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Mike O’Halloran assesses both teams’ chances ahead of this Sunday’s Garvey’s Supervalu Kerry SHC final in Abbeydorney…
Kilmoyley’s Daniel Collins will be a key figure in the final. Photo by Gavin O’Connor
Abbeydorney will host the Garveys Supervalu Kerry Senior Hurling Final on Sunday, the second time the final will be held outside of Austin Stacks Park.
St Brendan’s won that other final in 1990 and will hope that history repeats itself this year as they take on fellow parishioners Kilmoyley.
St Brendan’s should be delighted with this venue I think, as they went down to Abbeydorney in Causeway in the first round. Causeway’s pitch was also in the mix to host the final.
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St Brendan’s then went on to play Ballyheigue also in Causeway and only just nicked it by one point, ten points to nine.
From once they left the Causeway pitch and moved nearer home to Kilmoyley, their title challenge grew wings. They hammered Causeway by three goals and eight points, with a scorched earth policy of total hurling for the whole 70 minutes.
Then came the ultimate challenge against the reigning champions Lixnaw. Almost all predicted that Lixnaw would overcome them, but from the time Lixnaw lost John Griffin, the writing was on the wall for Lixnaw and again St Brendan’s began their relentless march towards another Neilus Flynn trophy.
Kilmoyley went through the championship without defeat. They took two games and extra time to quench the fire that was the Crotta O’Neill’s challenge, eventually defeating Crotta on a scoreline of 1-12 to 0-10 on a rain-sodden Sunday in Causeway.
The rain seemed to follow Kilmoyley as when they lined out against Abbeydorney in Ballyduff. The rain fell and the wind blew, so much so that Abbeydorney were held scoreless for a long period of the game.
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Sean Young came into the Kilmoyley team that evening and bagged two goals in the first half, I spoke to Sean after the Ballyduff game and he was anxious about his hamstring injury fearing that it might not be healed in time for the final.
In the semi-final, Kilmoyley demolished a Ballyduff team well past their best. In the process they lost Tom Murnane to injury late in the first half and rather than the loss of the great man hindering their efforts, they rose their game and blew away the Ballyduff challenge.
In most previews, names of the top players are trotted out as to their influence on the outcome. The main men on any hurling team these days are the free takers given the amount of fouls committed in the modern game of hurling where rucks and free hand pulling and dragging is rife.
John Egan the dual star is the place pucker for St Brendan’s, almost unerring from any angle or distance. Daniel Collins, who is a teammate of Egan on the Ardfert football team, is Kilmoyley’s marksman.
Both of these players also contribute from play and their scoring contribution will probably be the difference at the end.
There are a whole host of names that roll off the tongue for St Brendan’s, most of whom have donned the county shirt and played hurling and football in Croke Park.
The St Brendan’s panel pictured before the win over Lixnaw in the semi-final.
The biggest ace St Brendan’s have in the pack from the earlier games, is the returned yank Kevin Hannafin. He came on against Lixnaw and caused mayhem with his ability to catch ball in the full forward line, even though his more customary position is at the back.
Daithi Griffin has worked at the coalface, mining dirty ball to fuel the engines of the St Brendan’s forwards.
Eric Leen, Kevin Skinner, Cian Hussey will need to be at their best if St Brendan’s are to succeed and don’t be surprised if the very impressive Fionan MacKessey has his name on the scoreboard more than once.
Kilmoyley went all the way to the final last year with a team work ethic that has been upped this year and with the return of James Godley, their side is significantly stronger.
They seem to have strength on the sideline too as we saw in O’Dorney when the experienced Micheal Regan rifled home three points and Maurice O’Connor had a goal and a point.
Captain Sean Maunsell will need all his troops at the top of their game to win this one.
Darren Delaney the St Brendan’s captain will be hoping for a clean sheet to boost their challenge for the cup.
VERDICT: St Brendan’s to win.
