Rathmore win spoilt by O’Mahony red card

RATHMORE’S victory in the East Kerry senior championship (O’Donoghue Cup) semi-final replay over Currow yesterday came at a cost with Aidan O’Mahony suspended for the district final against Dr Crokes.

Returning Kerry footballer O’Mahony — playing his first competitive game since breaking a bone in his leg in the Kerry club final last October — was sent off after five minutes for an off-the-ball incident, in the 0-17 to 1-10 win.

But O’Mahony wasn’t the only Kerry player sent to the line as Currow’s Seamus Scanlon was also shown a straight red card for another off-the-ball incident in the first-half in this action-packed semi-final replay at Fitzgerald Stadium.

Just before Scanlon was sent off, Currow edged ahead, 1-4 to 0-6, thanks to a Kevin Casey goal and Pa McCarthy point. But with Donal O’Sullivan, Eoin Lawlor, Marc Reen and Michael O’Riordan all on target Rathmore led 0-10 to 1-6 at half-time, and kept their noses in front during the second period.

This sets-up a repeat of last year’s final against Dr Crokes, and it also means that the Munster club and Kerry county champions (Dr Crokes) will be up against the Kerry club champions (Rathmore).

Meanwhile, Laune Rangers are through to face Glenbeigh/Glencar in the Mid Kerry senior final on Saturday, even though their semi-final against Cromane didn’t go ahead in Beaufort on Saturday as scheduled.

The original game between the two teams was abandoned due to a serious leg injury suffered by a Cromane player in the closing stages of the St Stephen’s Day semi-final but the rescheduled game never went ahead with Mid Kerry chairman James Doyle explaining: “There was a meeting of the Competitions Control Committee on Saturday night to deal with the matter. The game was fixed for Beaufort on Saturday, Cromane didn’t fulfil the fixture, and as per rule the game had to be awarded to Laune Rangers.”

Elsewhere, Kerry boss Jack O’Connor gave a run-out to some new faces in a challenge game against Munster club champions Dr Crokes in Killarney, with Paul Geaney, Colm Kerins and Patrick Curtin featuring in the Kingdom victory. Marc Ó Sé, Tomás Ó Sé, Paul Galvin, Darran O’Sullivan, Bryan Sheehan, Shane Enright, Daniel Bohan, Barry John Keane and Sean O’Sullivan all featured for Kerry against Dr Crokes, who had Colm Cooper and Eoin Brosnan in their ranks.