O’Sullivan brothers fire Adrigole to final

AN EXHIBITION of point scoring by the O’Sullivan brothers Brendan Jer and Kevin Jer powered Adrigole to a comfortable victory over Portroe in the Munster Club JFC semi-final at Moneygall yesterday.

Between them they accounted for all their side’s points — the younger sibling Kevin scored seven — to set up a mouthwatering final against Kerry champions Duagh in Fitzgerald Stadium, Killarney next Saturday at 2pm.

It took Adrigole close to four hours to reach Moneygall, in Co Offaly, for a game against a side that were not even the county champions. Portroe, with home advantage, were only 25 minutes drive from the venue.

That makes a mockery of this championship. Portroe were defeated in the Tipperary final by Moyle Rovers’ second string. However, the rules state only a junior club can play in the provincial and All-Ireland series — the Rovers are a senior club — and while Portroe battled bravely, they were never going to win this semi-final after the Béara side scorched into a 1-5 to 0-0 lead after 20 minutes.

It was a long way to come for a Munster semi-final, but that didn’t worry Adrigole coach John Crowley.

“We made this long journey with just one thing in mind — to get to a Munster final. Now that we are there we’ll give it one hell of a go next Saturday in Killarney in what will be a Cork v Kerry decider, and they don’t come any bigger than that,” he said.

“We got the start we looked for, played some great football in patches, but overall it was a performance that wouldn’t be good enough to beat Duagh. We’ll have to up it but we are capable of doing that.

“You can rest assured next Saturday’s Munster final will be an entirely different kettle of fish.”

Adrigole couldn’t have asked for a better start. They had the ball in the Portroe net after a minute when a speculative shot by Paul Glen O’Sullivan dipped over the goalkeeper.

With Brendan Jer O’Sullivan orchestrating matters for the Cork champions from the 40, a flurry of points followed and the Tipperary side looked to be in for a drubbing. However, the game didn’t go according to the script as Portroe battled hard, particularly through the efforts of Dermot O’Halloran and Justin Conroy.

As the Adrigole scores completely dried up — they failed to score for the last 11 minutes of the opening half and went 10 minutes into the second-half before they scored again — Portroe were thrown a lifeline when O’Halloran’s long delivery went all the way to the net, which left his side 1-5 to 1-0 down at the break.

Portroe continued to press forward after the restart but could make no impression on the Adrigole defence in which full back Shane Joe O’Sullivan and centre back Darragh Carey gave nothing away.

The O’Sullivan brothers kicked a points from play and frees as Adrigole, ran out comfortable winners.

Scorers: Adrigole: KJ O’Sullivan 0-7 (0-5 frees); BJ O’Sullivan 0-4 (0-1 free); PG O’Sullivan 1-0. Portroe: D. O’Halloran 1-0; J. Conroy 0-1 (free).

ADRIGOLE: MP O’Sullivan; J. O’Shea, SJ O’Sullivan, S. O’Sullivan Greene; J. Goggin, D. Carey, PB O’Sullivan; T. O’Shea, B. Goggin; K. O’Sullivan Greene, BJ O’Sullivan, G. Green; EJ O’Sullivan, PG O’Sullivan, KJ O’Sullivan.

Subs: F. Carey for G. Green; TP O’Sullivan for D. Carey; JJ O’Sullivan for BJ O’Sullivan; W. O’Sullivan for PB O’Sullivan; J. Crowley for KJ O’Sullivan.

PORTROE: S. Tuohy; J. Sexton, K. Kennedy, N. Kennedy; J. Hogan, J. Maloney, P. Hickey; D. O’Halloran, D. Gleeson; J. Conroy, N. O’Halloran, J. Creamer; M. Creamer, D. Hogan, P. Conroy.

Subs: J. Ryan for J. Creamer; D. Gleeson for P. Conroy; D. Ryan for P. Hickey; C. Wilford for D. Hogan.

Referee: M. McCann (Clare).