Senior Club Championship Final: Austin Stacks 2-12; Dr. Crokes 1-14.
Fitzgerald Stadium was the venue for this Saturday evening’s (10th Sept) Club Championship Final which ended, after a tough, pulsating, nail-biting game, in the narrowest of victories for us. Played in bright sunshine we could have been a goal up inside the first 30 seconds but our attack broke down and Crokes came up field to score the opening point. Our first point came two minutes later, put over by Shane Guthrie, after good work from David Mannix and Fiachna Mangan.
Then Crokes went ahead again in the 8th minute but four minutes later we took the lead for the first time when a high ball in by David Mannix was fielded beautifully by Shane O’Callaghan and Calla blasted to the net for a great goal.
We felt that this might have given us the momentum to move on but the opposite happened. In the next 14 minutes Crokes went on to score six unanswered points to leave them ahead by four (0-8 to 1-1) as the half entered the last five minutes.
But in those closing minutes we took complete control, adding three points, to reduce the half time deficit to one (Crokes 0-8; Stacks 1-4). Kieran Donaghy with two from play and a pointed free by David Mannix, after he himself was fouled, were our scorers with Jack Morgan and John Dennis prominent in the build-ups.
In the opening minutes of the second half both sides scored two each – our two coming from Michael O’Donnell and Star (with his 3rd of the game). But in the 35th minute we were rocked right back on our heels when Crokes got through for their only goal of the game to put them four up again. Points were then exchanged in the next two minutes – ours an absolute beauty from Daniel Bohan – before we got through for our second goal of the game in the 38th minute, Feraghal MacNamara planting a low shot to the corner of the net after good support play from Shane O’Callaghan and David Mannix. Two minutes later Crokes, with a point, extended their lead again to two.
But now it was our turn to do to Crokes what they did to us in the first half – holding us scoreless for a period. In the next ten minutes we held them scoreless while adding four ourselves – three of these came from David Mannix (two frees) and one from play by Pa McCarthy. This left us two points ahead after 54 minutes (2-11 to 1-12). In the remaining ten minutes (there were four minutes of added time) matters couldn’t have been more tense with both sides going for the win. First Crokes reduced the deficit to one in the 55th minute. Another lovely point by Daniel put us two up again in the 59th minute. Then in the 61st minute Crokes were through on goal only for Darragh O’Brien to make a splendid save, to add to a similar one he made early in the first half. Crokes, two minutes later, did get one more point to leave just one between the sides with a minute of added time to go, but we held out for a well-deserved victory.
Despite the fact that Crokes played with 14 men for the last 48 minutes of play we certainly deserved our victory with brilliant displays all round, none more so than last year’s Kerry Minor, Jack Morgan, who deservedly won the Man of the Match Award. Great for Jack, especially with his Grandmother, Mary, watching on in Fitzgerald Stadium,
It was our third Club Championship title. We won the very first running of the competition back in 1979, and our second in 2003. That year a Club team (An Ghaeltacht) had already won the Co. Championship, so our Club Championship victory was of no consequence as a qualifier for the Munster campaign. This year, however there are still three Divisional teams (Kenmare District, Mid Kerry and South Kerry) left in the County Championship but nobody, of course, would write-off any of the five Club teams remaining in quarter final stage of the competition (Ourselves, Crokes, Dingle, Rahillys and Rathmore).
The omens were good for this victory. The previous night Stacks Ladies won the County JF Championship after a rip-roaring game that went to extra time (defeating Kilcummin 3-17 to 2-15). And 2003 was also the last time they achieved this. And to round off a brilliant week-end for the Club our Under 9s won the prestigious Canty Cup at the St. Finbarr’s Tournament in Cork and then, on this Sunday afternoon, our Under 13s won the equally prestigious Lee Strand Tournament in fine style, with a brilliant 5-7 to 2-5 win over Dublin’s Ballyboden. Congratulations to all involved.
Team: Darragh O’Brien, Ronan Shanahan, Conor Jordan, Fearghal MacNamara (1-0), Pa McCarthy (0-1), Jack O’Shea, Jack Morgan, Kieran Donaghy (Capt) (0-3), Shane Guthrie (0-1), Fiachna Mangan, Shane O’Callaghan (1-0), Daniel Bohan (0-2), David Mannix (0-4 – 3 frees), David O’Sullivan, Michael O’Donnell (0-1).
Subs used: John Dennis (14m), Michael Collins (38m), Wayne Guthrie (40m), Darragh O’Brien (42m).
see link for Tralee Today – report & match photographs here:
REPORT/PHOTOS: Resilient Rock Topples 14-Man Dr Crokes In Senior Club Championship Final