Eoghan Cahill's class leads Offaly to impressive win over Kerry

Offaly upped the ante impressively in the second half to book their place in the Joe McDonagh Cup final with a round to spare in Tullamore on Sunday as they pulled away for a convincing and ultimately impressive win over Kerry.

It means that Offaly have the luxury of being able to afford to lose to Down in their last round next Saturday as they will stay ahead of Kerry on the head to head.

Offaly will meet midland neighbours Laois in a renewal in the final in a few weeks time – that should be an epic battle as Offaly seek revenge against Laois after losing their way late on in their first round defeat.

Just four points ahead at half time after playing poorly for the opening 20 minutes, Offaly really turned on the style in the second half, taking control all over the field. They outscored the visitors by 2-13 to 0-05 in the second half and had their final place booked early.

With a final place at stake, this was as fiercely contested as you would expect from the throw in. Two points from Brian Duignan and one from the in-form Charlie Mitchell had Offaly 0-03 to 0-02 in front after three minutes but Kerry were the better team by a distance for 20 minutes or so.

The home side struggled to break down the Kerry sweeper system and Kerry looked much more dangerous going forward. They got four in a row to lead by 0-06 to 0-03 after eight minutes and Kerry were still three ahead, 0-07 to 0-04 after 17 minutes.

Offaly got the break they needed with an 18th minute penalty goal from Eoghan Cahill after Charlie Mitchell was fouled off the ball by Evan Murphy. It was a foul but from a Kerry point of view it was a disaster score to concede at a stage when they were in control.

Offaly played much better after that, getting five of the next