Kerry Petroleum Senior Football Club Championship, Round 1.
Templenoe 1-07, Kenmare Shamrocks 1-13.
A strong last quarter for Kenmare saw them pull away six points winners in a hard fought encounter with no quarters asked or given between the two local rivals.
Both teams welcomed their Kerry contingent back to club action for this crunch tie, which was played in dry conditions at Lewis Road on Sunday. Kenmare had the wind to their backs for the first half and they duly opened the scoring with Sean O’Shea and Tom Murnane getting them off to a solid start. Templenoe’s first score came 5 minutes in courtesy of a pointed free from Killian Spillane. David Hallissey and Sean O’Shea extended the lead for Kenmare with two more white flags, before the latter then went close with a goal chance only to be denied by a good save from Mark Looney. Then in the 13th minute came Templenoe’s goal, with Brian Crowley showing great drive, to follow up on his initial effort which was blocked, to bury the ball to the back of the net at the second time of asking. This brought the scores level, but Kenmare responded well with Kevin O’Sullivan calmly popping the ball over the bar at the other end to make the score 1-01 to 0-05 going into the first half water break.
The second quarter tended to boil over at times, Kenmare picked up 2 black cards in this period, with Mark and Dara Crowley both getting sent to the sin bin. But Templenoe suffered their own big blow, when their influential midfielder Adrian Spillane who was playing very well had leave the field with an injury following a late hit that he did not recover from. Nonetheless, Templenoe looked like they might be starting to get the upperhand in this contest, when they edged in front for the first and only time in the game following a brace of points from Teddy Doyle and Killian Spillane. However, a minute later 14 men Kenmare worked the ball up the field with Sean O’Shea and Paul O’Connor combining to pass the ball across the square for Tom Murnane to palm to the net. This was a sucker punch for Templenoe and soon after Stephen O’Brien added another point to leave Kenmare going in the happier at the interval.
Half Time Score: Templenoe 1-03, Kenmare Shamrocks 1-06.
On resumption Templenoe’s Teddy Doyle cut the deficit to 2 points again with a fine score from play. Kevin O’Sullivan then had a shot saved from the line, before Sean O’Shea made no mistake with a placed ball effort for Kenmare. In the 37th minute, Patrick Clifford got forward to split the posts for Templenoe, but once more Sean O’Shea countered with a converted free to restore Kenmare’s 3 points advantage. Throughout the match, Kenmare made it difficult for Templenoe to score, by funnelling players back when Templenoe were on the attack, but Gavin Crowley did find some space to fire over a point just before the 2nd half water break to make the score 1-06 to 1-08.
The final quarter was where Kenmare pushed on, but Templenoe had loud appeals for a penalty in the 51st minute when Josh Crowley Holland found himself in a great position in front of the Kenmare goal amid frantic tackling by the Kenmare defenders, but a 45 resulted which subsequently went wide and the chance was lost for Templenoe. Instead Kenmare had 3 unanswered points from Sean O’Shea, Michael McCarthy which was only inches over the crossbar and Tom Murnane. This put clear daylight between the sides. Stephen O’Sullivan got one last score for Templenoe, but Kenmare were not going to denied and finished out the contest with points from David Hallissey and Sean O’Shea for a deserved win on the day.
Final Score: Templenoe 1-07, Kenmare Shamrocks 1-13.
Scorers:
Templenoe: Brian Crowley 1-00, Killian Spillane 0-02 (0-02f), Teddy Doyle 0-02, Patrick Clifford 0-01, Gavin Crowley 0-01, Stephen O’Sullivan 0-01.
Kenmare Shamrocks: Sean O’Shea 0-06 (0-03f), Tom Murnane 1-02, David Hallissey 0-02, Stephen O’Brien 0-01, Kevin O’Sullivan 0-01, Michael McCarthy 0-01.
Teams:
Templenoe: Mark Looney, Mark Casey, Kieran O’Neill, Tadhg Morley, Patrick Clifford, Gavin Crowley, John Rice, Josh Crowley Holland, Adrian Spillane, Teddy Doyle, Brian Crowley, Colin Crowley, Stephen O’Sullivan, Sean Sheehan, Killian Spillane,
Subs: Danny Cahalane, Denis O’Neill, John Spillane, Kieran McCarthy.
Kenmare Shamrocks: Kieran Fitzgibbon, Dara Crowley, James McCarthy, Cian O’Sullivan, Matthew Murnane, Dara O’Shea, Shane O’Sullivan, Griffin Wharton, David Hallissey, Kevin O’Sullivan, Sean O’Shea, Mark Crowley, Tom Murnane, Paul O’Connor, Stephen O’Brien,
Subs: Micheal McCarthy, Dan McCarthy, Kevin Price
