Palatine advance to final

Palatine reached the Carlow SFC final after an 0-15 to 0-10 win over a fancied Rathvilly at Dr Cullen Park on Saturday and O’Hanrahan’s emerged 4-13 to 1-12 winners over Tinryland in a replayed quarter-final tie which required extra-time.

A super first half saw Palatine hit nine points from play as Rathvilly struggled to find any form. Rathvilly suffered the loss of left corner-forward Gary Dempsey for a second yellow card offence before the break and trailed 0-9 to 0-4.

Inspired by three fine points from former Sydney Swan, Brendan Murphy, Rathvilly hit back to cut the arrears to two points (0-10 to 0-8) in the second half but with the four Reid brothers and county senior full-back Conor Lawlor leading the charge, Palatine finished stronger and closed out the game with a flurry of late points.

A pointed 35m free from Tinryland’s Paul Broderick sent the quarter-final replay to extra time. However that was as good as it got for Tinryland as O’Hanrahan’s took complete control of extra-time, recording 2-4 without reply.

Graham Delaney, the Blues right-half forward, scored 3-2 including a brace of goals from penalties while the guile of veteran Marc Carpenter in attack also proved crucial. Paul Farrell, Graham Power, Colin Nolan, Ray Walker, Gavin Walker and free-taker Colm Quigley were others to shine.

O’Hanrahan’s will face Éire Óg in an appetising local derby semi-final.