Kerry Petroleum Club Championship
Kerry Legion 0-11 Kerins O Rahillys 1-06
The loss of key players in the second half of this Round Two game in the club championship was probably the difference between victory and defeat on a bitterly cold day in Killarney.
Legion opened the scoring with a fine point from play, but O’Rahillys had edged in front by the 13th minute, courtesy of two pointed frees from Jack Savage. Three minutes later, Savage got on the end of a slick move involving Sean Walsh and Gavin O’Brien to step inside and slot over with his right foot but Legion countered with a pointed free from James O’Donoghue.
Barry John Keane then restored the two-point gap when he fisted over after being placed by Savage, who then found Tom Hoare whose goal-bound shot was deflected over the crossbar to leave it 0-5 to 0-2 in favour of Strand Road.
Legion then applied considerable pressure when O’Rahillys were in possession and O’Donoghue replied from play for Legion, before pointing a free. Then, in the 26thminute, another score from play for the Killarney side made it level at half time at five points each.
Strand Road introduced Con Barrett for Sean Walsh at the start of the second half. Legion opened the scoring, but O’Rahillys then lost the influential John Ferguson to a black card. However, Barrett then made his presence felt when he got on the end of a flowing move to smash the ball into the bottom corner of the net to put the Tralee men two points to the good again.
By the 11th minute, both teams had been reduced to 14 men, with Legion losing a man to a straight red card, but O’Rahillys quickly lost their numerical advantage when they crucially lost Jack Savage to a second yellow card. Gavin O’Brien was also forced off and two points followed from Legion by the 17th minute to again tie the game, before a superb point from 50 metres by Cormac Coffey restored the Blues advantage.
However, it was the Killarney men who wrestled the initiative down the stretch with three unanswered points, meaning that all now rests on the outcome of the remaining two games in the group, with O’Rahillys home game v Dr Crokes scheduled for next Saturday evening at 6.30pm.
Kerins O’Rahillys: G Kissane; D Murphy, R O’Callaghan, C Coffey ; D McElligott, S Brosnan, K Mullins; G O’Brien, T Hoare; R Carroll, J Ferguson, S Walsh; G Savage, J Savage , BJ Keane. Subs: C Barrett, D O’Sullivan, S Collins, T Walsh, S Foley , Rory O’Connor, J O’Leary, G Dillane, B Scannell, D Nix, J Keane, D O’Brien, K Mangan, A Mangan, Rob O’Connor, G Hartnett, C Hayes.
CÚINNE NA NÓG
JUVENILE ACADEMY
The Academy was a buzz of activity on Sunday morning last in Ballyrickard. There was a big crowd. The children all enjoyed learning their skills under the watchful eye of their dedicated coaches. Thank you to the coaches as always for their commitment. The parents watched on enjoying a warm cuppa & a chat. Special mention to the U10 girls for their trip to play a blitz in Croke Park – a great opportunity for all involved. The U12 boys make the journey on Good Friday also. They will be partaking in a Blitz also. What an opportunity for the boys to play in Croke Park at such a young age! Everyone is extremely excited and looking forward to the trip. Good luck to both teams on their journeys.
A big congratulations to our players of the week, namely;
U6 Boys: Erin Lynch and Ronan Hobbert
U8 Boys: Cameron Quirke and Adam O’Sullivan
U10 Boys: Sam Keane
U8 Girls: Lexi Keane
U10 Girls: Mia Molloy u8
The Academy is scheduled again for Easter Sunday at 11am.
U12 Team
For our second game of the county league we travelled to Spa Killarney on Friday evening. Kerins O’Rahillys played with a strong breeze in the first half but couldn’t convert good possession into scores. Spa dropped a few short due to the conditions but still converted some great scores and 4 first half goals. Jamie McCarthy was a one-man force for us in the first half kicking 4 great points. Spa had a purple patch at the start of the second half with some excellent long range finishes and we struggled to live with their midfield direct runners and 2 excellent half backs. To our credit we kept working hard and some switches meant we kept the final 3rd of the game competitive. Nick Lacey went to half back and some hard running led to an excellent goal to liven up the team.
Jude Lacey added a second, putting the ball between the keeper’s legs. The Spa keeper kept a further 4 one v one shots out, but in truth, Spa deserved their win and will take some stopping. Jamie McCarthy finished as top scorer again with 5 points. Daniel Aneke marshalled the backs well against a formidable attack. Brendan Meehan, Brayden Pierce and Nick Lacey kept fighting until the end. Man of the Match. Nick Lacey. The u12’s are away to Renard on Easter Sunday at 6pm.
U14’s KOR v Anascaul / Lispole
On Wednesday last we took on this west Kerry side in our second game of the county league. It was a very entertaining game with both teams showing great skill and determination right to the final whistle. ANA/LIS were fast out of the blocks with the Strand Road defence under pressure early on, but they coped well and we started to get a grip on the game. The scores were coming thick and fast and by half time there was a six point deficit, 3-06 to 1-06 favouring the boys from the west.
The high tempo of the game continued after the break with KOR scoring a further 3-02 and ANA/LIS racking up 11 points leaving the final score KOR 4-08 to ANA/ LIS 3-17. Our boys played really well on the night and deserve great credit for never giving up the battle. Our scorers on the night were Tomás (1-04), Jamie (0-2),Cillian (2-0) Ryan (1-1) ,Conor(0-1). We are away but haven’t far to travel to Na Gaeil for round 3 this Wednesday 17th April at 7pm.
