Barrett Cup Final Replay:
Austin Stacks 1-10; Waterville 1-7.
We were playing against an almost gale force wind in the first half and after twenty one minutes had to play with 13 men, after our two top scorers of the season were harshly dismissed when the ref was finally confirmed as being colour blind (yellow cards instead of red).
Both sides were on level terms, two points apiece, after ten minutes with Pat Costello and David Courtney on target for us.
In the next five minutes Waterville took command with another point and a goal.
At that stage we lost our influential midfielder, Shane Crowley who picked up an ankle injury and had to be substituted and then seven minutes later those two dismissals.
The second quarter saw both sides again score two each, both of ours coming from frees by Martin Courtney (18m) and Pat Costello (26m).
This left the South Kerry side ahead by four at half time (1-5 to 0-4).
Team Captain, Ciaran O’Connell, who at 17 must be the youngest winning captain ever of a Senior Co. Championship winning team, played a captain’s part in the opening eight minutes of the second half when he put over three of the best pointed frees you are ever likely to see, all from the most difficult of angles, right on the sideline.
A minute later Ciaran was again involved in the move that lead to the match winning score when he laid off to David Varley who put corner forward, Theo Diggin, through for a cracker of a goal to put us in the lead for the first time in the game (1-7 to 1-6).
Waterville equalised again a minute later, but this turned out to be their last score of the game while we went on to score three more points, all from play, with Tom McLoughlin (46m), Pat Costello (50m) and David Varley (55m) on target.
During all this time our backs defended superbly to keep a rampant Waterville attacking unit at bay.
The game was not without incident, apart from our two sending offs, as there was a skirmish in the closing minutes, with one of our Management team, Kevin O’Carroll picking up an injury, which some said hampered his goodlooks, while other said it enhanced those goodlucks, but, no doubt the incident enhanced his hero status amongst players and spectators alike.
The Barrett Cup (which was presented to the Co. Board in 1986 by former Club Chairman, Eddie Barrett in honour of his father, Tommy, who won 2 All Ireland SF medals with Kerry in 1930 and 1931 and 4 County SF and 3 County SH Championship medals with the Rock between 1928 and 1932) was presented to team captain, Ciaran O’Connell by the Chairman of the Cromane GAA Club, Partick Casey on behalf of the Co. Board.
This was our 7th Barrett Cup title and it was great to see Charlie Healy and Aidan O’Connor (current Club Chairman) at the game, as they were in charge of the last winning C Team in 2005 (in all Charlie and Aidan were in charge of 5 winning C team Championships in 1997, 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005).
Well done to Seanie and Kevin who were greatly supported during the season by people like Don Shanahan, Peter Williams (unlucky to be sidelined by that injury in the semi final against Tarbert), Philip Healy and others and the whole squad of at least 43 who played at one time or another during the season.
Team: Shane Begley, Liam Walsh, Bryan Kearney, Paul Galvin, Anthony Shanahan, Tom McLoughlin (0-1), Sean Power, Ciaran O’Connell (Capt) (0-3 frees), Shane Crowley, Paul McCannon, David Varley (0-1), David Courtney (0-1), Pat Costello (0-3), Martin Courtney (0-1 free), Theo Diggin (1-0).
Subs: Darragh Healy (14m), Alan Duggan (49m), Richie Conway (58m).