Garvey’s Super Valu County Senior Football Championship, Round 1.
East Kerry 3-23, Templenoe 1-10.
East Kerry were hot favourites going into this contest and they fully justified their favourites tag with 19 points to spare over Templenoe at Beaufort last Saturday afternoon.
The game was played in dry but windy conditions with East Kerry having the wind advantage for the first half. Templenoe started okay with Aidan Crowley quickly countering Ruairi Murphy’s opening score for East Kerry to make score 1 point apiece after 4 minutes. But Templenoe struggled for a long time after that with East Kerry proving much quicker to the breaking ball. They made their domination count on the score board with nine unanswered points including a 2 pointer from Ruairi Murphy to put them 0-10 to 0-01 ahead after 21 minutes. That said Templenoe came close to getting the game’s first goal in the 10th minute when a good team move ended with a John Spillane shot narrowly missing the target. The remaining minutes of the first half saw Killian Spillane (3) trade scores with Ruairi Murphy and David Clifford to leave eight points between the sides at the interval.
Half Time Score: East Kerry 0-12, Templenoe 0-04.
Any faint hopes of a Templenoe comeback were blown out of the water within the first eight minutes of the second half with 2 goals from Paul O’Shea and Ruairi Murphy along points from Paul O’Shea (2), David Clifford and Ronan Buckley more than doubling their lead to make the score 2-15 to 0-04 after 58 minutes of play. Templenoe battled on as they always do with Killian Spillane bagging a 2 pointer and a free, but East Kerry kept their foot on the pedal with a brace of points from Paul O’Shea, Matt Keane, Paudie O’Leary and Cian Gammell. Templenoe’s highlight of the game came in the 58th minute when a high ball in from Aidan Crowley was palmed to the net by Sean Sheehan. This made the score 2-20 to 1-08. Further scores were added by Killian Spillane (2) for Templenoe, while East Kerry had white flags from Emmett O’Shea, Paul O’Shea and Philip O’Leary. Then the hooter sounded with East Kerry fully intent on finishing the game with a goal and that they did with Paudie O’Leary getting the final touch to somewhat of a goalmouth scramble.
Despite Templenoe’s proud achievement of reaching the last 8 of every county championship they participated coming to an end, all is not lost as they still have a South Kerry League Final to prepare for, while for East Kerry it’s a case of onwards and upwards and they will no doubt be hard to stop.
Final Score: East Kerry 3-23, Templenoe 1-10.
Scorers:
East Kerry: Ruairi Murphy 1-06 (1 2pointer), Paul O’Shea 1-03, David Clifford 0-05 (2f), Paudie O’Leary 1-01, Daniel O’Brien 0-02, Emmett O’Shea 0-02, Cian Gammell 0-01, Philip O’Leary 0-01, Matt Keane 0-01, Ronan Buckley 0-01.
Templenoe: Killian Spillane 0-09 (1 2pointer) (4f), Sean Sheehan 1-00, Aidan Crowley 0-01.
Wides:
East Kerry 7
Templenoe 10
Teams:
East Kerry: Shane O’Sullivan, Niall Donohue, Kieran O’Sullivan, Darragh Fleming, Jack Sherwood, Daniel O’Brien, D O’Callahan, Ronan Collins, Ronan Buckley, Ruairi Murphy, Darragh Lyne, Paudie O’Leary, David Clifford, Paul O’Shea, Philip O’Leary.
Subs Used: Cian Lynch, Cian Gammell, Matt Keane, Sean O’Leary, Emmett O’Shea.
Templenoe: Mark Looney, Michael Hallissey, Kieran O’Neill, Ciaran Crowley, Martin Reilly, Tadhg Morley, John Spillane, Sean Sheehan, Gavin Crowley, Colin Crowley, Mark Casey, Kieran McCarthy, Killian Spillane, Adrian Spillane, Aidan Crowley.
Subs Used: Ríain O'Byrne, Colm Breen, John Moriarty.
