Despite the minimal margin of difference, the Noresiders were deserving winners, having dominated the possession stakes for the majority of proceedings.

Despite that, they had to dig very deep to overcome the concession of two goals inside the opening eight minutes, as well a period in the second half when they conceded five points in succession to fall behind once more.

They also only managed one point from two first-half penalties, and that came after 30 seconds when Aoife Neary opted to take the safe option.

That didn’t look too clever when goal machine Katrina Mackey found the Kilkenny net 92 seconds later after brilliant play by Angela Walsh, and then set up Julia White for another.

The Cats continued to dominate possession though and player of the match, Katie Power goaled in the 23rd minute to send them in at the break leading by 1-7 to 2-3.

Two early points increased the margin to three but with Orla Cotter and White supplying five of Cork’s next five scores, it was the Leesiders that were looking good entering the final quarter.

The momentum changed once more though as Aoife Neary goaled with a glorious overhead pull 10 minutes from time and two points from Power helped them keep their noses in front.

Scorers – Kilkenny: K Power 1-6; A Neary 1-3 (0-2fs); G Walsh, A Dunphy, D Gaule 0-1 each.

Cork: J White 1-2; K Mackey 1-1; O Cotter 0-3; A Walsh 0-2; J O’Leary, A Thompson, B Corkery 0-1 each.

Kilkenny: E Kavanagh, M Power, K McDonald, J Frisby, L Fennelly, E Keane, E Aylward, C Phelan, A Dalton, G Walsh, A Dunphy, K Power, S Farrell, D Gaule, A Neary. Sub: M Quilty for Walsh (ht)

Cork: A Murray, J O’Callaghan, M Walsh, P Mackey, D Cronin, R Buckley, A Geary, O Cotter, B Corkery, E O’Sullivan, A Walsh, A Thompson, J White, K Mackey, J O’Leary. Sub: S Burns for O’Sullivan (35); G O’Connor for Cotter (53);

Referee: O Elliott (Antrim).