Legion leveller sparks anger and creates fixture headache
For Legion, they will rightly buoyed by how they grasped a second day out having only gone behind for the first time in the second minute of injury-time.
Referee Seamus Mulvihill was generous with the time he gave them to do just that after South Kerry substitute Greg Gibson looked to have timed his score to perfection. Jamie O’Sullivan stepped up to equalise much to the fury and frustration of the South Kerry contingent in Fitzgerald Stadium.
On the other hand, that sense of injustice could be just the fuel South Kerry need to finish the job on the weekend of November 22 and claim the Bishop Moynihan Cup for the first time since 2009.
Aside from the four minutes of additional time permitted by Mulvihill when two were announced, they were almost as incensed when a Conor Keane free in the 42nd minute was adjudged to be a point when they felt it had strayed wide.
So for a second successive year the final was drawn but in terms of drama last year’s Austin Stacks-Mid Kerry stalemate had nothing on this. On top of the doubts about Keane’s score and the amount of injury-time played, there was the melee at the end, which may yet have repercussions for both teams in the replay later this month.
And yet if replacement Declan O’Sullivan, so commonly associated with collectedness, had the presence of mind to pass a ball into an unmarked Ian Galvin instead of shooting poorly in the 48th minute South Kerry would have no reason to crib. Damien O’Sullivan was on hand to block O’Sullivan’s shot.
Legion can also rue not making the most of their superiority in the first half when they could have taken more advantage of the wind in their favour. They led by four points in the 24th minute but dominated the play, shooting four wides, dropping a couple short and Donal Lyne had a strike parried away by Brian O’Connor.
It left their manager Peter Keane with mixed emotions. “I suppose it is (relief) when you pull something out of the death but, look it, we’re still in a final and we’re looking forward to it.”
Beforehand he admitted fears about Legion’s inexperience and he saw them manifest in the second half when South Kerry rallied: “I think it showed maybe early in the second half. I think our average age is 22 and a half, it’s quite young.
“Not alone is it 22 and a half but they don’t have the experience of county finals or knocking around the door of county finals over a long number of years.”
But at times in that period there were few signs of Legion nerves. O’Sullivan was a colossal figure in the middle, kicking two long-range points off his right in the opening 16 minutes and then another one from distance off his left in the 19th minute. James O’Donoghue was a man warranting shadowing by the two to three South Kerry defenders at all times but managed to find space to fire over a majestic score in the 24th minute.
Bryan Sheehan was the divisional side’s sole scorer in the first half, all from frees, as they struggled against Legion’s banked defence. South Kerry were just as conservative and necessarily so given the presence of O’Donoghue and Conor Keane as well as the breeze factor but weren’t as successful.
All the same, Legion led by just three at the interval, 0-7 to 0-4, and the excellent Sheehan drove into the game thereafter. It was he who stuck over South Kerry’s first point from play in the 38th minute and Brendan O’Sullivan planted the leveller seconds later.
Keane’s disputed point from a free followed to give Legion a cushion once more but Sheehan found his range from sniper distance in the 50th minute. After another 12 minutes South Kerry’s Gibson pointed before O’Sullivan’s late, late intervention.
South Kerry manager John Sugrue was relatively pleased: “There was a bit of wind and we went in at half-time three points down,” he reviewed. “Legion are a quality side, you’d have to expect with a wind that they were going to get a lead on you. I don’t think you can expect to outplay Legion both with and against the wind. We felt that we would have a good shot at it in the second half with the wind that was there straight down the pitch and three points was not an overwhelming lead.”
J O’Sullivan (0-4); J O’Donoghue (1 free); C Keane (frees) (0-2 each); S Keane (0-1).
B Sheehan (0-7, 5 frees); B O’Sullivan, G Gibson (0-1 each).
P Lucey for B McGuire, D Sheahan for K Breen (both 47); David O’Sullivan for T Moriarty (inj, 51); J O’Neill for S Keane (56); B Griffin for D Lyne (60+1).
C Farley for R Wharton (black, 7); D O’Sullivan for C Farley (39); D O’Donoghue for I Galvin (55); G Gibson for B O’Sullivan (56).
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