HURLING: Austin Stacks 3-9; St. Pats (East Kerry) 0-3.
Our Hurlers got the weekend off to a winning start with a comfortable victory in the final of the South Kerry JH Championship played in dry, blustery conditions at Lewis Road on this Saturday evening (25th Oct). Scores were at a premium in the opening quarter and any Martians that might have dropped in could be excused for thinking they were looking at a soccer scoreboard as the score after 15 minutes was 2 goals to nil in our favour. The first of these came within a minute of the start when Paul Daly’s dropping shot landed just under the cross-bar. Paul was involved again in our second goal after 15 minutes when he found Peter Doyle, who netted.
Two minutes later a brilliant side-line cut by John McCarthy was put over the bar by Ronan Gilsenan. This was followed immediately by St. Pats first and only point of the half, while in the closing ten minutes of the half we really put the game to bed, scoring a further 1-5. Paul Daly (2 – one from a free), Joe Brennan, John Mac and Peter Doyle were the point scorers, with the goal coming in the last minute of the half – a beautiful effort – after Breandán Caball combined with Paul and his lobbing shot was touched over-head to the net by Bella. This left us ahead at the break by 3-6 to 0-1.
With all the hard work done in the opening thirty minutes we eased off somewhat in the second half adding just three more points in this period to two for the opposition. Our second half scorers were Aaron Barry, Shane Fitzgerald and team captain, Paul Daly.
The win is what we wanted but the manner of the win and the display in achieving it will have pleaded team mentors, Mark Power and Ger Scollard probably more than the win itself.
Danny Maguire, still recovering from the shoulder injury picked up during the summer, was soundness personified in goals. Anything that came Andrew Morrissey’s way was fielded and cleared brilliantly as was the case with Seán King and Kevin O’Leary. The half line of Paudie Bradley, Peter O’Regan and Shane Fitzgerald also defended brilliantly and launched attack after attack, especially in that first half. A feature of the display was the number of excellent block-downs during the game and this explains to a large extent the paucity of scores by the opposition.
In the centre Joe Brennan and Breandán Caball made continuous darting runs and were there to support the defence when required. All our 12 scores, bar one, came from play with all six forwards on top of their game.
And all five subs who were introduced during the second half were as good as the starting 15. Well done again on a great win – the team’s third title of the season so far, to add to the other two already won earlier in the year, the Novice Championship and the League – all in the South Kerry Division.
Team: Danny Maguire, Andrew Morrissey, Seán King, Kevin O’Leary, Paudie Bradley, Peter O’Regan, Shane Fitzgerald (0-1), Joe Brennan (0-1), Breandán Caball, Aaron Barry (0-1), Paul Daly (Capt) (1-3 – 1 free), Ronan Gilsenan (0-1), Peter Doyle (2-1), John McCarthy (0-1), Thomas Meehan.
Subs: John Bradley (45m), Pádraig Lynch (49m), Ross Long (49m), Eddie Barry (49m), Tadhg Meehan (53m). Our next outing will be the County League semi final, against Kenmare which is due to go ahead in Connolly Park on Saturday week (8th Nov) at 3pm.