The Kilkenny under-21 side made it a clean sweep of qualifiers for All Ireland hurling finals for the county for the second year in succession when they disposed of Antrim in Saturday’s semi-final played in Páirc Tailteann, Navan.
Star of the show for the Kilkenny side was Richie Hogan who constantly tormented the Antrim defence registering 14 points in total. Kilkenny experienced a sluggish first half and led by two points at the interval, 0-8 to 1-3 the goal being conceded on the stroke of half time when the defence failed to clear a close in free and Darren Hamill nipped in to finish. The second half saw a far better performance from the winners and a succession of points interspersed with goals from John Mulhall and John Joe Farrell saw out a comfortable victory for the black and amber side.
Kilkenny now face Clare in the All Ireland final on September 13 in Croke Park in what promises to be a great day out for all black and amber supporters as the camogie team play Cork in their senior final on the same day.
The Kilkenny team and scorers: Colin McGrath, Paul Murphy (0-2, 0-1 free ), Paddy Nolan, Conor Fogarty, Lester Ryan (0-1 ), David Langton, Martin Walsh, Mark Kelly, Liam Ryan (0-1 ), Colin Fennelly, Mark Bergin (0-1 ), John Mulhall (1-1 ), Richie Hogan (0-14, 0-8 frees, 0-2 65’s ), John Joe Farrell (1-1 ), James Nolan. Subs: N Cleere (0-1 ) for J Nolan, K Mooney for L Ryan. J Dowling for M Kelly, P McCarthy for R Hogan, A Kearns for P Nolan.
