Mike O’Halloran reports from Causeway on Kilmoyley’s victory over Crotta O’Neill’s in the Garveys Supervalu Kerry SHC tie on Sunday…

Kilmoyley 1-12

Crotta O’Neills 0-10

I WAS not at the double header last Sunday in Causeway, where Kilmoyley and Crotta O’Neills played out a draw in the sunshine.

There was no sunshine in Causeway yesterday. The only ray of sunshine was the wonderful spread of goodies the ladies committee of Causeway Hurling Club provided for their visitors to eat pre, during and post match.

The organisation was again superb with a large number of stewards directing patrons in the most friendly and informative and safe manner.

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The stewards are doing all this work on behalf of their club, the county board and us patrons on a voluntary basis and I was surprised to learn that they spent hours stewarding for the double header on Sunday last in Causeway and then drove to see the Ballyduff v Causeway game in Kilmoyley, where they were charged the full admission fee.

Surely there should at least be a reduced admission fee for all stewards entering games.

The game itself was described by somebody as a cross between ‘The Longest Day’ and ‘War and Peace’.

Kilmoyley won it on a scoreline of 1-12 to 0-10. So poor was this game that my report could end there, but given that the second half of the ordinary time game went on for nearly 44 minutes and there was extra time it deserves more than a line or two.

The game was played in poor weather conditions on a good surface. The sky was dark and it matched the quality of the game. I had tipped Kilmoyley to win this game as I felt that their experience in big games would stand to them and I think that was the difference today.

Crotta played with the wind in the first half and opened the scoring on one and a half minutes when Shane Nolan pointed a free.

Daniel Collins replied with a pointed free that was the scenario for most of the game with Shane Nolan tapping over six points from frees in the first half with Philip Twomey powering over a point from play, for Kilmoyley Daniel Collins had four pointed frees, to leave the halftime score Kilmoyley 0-4 Crotta 0-7.

Daniel Collins, who seemed to be carrying an injury, added five more points in the second half, four from frees and one from play. Shane Nolan had two in reply to force a draw in XXXL time, 0-9 points each.

So to extra time where Daniel Collins added 1-2 points, the goal coming from a penalty which he dispatched with aplomb.

Adrian Royle had the other point for Kilmoyley. Shane Nolan added one point for Crotta, but they were off target with five other attempts.

So the final score was Kilmoyley 1-12 Crotta 0-10.

I know the weather conditions were poor with wind and rain, but it hardly excuses the quality of the hurling which was poor to say the least.

Furthermore there were a number of incidents during the game that could have erupted into chaos with serious consequences, only that the players disciplined themselves in the nick of time.

Perhaps the fact that the losers were to have a second chance also prevented matters getting beyond the control of the officials.

It is a pity to report that there was also some activity outside the white lines that did not make for good viewing.

More photos below…