevitable conclusion in the second half, as St Brendan’s added six unanswered points inside the opening ten minutes and it was as one-sided a contest as you are likely to see at this level. David Clifford, David Shaw and Evan Cronin had two apiece as the team appeared to be going through the motion.

Clonmel with the exception of Mark Kehoe who never stopped trying, were simply outclassed. Two late goals from William Courtney and another from the penalty spot by Donnchadh O’Sullivan only emphasized the gulf in class between the sides.

St Brendan's look real potential Hogan Cup contenders , as they face Dublin opponents in semi-final , but manager Gary McGrath's big worry is that he doesn't know how good the team are, because they have yet to be tested.

St Brendan’s College:

D Carroll: M Potts, C O’Donoghue, C Gammell, D Naughton (0-1), D O’Brien, N O’Donoghue, L O’Donoghue (0-2 q 45), B Courtney, D Moynihan (0-1), D Clifford (1-5 0-2 frees), P McCarthy, E Cronin (1-3), D Shaw (0-5), M Casey (1-2).

Subs: D Spillane for N Donoghue (40), D O’Sullivan (1-0 pen) for M Casey (40), W Courtney (1-0) for P McCarthy (48), A O’Shea (0-2) for B Courtney (50), F Murphy for D Shaw (56), M O’Shea for C Gammell (58)

High School Clonmel: A Tobin, Matt Barlow, S Ryan, G Ryan, G Whelan, K Peters, J Mulcahy, M Kehoe, E Hoctor (0-1), S O'Meara, C Boland, M O'Reilly (0-2f), Michael Barlow, M Hogan, D Ryan (0-1).

Subs: S Martin for S Ryan (B/C 25), A Peters for E Hoctor (h/t), L Cooney for Matt Barlow (0-3 0-1free) (46), R Kennedy for S O’Meara (55)

Referee: Kevin Murphy (Cork)