Co. Junior Hurling Championship Semi Final : St. Pats (East Kerry) 0-3; Austin Stacks 7-16.
This County JH Championship semi final was a stroll in the park for our Hurlers on this Friday evening (18th Sept) in Fossa when they had a very comfortable win against the home side. If the Kerry Senior Footballers could muster a score of 7-16 in their recent All Ireland quarter final against Kildare then our Hurlers repeated the feat in their semi final. Admittedly St. Pats were missing many first choice players but Mike O’Halloran and Michael O’Leary had our boys well prepared for any eventuality and they showed that with a very well-focused display.
We scored 3-8 in the first half and added a further 4-8 in the second half while keeping the opposition scoreless from play during the whole hour. All their three points came from first half frees. All our six forwards and two centre-field men got on the score sheet but their task was made that bit easier by the quality of ball coming in from our defence.
Team: Peter Doyle, Kevin O’Leary, John McCarthy, Andrew Morrissey, Eddie Barry, Paul Daly, Michael O’Leary, Kieran McCaughley (0-1), Ciarán Breen (0-3), Tadhg Meehan (1-0), Danny Maguire (2-1), Joe Brennan (1-2), Colm Ó Giollagáin (1-8 – 5 frees), Seán Hartnett (0-1), Ronan Gilsenan (2-0).
Subs used: Paudie Bradley (31m), Terry Desmond (35m), Breandán Caball (36m), Ross Long (41m), Stephen Pierce (41m). We now play Duagh in the final which will be a repeat of the 2012 encounter which we won (4-10 to 0-9) . No date has been fixed for this as we write.
In the meantime we are due to play Ballyheigue in the Co. League Div. 3 Final, with next Saturday (26th Sept) tentatively fixed for the game, though not yet confirmed.