Gavin O’Connor saw St Brendans exit the Garveys Supervalu county senior football championship at the hands of Rathmore yesterday at Austin Stack Park…

Rathmore 3-14 (23)

St Brendans 1-16 (19)

DESPITE playing the last 20 minutes with a man down, Rathmore had enough to make it past St Brendans and into Round 3 of the County Championship.

We were treated to some wonderful scores and open football from both sides, but this game did feel a bit pedestrian at times. Continuing in the competition, Rathmore will have to find a extra few gears if they are to make any inroads this year.

Continued below…

St Brendans had trailed by only two with six minutes left, but Rathmore’s third goal by Daniel O’Sullivan made the east Kerry club’s lead to difficult to pull back.

St Pats man, Kieran Hurley, was in fantastic form, kicking 0-12, six of which were from play.

St Brendans who trailed by six points, 2-9 to 1-6, at the end of half time, were handed a lifeline on 40 minutes when Rathmore’s, Brendan O’Keeffe, gave away a penalty for a footblock and was sent off after receiving a second yellow card.

The resulting penalty was rifled off the crossbar by the almost faultless Hurley who did subsequently make up for his miss by kicking seven points in the remainder of the match.

Paul Murphy started at centre-half-forward, but overall did not have the impact you would expect from him. Aidan O’Mahony had a hard evening of it from Alan O’Donoghue who was beating the inter-county man well during periods of the second half.

Along with Hurley the standout performer for St Brendans was Na Gaeil’s Jack Barry, who, despite a sluggish start, was imperious  in midfield over the course of the match. John Mitchels, Lawrence Bastible also gave a very good account of himself at left-half-back

For Rathmore, right-half-back George O’Keeffe gave an excellent performance, scoring 1-1 and his speed could certainly give Eamonn Fitzmaurice something to think about.

A defeat for St Brendans, but they should be happy with the progress made this year. In place is a young and talented panel that could make the future bright for the district.

Scroll down for more action photos…

Scorers

Rathmore: Mark Reen 0-5 (3f), George O’Keefe 1-1, John Moynihan 1-1, Eoin Lawlor 0-3, Brendan O’Keeffe 0-3 (1f, 1 45), Daniel O’Sullivan 1-0, Cillian O’Connor 0-1

St Brendans: Kieran Hurley 0-12 (6f), Alan O’Donoghue 1-2, Ivan Parker 0-2

Rathmore

1. Padraic McCarthy

2. Conor Jenkins
3. Cathal Murphy
4. Michael J. Kelliher

5. James O’Sullivan
6. T.J. Friel
7. George O’Keefe

8. Aidan O’Mahony
9. Daniel O’Sullivan

10. Brendan O’Keefe
11. Paul Murphy
28. Mark Ryan

13. Mark Reen
14. Eoin Lawlor
15. John Moynihan

Substitutes

Colm Kelly for T.J. Friel (3min)
Dean Fitzgerald for Mark Ryan (Half Time)
Donal O’Sullivan for Colm Kelly (49min)
Tadhg Moynihan for Michael J. Kelliher (60min)

St Brendans

1. Eoghan O’Brien (Churchill)

2. Trevor Wallace (Ardfert)
3. Paul McMahon (St Pats and Capt)
4. Kieran Dwyer (St Pats)

5. Lawrence Bastible (John Mitchels)
6. Michael Brennan (Churchill)
7. Eoghan Courtney (Ardfert)

8. Jack Barry (Na Gaeil)
9. Kevin Shanahan (Ardfert)

10. David Griffin (Ardfert)
11. Alan O’Donoghue (John Mitchels)
12. Micahel Griffin (Na Gaeil)

13. Ivan Parker (Churchill)
14. Kieran Hurley (St Pats)
15. Darragh Carmody (Na Gaeil)

Substitutes

Darren Wallace (Ardfert) for Darragh Carmody (35min)
Iarla Courtney (Ardfert) for Kevin Shanahan (Ardfert) (55min)