Gavin O’Connor (who correctly predicted a three point win for Stacks in our preview on Saturday) reports on an epic Munster semi-final clash yesterday in Austin Stack Park. Photos from the match at the end of report…

Austin Stacks 0-15

Ballincollig 1-9

AUSTIN STACKS have booked their place in the Munster Club Final for the first time since 1976, after a gruelling battle against Cork Champions, Ballincollig.

Extra time was needed after Ballincollig’s John Miskella spectacularly pointed with almost the last kick of the game in normal time.

Stacks had unwisely sought to see the game out with only a point extra on the board, playing keep ball for the last ten minutes of normal time.

The Tralee side showed great character to come back as well, at one stage in the first half they found themselves, 1-4 to 0-1 behind.

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In extra time it may have seemed the momentum was now with the Cork side, but Stacks stole the initiative when they went three points up without reply in the first half of extra time.

Ballincollig fought valiantly to claw back The Rock’s lead, bringing it back to a point at one stage, but Stacks had enough to see them deservedly over the line in a pressure cooker atmosphere in Austin Stack Park.

Man of the Match, was Greg Horan, who was an absolute colossus in the middle of the park the Stacks. It’s incredible to believe he is still 0nly 19 years of age.

Austin Stacks will now play The Nire of Waterford in the final in two weeks. The time and venue is as yet to be decided.

“The way the match was won was that we had a greater will to win,” said Stephen Stack, Austin Stacks team manager.

“We got together as a team on the Sunday night of the county final and we asked the players were they going to be happy with this or do they want to push on? You saw out there today how much they wanted it,” said Stack.

“We don’t have subs, we have got impact players, that’s what we call them and that’s what they did today. We have enormous faith in the panel,” said Stack.

“There will be no celebrating tonight. We only won a game and we’ll have the lads back at it again Tuesday or Wednesday night,” said Stack.

It was a real ding-dong Kerry v Cork battle. Ballincollig brought a fantastic following up from ‘The Peoples Republic’ and of course the black and amber was out in force also.

A huge effort was needed by Stacks in the first half to get them back into contention after the Cork side started with a bang, going, 1-4 to 0-1 up in the first 20 minutes.

Really, Ballincollig were all over Stacks, who struggled with the Cork champions’ running game. One of Ballincollig’s, star men, Paddy Kelly scored a goal with only eight minutes gone when he caught a low 45 attempt driven in by Cian Dorgan.

The inter-county man then turned and smashed the ball to the net.

During this time, Stacks panicked and began lumping aimless balls into Donaghy. Even more worrying for them was when actual good ball did get in there he was being well marshalled by Stephen O’Donoghue, who greeted every ball won with a fist pump to the raucous, Ballincollig following who had taken over the main stand.

Then the big switch came. Donaghy was moved into midfield and Stacks ascendancy in this match finally begun. From this point on, Stacks outscored their opponents by 0-14 to 0-5.

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In the final ten minutes of the first half, Stacks rattled off five points without reply, two from David Mannix and one each  from Greg Horan, Pa McCarthy and Shane O’Callaghan. Stacks went in the second half a point down, 0-6 to 1-4.

The second half yielded only six points between both sides. Stacks took the lead when Shane Carroll kicked over two frees at the beginning of the half., but they were pulled back once again.

Pa McCarthy, put Stacks two points ahead with 13 minutes left, from then on, Stephen Stack’s side attempted to run out the clock, much to the ire of the travelling support from Cork.

Stacks played a dangerous game and were caught when, with time up on the clock, former All Star John Miskella shot from 45 metres out, on the run, to bring this game to extra time.

You would have expected for the wind to be knocked out of The Rock’s sails, but they responded terrifically outscoring their opponents by five points to two in extra time.

The Rock fans who had been brought on a whirlwind of emotion over 80 minutes, let out their biggest cheer of the day when Kieran Donaghy fisted over the bar with four minutes remaining.

Darragh Long, who starred off the bench, added to that with a minute left. Finally the finish line was in sight.

Ballincollig attempted to get close, but the Austin Stacks rearguard held tough. With one minute of added time played, referee, Rory Hickey from Clare blew the full time whistle to ensure Austin Stacks’ adventure will continue for another two weeks at least.

Scorers

Austin Stacks: S Carroll 0-3 (3f), D Mannix 0-3, G Horan 0-2, P McCarthy 0-2, Darragh Long 0-2 (2f), S O’Callaghan 0-1, D McElligott 0-1, K Donaghy 0-1

Ballincollig: P Kelly 1-0, C Dorgan 0-3 (1 ’45’, 1f), J Miskella 0-3, C Kiely 0-1, J Kelly 0-1, S Kiely 0-1

Teams

Austin Stacks: D O’Brien, R Shanahan, F MacNamara, C Jordan, P McCarthy, B Shanahan, D McElligott, W Guthrie, G Horan, S O’Callaghan, S Carroll, D Bohan, D Mannix, K Donaghy, M Collins

Subs: F Mangan for M Collins (HT), J Dennis for R Shanahan (33), Darragh Long for S Carroll (53), Ciarán O’Connell for D Bohan (56), William Kirby for G Horan (59), G Horan for D McElligott (67), M Collins for D Mannix (70), D Bohan for F MacNamara (74), M Collins (Black Card, 75).

Ballincollig: D Lordan; L Prendergast, L Jennings, N Galvin, J Murphy, S O’Donoghue, C Kiely, S Kiely, C O’Sullivan, G Durrant, P Kelly, N Allen, J Kelly, C Dorgan, J Miskella.

Subs: Peter O’Neill for C O’Sullivan (29), C Moore for L Prendergast (HT), Niall Allen for D Tobin (40), Ian Coughlan for J Kelly (48), Dylan Kerstein for J Murphy (56), S Lucey for N Galvin (61), J Murphy for P O’Neill (70).

Scroll down for photos…