East Kerry’s late flourish denies Rangers

THEY may have withdrawn their services from last year’s Kerry SFC, but East Kerry marked their return to championship action in style in Beaufort on Saturday evening.

Coached by James Sheehan, who guided Mid Kerry to glory in 2008, the divisional outfit produced a storming finish to take the spoils against the Killorglin club. East Kerry trailed by three points with seven minutes remaining but they unleashed a blistering late scoring spree that yielded 1-4 without reply to secure victory.

The return of Spa to the intermediate ranks has been of immense benefit to East Kerry and it was their attacking duo, Michael O’Donoghue and Niall O’Mahony, who sparkled up front. O’Donoghue claimed 1-6, with his freetaking precise and his second-half goal vital. O’Mahony has enhanced his game after a winter of training with the Kerry senior footballers and he fired over five outstanding points. East Kerry also had leading performers in full-back Brian Russell, midfielder Andrew Garnett and wing-forward Jack Sherwood.

After a tepid opening half where the football never rose to great standards, Laune Rangers clung to a 1-4 to 0-5 advantage at the interval. The excellent free-taking of Mike Frank Russell was their principal source of scores while O’Donoghue and O’Mahony kept East Kerry in touch. The critical score of the half arrived in the 30th minute and stemmed from a rare creative movement. Russell and Seamie Foley prised open the East Kerry defence, and Colin O’Dwyer neatly flicked the ball to the net.

East Kerry recovered well after the interval to string together a run of well-worked scores. Cormac Cronin, Sherwood, O’Donoghue, O’Mahony and Derry Ahern all contributed points during that spell of dominance, with a Russell free the solitary response from Laune Rangers. By the 40th minute East Kerry had edged ahead 0-11 to 1-5 and they had a golden opportunity to stretch that advantage when Niall O’Mahony cut through the defence and offloaded to Cronin, but goalkeeper Tony Lyons produced a brilliant block to stop his fierce drive.

That looked a pivotal moment as Laune swept downfield and Maurice Foley’s ankles were clipped and a penalty was awarded. Russell converted before displaying his class with a sublime left-footed point from distance a minute later.

With Seamie Foley beginning to make a great impression at full-forward, Laune Rangers looked set to stroll to victory. But East Kerry refused to give in. O’Mahony and O’Donoghue began to control the game from their berths and it was O’Donoghue’s cool finish to the net in the 54th minute, after fine work by O’Mahony and Michael Daly, that propelled them to the success.

Scorers for East Kerry: M O’Donoghue 1-6 (0-4f), N O’Mahony 0-5, C Cronin (0-1f), J Sherwood 0-2 each, D Ahern 0-1.

Scorers for Laune Rangers: MF Russell 1-5 (1-0 pen, 0-4f), C O’Dwyer 1-1, S Foley 0-2, P Crowley 0-1.

EAST KERRY: C Myers (Fossa); D Wrenn (Listry), B Russell (Spa), B Gleeson (Spa); D O’Sullivan (Glenflesk), A Giles (Spa), E Cronin (Spa); A Garnett (Spa), S Brosnan (Listry); J Sherwood (Firies), D Ahern (Listry), N O’Mahony (Spa); C Cronin (Spa), C O’Shea (Firies), M O’Donoghue (Spa).

Subs: D O’Sullivan (Fossa) for Brosnan (29), M Daly (Firies) for O’Shea (44), C O’Shea for D O’Sullivan (Fossa) (58).

LAUNE RANGERS: T Lyons; J Sheehan, K Crowley, J Carey; P Sheehan, C O’Riordan, S McSweeney; P Crowley, T McGillycuddy; M Foley, K Doona, G O’Mahony; MF Russell, S Foley, C O’Dwyer.

Subs: J Coffey for O’Mahony (half-time), J O’Callaghan for O’Riordan (42), P Joy for M Foley (45), K Flynn for O’Dwyer (54).

Ref: Michael Curran (Dromid Pearses).