Sport: Rockies To Continue Championship Charge

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Shane Carroll will be a vital player for Austin Stacks this Saturday against Rathmore. Photo by Dermot Crean

TOP of the bill this Saturday for the Super Valu Senior County Championship double header in Austin Stack park will be Austin Stacks v Rathmore, throw in 7:30pm.

This year Stacks have been hit by a mix of injuries and emigration, most notably to Daniel Bohane and Kieran Donaghy who picked up knocks that have sidelined them for a healthy period of time.

Donaghy is expected to start on Saturday, but Bohane who is still recovering from a shoulder injury remains a doubt. John Dennis will not play because of a hamstring injury.

“Rathmore are a good team and have great championship pedigree, everything is on the line now for both sides so we’ll roll the dice and see how it goes,” said Austin Stacks manager Stephen Stack.

Rathmore took a major scalp in the first round when they became the first side to defeat Dr Crokes in the county championship in four years.

The East Kerry side have been dealt a few setbacks in the lead up to this match losing four players from the game against Crokes.

Cathal Murphy like so many others has departed for the US while Mark Reen and John Moynihan have picked up injuries. Kerry minor keeper Shane is also a doubt.

Stacks have not played a competitive game in three weeks and last weekend, before Kerry met Cork in the Munster Final, they faced Cork football kingpins Nemo Rangers at their ground in the city.

“It was nothing major, but it was a good run out where we tried a lot of different players,” said Stack.

Stacks have been impressive at points so far this year and have only lost one game, which came in the club championship against Dingle. Their victory in the County Championship was away against Feale Rangers. The Rock won that match by five points,  pushing on in the final quarter to win without too much energy exerted.

This year the absentees, due to a mix of injury and emigration, has allowed younger players like Greg Horan, Conor Jordan and Shane O’Callaghan to step up to the mark and become important players in the side.

Rathmore have been dealt a cruel hand having to play the two finalists of last year’s county final. To ask them to go out and spring another surprise is probably too much. Stacks are coming along nicely as Stephen Stack tries to retain a settled outfit, it’s very hard to look past them for this one.

Verdict: Austin Stacks by 5 points.