Kenmare Shamrocks 1-19 Austin Stacks 2-16
Kerry Petroleum Senior Club Football Championship – Round 2
Our senior footballers were involved in a thrilling encounter with Austin Stacks in Fr Breen Park on Saturday evening, with the spoils ultimately shared after a dramatic finish. In front of a fantastic home crowd, both teams treated us to a wonderful game of football that went right down to the wire.
The game was played at a high tempo throughout, with both sides showing plenty of attacking intent. We started brightly when Tom Murnane pointed straight from the throw-in. Stacks settled quickly, however, with two-pointers from Michael O’Donnell and the impressive Joe O’Connor, followed by a point from Eoghan Carroll.
Kenmare responded with points from Seánie O’Shea and Zack O’Shea, before Tom Murnane added his second of the evening.
Jack O’Sullivan slotted over in the 23rd minute to leave the scoreboard reading Kenmare 0-06, Austin Stacks 0-07. Donal O’Sullivan then added a point from play to level the game, but Joe O’Connor stepped up again with another score to put the visitors back in front with five minutes remaining in the half.
Kenmare finished the first half strongly. Eoghan McCarthy pointed from a free, followed by scores from Kieran Fitzgibbon from a 45 and Jimmy Lehane with a lovely point from play. O’Donnell responded with a score for Stacks, but we went into the break leading by a point.
Half Time: Kenmare Shamrocks 0-10 Austin Stacks 0-09
We got off to the best possible start to the second half when David Ciuciu won the throw-in and the ball was quickly picked up by the advancing Tom Murnane. He left everyone in his trail before finding Donal O’Sullivan, who passed to Jimmy Lehane. His inch-perfect pass found Seánie O’Shea, who made no mistake and buried the ball into the back of the net.
Just the start we wanted to the second half.
Austin Stacks didn’t panic, and within a ten-minute period following the Kenmare goal, they had reduced the deficit to level the game. The scores came from O’Donnell, Joe O’Connor with two points and Ronan O’Carroll. On the 40-minute mark, the scoreboard read Kenmare 1-10, Austin Stacks 0-13.
Cian O’Sullivan replaced James McCarthy and, soon after, “Bobs” pointed his second score from a free to put us back in front. Tom Murnane then added a point of his own to extend our lead to two.
David Hallissey replaced Eoghan McCarthy in the 45th minute.
With 46 minutes on the clock, Austin Stacks turned over a Kenmare possession as we attempted to play the ball out from defence. Armin Heinrich played a pinpoint pass into Cian Purcell, who found the back of the net.
Our heads never dropped, and we responded quickly with a point from play from Seánie O’Shea. Paul O’Connor replaced Zack O’Shea in the 47th minute.
Stacks then went ahead by a point before Seánie struck a two-pointer from a free to put us back in front.
Disaster struck again with six minutes remaining when Stacks found the back of the net for a second time. Dara O’Shea put in a great tackle to win the ball back on our own end line, but Stacks again turned over possession as we tried to play out. When the ball was hand-passed across the face of goal, Ryan O’Driscoll was there to punch it into the net.
They added another point to leave the score 2-15 to 1-15 in favour of the visitors with four minutes remaining.
Again, we never dropped our heads and continued to play our style of football. Tommy Cronin sent in a great ball to Tom Murnane, who pivoted and struck it sweetly over the bar.
Then, in the first minute of injury time, Stacks were penalised for breaching the halfway line. The referee spotted the infringement and brought the ball forward to a very scoreable position for Kenmare. Seánie took the ball outside the arc and calmly kicked it over the bar to bring the sides level.
We won the subsequent ball in midfield. A punch forward from Tommy Cronin was tapped on by Jimmy Lehane to Paul O’Connor, who found David Ciuciu. He in turn found Donal O’Sullivan and, while being tackled, he managed to offload the ball to David Hallissey.
Hallissey suddenly found himself through on goal, but he took the right decision and slotted the ball over the bar to put Kenmare one point ahead with 63 minutes gone.
Unfortunately, the lead didn’t last long. Austin Stacks refused to give up and managed to find the score they needed late on, leaving the sides level at the final whistle.
Full Time: Kenmare Shamrocks 1-19 Austin Stacks 2-16
While there was disappointment at not taking both points after such a strong performance, there were plenty of positives to take from the game. The team showed attacking quality, resilience and a real hunger throughout, and the performance will give everyone plenty of encouragement going forward.
A huge thank you to everyone who came out to support the team in Fr Breen Park. Your support, as always, is greatly appreciated.
The focus now turns to a game against Templenoe next Sunday at 2pm in Templenoe.
See you all there!
Kenmare Shamrocks
- Kieran Fitzgibbon 1pt (45)
- Liam O Sullivan
- Dara O Shea
- Tommy Cronin
- Zack O Shea 1pt
- Darragh O Connor
- Jimmy Lehane 1pt
- James McCarthy
- David Ciuciu
- Kevin O Sullivan
- Seanie O Shea 10 pts (1-2-3)
- Jack O Sullivan 1pt
- Eoghan McCarthy 2pts (0-0-2)
- Donal O Sullivan 1pt
- Tom Murnane 4pts (0-0-4)
- Barry Fitzsimons
- David Hallissey 1pt
- Tommy O Sullivan
- Stephan O Brien ©
- Jack Sweeney
- Cian O Sullivan
- Shane O Sullivan
- Michael Tagney
- Pearse O Brien
- Ben O Callaghan
- Griffin Wharton
- David O Brien
- Dawid Grebowiec
- Paul O Connor
- Jack Tangney
