Recap

 

Kenmare Shamrocks v Austin Stacks (Final AET)

As a long time Kenmare Shamrocks support, I could not be prouder of this bunch of players and management. Yes! we were beaten in a game we could have won but that’s sport, that’s life but we have to move on.

This year’s club championship has been a fantastic journey and a very memorable one for everyone associated with the Kenmare Shamrocks. Narrowly beating Kerins O Rahillys in Killarney, a last-minute goal against Templenoe to take the points, the last kick of the game against Dr Crokes in picturesque Fr Breen Park to send us through to a senior club final.

Not too long ago we were a side struggling to get out of Division 3 in the county league. Since then, we have two Munster titles under our belt in Junior & Intermediate, two appearances in Croke Park and who know what next year will bring!! An Neidín Abú

The Game:

Our senior footballers lined out against Tralee’s Austin Stacks in this year’s Senior Club Football championship and similar to 2017 had to endure defeat after extra time.

We played with a strong breeze in the first halve but It took both teams some time to adapt to the conditions. Many of the balls going into our forward line were being over hit and aimlessly going wide. We had a certain penalty waved away by the ref on 10 minutes minute’s when Shane O’Sullivan was fouled while shooting on goal. How it wasn’t given beggars belief. It would have given us the start we wanted.

Soon after Stephen O’Brien had the best chance of a goal when he burst through the Stacks defense. He struck a sweet shot low to the keepers right but Wayne Guthrie in the Stacks goal was equal to it and pulled off a wonderful save. The sides were level going in at half time 5 points apiece.

We came out in the second have with all guns blazing and enjoyed our pest period of the game. Sean O’Shea scored a goal four minutes after the restart and we followed with three points to take a strong 1-8 to 0-6 lead

In the mists of this golden period Austin Stacks midfielder and former Valentia player Brendan O’Sullivan was sent off for a second bookable offence. Stacks pushed forward after the water break which put pressure on our kick outs and defensive line. We found it hard to move the ball up the field and gave it away far to easily.

We still held a 5-point lead going into added time but within a 4-minute spell this had been erased. Donaghy became for effective, points from Griffin and Conor Jordan brought it down to a once score game. Then, in the fourth minute of stoppages time a high ball dropped into the square where it fell kindly to Sean Quilter to blast home and tie the game at 1-09 apiece.

After giving your all for 70 odd minutes, it was a bitter pill to swallow but in fairness to our lads, we regrouped and faced into extra time with positivity. At the 10 minutes we held a slender 1-12 to 1-11 with points coming from the boot of both Stephen and 2 from Seanie.

Austin Stack substitutions made a real difference in this game and this was to show as our legs started to tire. In that second period of extra time we were outscored by 6 point to 2 which gave back to back titles to the Tralee side.

Scorers for Kenmare Shamrocks: S O’Shea (1-6, 4fs), S O’Brien (0-4), D O’Shea, M Crowley, S O’Sullivan, P O’Connor (0-1 each).

Scorers for Austin Stacks: S Quilter (1-1), C Jordan, D O’Brien (1f) (0-3 each), G Horan, F O’Brien (2fs) (0-2 each), B O’Sullivan, M O’Gara, S O’Callaghan, C Griffin, D Mannix, D McMahon (0-1 each).

Kenmare Shamrocks: K Fitzgibbon; D Crowley, T O’Sullivan, J McCarthy; M Murnane, D O’Shea, M Crowley; K O’Sullivan, S O’Sullivan; T Murnane, S O’Shea, S O’Brien; M McCarthy, P O’Connor, T Cronin.

Subs: Fionan O’Sullivan for M Murnane, S O’Leary for M McCarthy (both 49), C O’Sullivan for T Murnane (59), R O’Sullivan for Cronin, K Price for M Crowley (both et).

Manager: D.J Brennan

Selectors: John Sullivan, Seamus MacGearailt and Shane Dalton

Medical: Stephanie O’Sullivan

Austin Stacks: W Guthrie; C Griffin, B Shanahan, J O’Shea; D Casey, R Shanahan, J Morgan; J O’Connor, B O’Sullivan; M O’Gara, F O’Brien, G Horan; S Quilter, K Donaghy, S O’Callaghan.

Subs: D O’Brien for F O’Brien, F Mangan for O’Callaghan, P O’Sullivan for B Shanahan (all 46), C Jordan for Casey (54), D Fitzmaurice for Griffin (59), D McMahon for R Shanahan, D Casey for Morgan, D Mannix for Horan (all et).

Referee: Eddie Walsh (Rathmore)