Mike O’Halloran watched Ballyduff and  Lixnaw play out another thriller in Tralee this afternoon with Ballyduff taking title No.25…

Ballyduff 4-13

Lixnaw 1.-19

Unlike last week the replay of the Garveys Supervalu Kerry SHC final was an absolute cracking match with Ballyduff coming out on top after an enthralling contest.

I thought at one stage that we might have to have the lights on for extra time Ballyduff, though down to fourteen managed to hang on despite huge pressure from a gallant Lixnaw team.

Continued below…

One often hears that this was “a game for the ages” but today’s game was “a game for the cousins”.

The Boyles and their first cousin Daniel O’Carroll accounted for 4-11 of the Ballyduff total.

Ballyduff replicated the start Lixnaw had last week when Aiden Boyle handled the ball and blasted to the net after three minutes.

Aiden had another net shaker seven minutes later to leave the score Ballyduff 2-1 Lixnaw 0-2. His two brothers Liam and Michael followed with a point each, by the 20th minute the teams were level 2-3 to 1-6.

The Lixnaw scores coming from Brendan Brosnan with two points Johnny Buckley adding one Ricky Heffernan bagged 1-1 and Michael Conway tapped over two points.

Three minutes later it looked like Lixnaw had weathered the storm as they went ahead as Johnny Buckley drove over a great point 2-4 to 1-8.

Aiden Boyle struck for another goal just before halftime to put Ballyduff ahead by four, Michael Conway reduced that to three with a point to leave the halftime score Ballyduff 3-7 Lixnaw 1-10.

Three minutes into the second half, Shane Conway and James Flaherty reduced the margin to one point, Michael Boyle received from Aiden and shook the net.

It was nip and tuck for the remainder with Ballyduff keeping their noses in front, but with fifteen minutes to go Lixnaw were handed a life-line when Ballyduff were reduced to 14 when one of their players received a second yellow, (a lot of people were of the opinion that this card was issued to the wrong man).

With eleven minutes on the timepiece Michael Conway brought it back to a three point margin 4-11 to 1-17.

Padraig Boyle pushed it out to four, Shane Conway reduced it to a one score game, Brendan Brosnan reduced the margin to two before the Boyle’s cousin Daniel O’Carroll pointed to leave the final score Ballyduff 4-13 Lixnaw 1-19.

Ballyduff collected a quarter of a century of titles, but what a game it was with both teams serving up a game of absolute pleasure for the neutrals. SCROLL DOWN FOR MORE PHOTOS

Ballyduff: P J O’Gorman; A O’Connor, P O’Grady, C Kearney; D Goulding, P Costello, E Ross; D O’Carroll (0-4), A O’Carroll; L Boyle , A Boyle (3-1), J O’Sullivan (0-1); P Boyle (0-4), M Boyle (1-1), J Goulding (0-1). Subs: J Hussey for L O’Boyle, G O’Brien for J O’Sullivan, P O’Carroll for A O’Carroll, L Boyle (0-1) for P Boyle.

Lixnaw: M Stackpoole; D McCarthy, P Corridan, D Shanahan ; B Brosnan (0-3), S Power, C O Keeffe; J McKenna , B McAuliffe; J Buckley (0-2), R Heffernan (1-1), R Galvin; C Sheehy, M Conway (0-10), S Conway (0-2). Subs: J Flaherty (0-1) for C Sheehy, M Corridan for D McCarthy, G Stackpoole for S Power, L Mullins for R Galvin, E Galvin for J McKenna.