U14 Féile
We were drawn in a group containing Milltown/Castlemaine and An Gaeltacht in this years Féile competition with the games to be played in Strand Road. An Gaeltacht had to pull out because of unavailability of players, leaving KOR to play Mill/CA in the only game with the winners progressing to the next round. The pitch in Strand road was immaculate but unfortunately the weather was atrocious with a hurricane blowing for the whole game. We weren’t at our best in this game, playing against the breeze and we trailed at half time 2-06 to 0-0. We improved after the break but eventually lost the game 3-07 to 1-04. The boys in blue were not happy with their display, but are sure to improve hugely for their next game.
LADIES NOTES
U10 GIRLS
By the time everyone has read these notes our girls will have enjoyed a trip to Croke Park for an Activity Day. News to follow next week.
Many thanks to Sandy Feet Farm who are sponsoring food for the girls on their journey home from their day out.
Thanks to everyone who joined in our table quiz fundraiser for the U10 girls and U12 boys who are heading to Croke Park.
U12 GIRLS
We are away to Duagh on Wednesday evening, April 17th. Throw in at 7p.m. in Duagh pitch. More details to follow.
U14 GIRLS
We are away to ISG in the Co. League next Thursday evening, April 18th. Throw in at 6.30p.m. in Kilgarvan pitch. Training continues on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Féile is on this Saturday and Sunday, more details to follow during the week. Best of luck to the girls and their mentors.
U16 GIRLS
Kerins O’Rahillys v Fossa
From the off we knew that Fossa are a well-coached and good footballing side playing with a very similar style to ourselves. The game finished in a draw at 4-09 apiece and that’s a score that would win you most games – but not this one.
We were slow off the mark and were down 3 points in the first 5 minutes. We then settled into the game and scored 2 quick points. We then laid seige on the Fossa kickout for 6 minutes scoring 1-04 and they simply could not get the ball past half way.
Liana Williams was outstanding at full forward again and she was ably assisted by Katie Nix and Keelan Coffey. Fossa eventually worked out our ploy and began to get a foothold at midfield and in turn went downfield to kick 2 goals and 2 points of their own.
At half time there was nothing between the sides but this game was far from over. It was tough end to end stuff but we knew we were well able to match them all over the field.
Éabha Murphy worked really hard in midfield, Katie Dwyer, Eugenie Kerins, Alex Sheridan and Leonie Dowling all worked really hard all through both halves, but the outstanding back on the night was Maedhbh Hanafin who covered every inch of the field and just refused to give up.
Time and time again she drove the ball up the field and fought like a demon when they were in possession. This game ebbed and flowed through the second half and was going so quick that it was nearly impossible to make a switch or get a sub on.
Liana Williams and Katie Nix were on fire up front scoring 4 goals and 6 points between them but Fossa fought back after every score we got. With 5 minutes left we were 2 points up and had 3 scoreable chances which would have put away this game.
We got none of them and true to form, Fossa raced up the field and got a great goal and now we were a point down. They broke through again and Kelly Fitzgerald put her body on the line to block a certain goal and from the rebound we broke downfield and got the equalizing point. We then won the kick out but just couldn’t get a shot at the target with Fossa being absolutely tenacious in their tackling.
We will take the draw and could well have lost this game. The improvement in the players in now very obvious and the hard work that many are putting in is paying off. All 20 on the night fought for their lives in this game and it will bring them on loads. All of the players mentioned above were outstanding and the subs who came on worked really hard and this game will be of tremendous benefit to the whole team.
The referee spoke with both teams at the end of the game saying he felt it was easily the best U16 girls football game he had ever refereed and for anyone who witnessed the end to end speed, skill and dogged determination on show it didn’t disappoint both sets of supporters.
Match report from our away game to Castlegregory to follow. Best wishes to Ciara Madden who was injured during the match, we wish her a speedy recovery.
Training continues on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
MINOR LADIES
Training continues on Tuesday and Thursday. Great turnout again last week ladies.
JUNIOR LADIES
It was great to see old and new faces in Ballyrickard last week for training. Welcome to everyone! Training continues on Tuesday and Thursday.
RECRUITMENT
We continue to recruit for all ages. For further details contact Shirley ( 086) 8713552.
SNIPPETS from “top of the right”
· Good to see young “Joby” Fitzgerald back playing and scoring with the minors after a long injury lay-off.
· Congrats to the McGrath family on the new arrival. Will Eugene have any time left for the Senior B team?
· Monday last, April 15th saw our U10 girls heading to Croke Park. It was a great experience for them and they will have great memories of playing on the hallowed turf.
· The Snippets Man hears that the table quiz in Charlie’s Bistro on Sunday last to help raise funds for the Croke Park trip for the U10 girls and U12 boys was well supported.
· He also hears that “The Looneys” team was robbed!
· Could Shirley Doody replace John Delaney given her approach to collecting money?
· One contestant had never heard of the Twelve Bens/Twelve Pins – but had heard of the Twelve Pubs!
· Congratulations to Haulie Kerins, our Chairman, on his victory in the club’s U.S. Masters Golf competition?
· Many thanks to all who supported this important fundraiser for the club and thanks also to those club members who sold the lines, with special mention to the Senior panel and mentors who put in a big effort that helped to drive an increase of 25% approx. on the funds raised last year.
