Reports and action photos from the Kerry Club Championship ties involving Tralee area sides at the weekend…
Senior Club Championship Quarter Final
Ardfert 1-11
Austin Stacks 2-17
Austin Stacks gave the All-Ireland Intermediate Club champions a guard of honour as they came out onto their pitch in Ardfert on a dry Saturday evening.
That’s about all they gave them in the first half as the town side ran riot. A Barry Shanahan goal in the 19th minute put them in the driving seat and when Fiachna Mangan goaled again close to half-time, it looked done and dusted with the scores 2-11 to 1-4.
David Mannix, Shane O’Callaghan and Shane Carroll increased that lead within six minutes of the resumption but when Shane Carroll was sent off after receiving a second yellow on 38 minutes, Ardfert hit back with five points without reply.
The closing ten minutes saw both sides trading two scores each leaving Stacks to advance to the semis.
Continued below…
Intermediate Club Championship Quarter-Final
John Mitchels 1-9
An Gaeltacht 0-11
The Tralee side advanced in this hard fought battle with the westerners in Ballyseedy on a sunny Sunday afternoon.
An Ghaeltacht started the brighter and led by 0-3 points to 0-0 after 15 minutes.
However, points from Alan O’Donoghue (2) and Stevie O’Mahony drew the green and gold level and both sides traded scores before the short whistle to leave the scoreboard at 0-5 apiece.
Again it was the men from the west who started well after the break and added scores to go two points up.
But it was that man yet again, Alan O’Donoghue, who proved crucial to the outcome. He scored two points before adding a great goal, eventually ending up with 1-6 of the Mitchels final tally.
But An Ghaeltacht came back again and drew level with five minutes remaining. With the game on a knife edge, up popped Stevie O’Mahony to get the decisive point to win the contest by the slimmest of margins – 1-9 to 0-11.
Junior Club Championship Round 2
Templenoe 1-18
Na Gaeil 1-2
Na Gaeil went out of the junior championship after suffering a nightmare start down in Templenoe.
The southerns scored 1-3 in the opening few minutes before Kieran O’Donovan got Na Gaeil’s opening score. They added just one more score – a Darragh Carmody free mid way through the half – while Templenoe tipped over the points to leave the scores 1-9 to 0-2 at the break.
Templenoe killed off any chance of a come back with a quick succession of points at the start, Killian Spillane was especially destructive scoring 1-7 on the day.
Michael Griffin managed to get a goal but some poor shooting meant that no more points materialised for the Tralee side.
Junior Club Championship Round 2
Glenbeigh/Glencar 1-11
Ballymacelligott 1-8
Ballymac bowed out of the Junior championship after travelling to the division one side who are one of the favourites to win the competition.
The local side got off to a super start with a goal in the first minute but Ballymac responded with two points from Padraig McCarthy.
Glenbeigh scored a point but Ballymac got the next three scores. Glenbeigh playing against the breeze added two more points with Gavan O’Grady starting to cause the Ballymac defence some problems.
Two more Aidan Breen frees following fouls on Vincent Horan left the scores level at halftime on a scoreline of 1-4 to 0-7.
The second half scoring was opened by Gavan O’Grady after six minutes and he kept the scoreboard ticking over for the hosts ending the half with five points to his name from play and frees.
Kerry star Darran O’Sullivan chipped in with a good score but all Ballymac could manage was one point in the second half – a free from the boot of Padraig McCarthy. Ballymac did have other chances but their shooting wasn’t good enough to make it count.
An injury-time goal from Kevin O’Shea came too late and Glenbeigh held on for the win.