Rangers savour that special feeling

ALMOST three barren decades for North Kerry football were swept away yesterday in an explosion of relief and excitement generated by Feale Rangers’ dramatic win in the AIB Kerry SFC decider in Austin Stack Park.

Given the influential role he played for most of the game, it was fitting that captain Eamonn Fitzmaurice emerged as the hero with a winning score four minutes from the end of normal time. And, with Bryan Sheehan missing a 45 for reigning champions South Kerry a minute into injury time, the Bishop Moynihan Cup was on its way to join the senior hurling trophy won a few weeks ago by Lixnaw.

While Rangers manager Johnny Mulvihill conceded a draw might have been a fair result, the divisional outfit worked that bit more to regain the title after a 27-year wait. And, for Fitzmaurice, Paul Galvin and four others in the panel, it earned them the added distinction of being the first players to win championship medals in both codes since the Bunyan brothers, Johnny and Robert, managed it back in 1977. In his victory speech, Fitzmaurice expressed the hope that Paul Galvin would be as successful in leading Kerry to All-Ireland glory as Jimmy Deenihan had been following their last triumph.