Kerry won their first Christy Ring Cup title with a resounding victory over Wicklow at Croke Park.
It was a rare Croke Park victory for the hurlers from the Kingdom, but they graced GAA HQ with assurance so often displayed by their footballing colleagues down through the generations.
This was indeed a highly impressive display by the Munster men, who never looked like being overhauled by a Garden County side that was always chasing the game.
Kerry imposed themselves on the game early on, opening out a 1-3 to 0-1 lead in the opening 10 minutes.
Shane Nolan, Darragh O’Connell and Mike Conway all steered over points, and John Egan hit the game’s opening goal.
It was Gary O’Brien who slalomed his way through the Wicklow defence, before offloading to the unmarked Egan, who smashed home past Wayne O’Gorman from close range.
But with Eamon Kearns a powerful figure at midfield, Wicklow battled their way into the game, and points from Andy O’Brien and Ronan Keddy narrowed the deficit.
They were awarded a penalty, but Jonathan O’Neill’s effort was deflected around the post by John Griffin, with O’Neill converting the resultant 65.
An O’Neilll free narrowed the gap to three, but the Munster men hit the last four points of the half, two of them from O’Connell, to lead by 1-10 to 0-6 at the break.
O’Connell burst through a gap in the Garden defence for a superb goal two minutes after the restart, but the score was cancelled out almost immediately.
Wicklow were awarded a second penalty, taken by substitute James Quirke, whose strike was kept out, but he followed in to hammer the rebound home.
A sustained spell of pressure yielded little in the way of success for the Leinster men, who could find no way past the excellent James Godley and Andrew Keane.
And as the game wore on, and their plight became more desperate, Wicklow went for goal, without success, when points were there for the taking.
In the meantime, Kerry were able to pick off scores though O’Connell, substitute James Flaherty and Egan to move further into the comfort zone.
Nolan brought his tally to five with a couple of sublime long-range strikes, before Wicklow pulled back a consolation goal through skipper O’Neill three minutes from the end.
Kerry scorers: D O’Connell 1-9 (0-5f), J Egan 1-1, S Nolan 0-5, M Conway 0-2, M Boyle, J Griffin, J Flaherty, G O’Brien 0-1 each.
Wicklow scorers: J O’Neill 1-5 (0-4f, 0-1 ’65), J Quirke 1-0, A O’Brien 0-2, R Keddy 0-1.
Kerry: B Rochford, P O’Grady, J Godley, E Fitzgerald, C Harris, J Casey, A Keane, D Dineen, J Griffin, D O’Connell, G O’Brien, M Boyle, S Nolan, M Conway, J Egan.
Subs: J Flaherty for Conway, L Boyle for O’Brien, J Fitzgerald for E Fitzgerald, C Harty for Nolan, A Toyle for Egan
Wicklow: W O’Gorman, J Connors, G Keogh, B Cuddihy, G Bermingham, L Kennedy, S Kelly, E Kearns, R Keddy, L Glynn, J O’Neill, T Doyle, E Glynn, D Hyland, A O’Brien.
Subs: J Quirke for Doyle, E O’Neill for Connors, W Collins for Bermingham, J Murphy for E Glynn, E Dunne for Kelly
Referee: G Duffy (Antrim).
