Kilkenny 2-17 Limerick 0-19
Corner-forward John Walsh blasted a brilliant 2-05 as Kilkenny made light of their underdogs tag with a 2-17 to 0-19 All-Ireland minor final success at Croke Park.
The Leinster champions were viewed as outsiders to win a record 21st title as they faced a highly-rated Limerick side at Croke Park.
But Pat Hoban's Cats were full value for the success and only trailed briefly against a Limerick side chasing a first win since 1984.
Mullinavat club man Walsh was the star man, shooting two second-half goals to effectively secure Kilkenny's first title since 2010.
Amazingly, Kilkenny began their minor campaign with a 2-08 to 0-03 defeat to Dublin back in April, on home soil, when they scored just twice from play.
But they've improved steadily since then and saved their best display for the final with captain Darragh Joyce, young brother of senior star Kieran, lifting the Irish Press Cup.
Limerick were strong favourites after a big semi-final win over Galway while they'd previously beaten holders Waterford, Tipperary and Cork.
They were also partly motivated by the injustice of 2013 when they were denied a final place by a Hawk-Eye error in the semi-final.
A Barry Nash point was famously wrongly ruled out that day though Nash has recovered to lead the side superbly this year.
He blasted 4-10 on the way to the final and added two more points in the first-half. Ronan Lynch, their top scorer overall in the campaign, contributed three points in this period.
But they generally played catch up on a Kilkenny side that were a step ahead for most of the half.
Kilkenny opened up a double scores 0-06 to 0-03 lead after 15 minutes thanks to a brace of points each from Walsh and Ronan Corcoran.
Walsh was a class apart and five points from him helped Kilkenny to lead by 0-12 to 0-10 at half-time.
All of the scores came from play while Alan Murphy showed his prowess from placed balls with two great points from long range.
Limerick shuffled their deck considerably, moving wing-back Colin Ryan into attack and dropping wing-forward and captain Cian Lynch back to midfield.
They failed to ignite as many expected though and Kilkenny moved four clear after the restart, 0-14 to 0-10.
Three missed goal opportunities, one by Conor Fitzgerald and two by Peter Casey, cost Limerick. Walsh made no mistake at the other end with a kicked goal for Kilkenny after 40 minutes, leaving them 1-14 to 0-13 clear.
Kilkenny retained a three-point advantage at 1-17 to 0-17 with seven minutes remaining when Walsh hit his second goal.
He was fed by Murphy after a great solo run and calmly finished from close range to double their lead and all but claim the victory.
Kilkenny: D Brennan; C McGrath, C Delaney, T Walsh; P Lyng, J Cleere, D Joyce; C Browne, L Scanlon (0-01); A Murphy (0-06, 3f, 1 65), R Butler, R Corcoran (0-03); S Morrissey, L Blanchfield (0-02), J Walsh (2-05).
Subs.: B Ryan for Butler, E Kenny for Browne, A Gaffney for Corcoran.
Limerick: E McNamara; L Lyons, P O'Loughlin, S Finn; T Grimes, A La Touche-Cosgrave, C Byrnes; R Hanley, C Lynch (0-03); S Flanagan (0-02), T Morrissey (0-02), C Ryan; R Lynch (0-09, 6f, 2 65), B Nash (0-02), P Casey.
Subs.: C Fitzgerald for Byrnes, E Doyle for Fitzgerald, J Porter for Lyons, B Murphy (0-01) for Grimes.
Referee: F Horgan (Tipperary).
