Kilkenny shot themselves to within reaching distance of the semi-finals when scoring an easy victory over disappointing Dublin.
The Cats will enjoy home advantage against Waterford next Sunday in a fixture that should be a home one for the Suirsiders. However, the game has been switched because of development work at Walsh Park.
With the winners guaranteed a semi-final spot, next weekend's derby tie should be a lively affair. Certainly, it will be better than this one-sided affair.
Kilkenny didn’t learn much from this average, listless clash. The Dubs were simply off colour from the start and offered little resistance. The visitors’ form improved for a while in the second half, but goals from Kilkenny captain, Eoin Cody in the 44th and 56th minutes buried the visitors (2-21 to 1-12).
Were it not for the gallant efforts of wing-forward, Donal Burke, who helped himself to 0-11, the Dubs would have been hammered out of sight.
The losers were in big trouble at half-time when they trailed by 0-17 to 0-08. Dublin created the first scoring chance after only 30 seconds when Alex Considine shot into the side netting from a tight angle on the left.
However, they went missing for a long spell after that. With Billy Drennan in fine shooting form, Kilkenny breezed 0-07 to 0-01 clear by the 12th minute.
Dublin were leaving wide open spaces all over the field and compounded by a series of handling errors, Kilkenny were able to drill the ball around without coming under any meaningful pressure.
The end of the first quarter was reached with struggling Dublin having 0-02 on the scoreboard, both points from frees by Burke. They continued to drift off the pace as defender Padraig Walsh (2), Cian Kenny and Paddy Deegan joined Drennan on the scoring chart to see Kilkenny jump 0-10 to 0-03 clear by the 23rd minute.
Drennan, Walsh and centre-back Richie Reid continued to drive on the winners - they didn't register a wide in this half - as they hit half-time with a commanding lead of 0-17 to 0-08.
Dublin stepped on the gas after the rest and opened by shooting three wides in a row. They eventually found the target through Burke, but they never succeeded in putting any sort of decent pressure on the opposition.
When Cody scored his first goal the gap went out to a whopping 1-19 to 0-09. A few minutes later Paul Crummey landed a like score for the losers, and they backed it up with two points from Burke.
Kilkenny never flinched. A quick free by Billy Ryan in the 56th minute found Cody on the right edge of the square, and he buried a low shot in the net to more or less finish the game.
The match ended on a downer for Dublin when defender Paddy Smith was sent off after being shown two yellow cards within two minutes nearing the finish.
Kilkenny: E Murphy; C Buckley, C Delaney, P Walsh (0-02); C Kenny (0-01), R Reid, T Walsh; C Fogarty, P Mullen (0-01); B Ryan (0-02), J Donnelly (0-01), P Deegan (0-03); B. Drennan (0-13, 8f), M Keoghan, E Cody (2-02).
Subs: D Brennan for Murphy (ht), W Walsh for Keoghan (ht); T Clifford for Mullen (45), R Corcoran for Fogarty (59), D Blanchfield for Buckley (61).
Dublin: E Gibbons; A Dunphy, E O’Donnell, P Smyth; C Donohoe, C Burke, D Gray; R Smith, C O’Leary (0-01); D Burke (0-11, 6f, 1 '65), D Sutcliffe, C Boland (0-02); S Currie, C O’Sullivan (0-01), A Considine (0-02).
Subs: P Crummey (1-00) for Currie (20), P Doyle for Smith (45), D O Dulaing for O’Sullivan (50), J Bellew for Dunphy (53), D Keogh for Sutcliffe (63).
Referee: J Murphy (Limerick).
