Lucky 13 for St Mary’s legend Bryan Sheehan

St. Mary's captain Jack Daly celebrates with teammates after victory over Dromid in the South Kerry Football final in Waterville on Sunday.

2021 South Kerry SFC final 

St Mary’s 1-20 

Dromid Pearses 2-12 

Just three months after they defeated the same opposition at the same venue in the 2020 decider, St Mary’s won their 37th South Kerry SFC title after an open and free-flowing decider against Dromid Pearses in Waterville on Sunday.

On the day he won a 13th South Kerry medal and kicked eight points in the process, Bryan Sheehan put over some crucial second half frees to see his side secure a five-point victory. Wing-back Darren Casey was the official man-of-the-match however scoring 0-3 for the Cahersiveen side. A Jack Daly goal in the seventh minute gave St Mary’s a 1-3 to 0-5 lead at the first water break but Dromid never let their opponents get more than two scores ahead of them.

They were of course playing with some players from Valentia who joined them this year with the Young Islanders not playing senior football in Kerry currently. Two such players, John Curran and Jim Lynch, were the Dromid goal scorers as a ‘45’ from Sheehan was all that separated the sides at the break, (1-8 to 1-7).

A second Tadhg O’Connor point after Dromid goalkeeper Donal O’Sullivan had saved from Anthony Cournane made the score 1-14 to 2-9 to St Mary’s at the second water break. 

Graham O’Sullivan did not start the game due to hamstring issues and although he came on in the last five minutes of normal time he failed to swing the contest Dromid’s way. Shane O’Connor was sent off late on for Dromid as they finished with 14 before Sean Cournane wrapped things up on the scoreboard for the defending champions.

The win is St Mary’s 10th South Kerry title in the last 13 years as St Michaels/Foilmore (2012 and 2013) are the only other side besides Dromid to have prevented them from winning the competition since 2009.

Scorers for St Mary’s: B Sheehan (0-8, 6f, 1’45’), J Daly (1-1, 1m), D Casey and D Daly (0-3 each), T O’Connor and S Cournane (1f) (0-2 each) and O Moran (0-1) 

Scorers for Dromid Pearses: N O’Shea (0-7, 5f), D Donohoe (0-4), J Curran and J Lynch (1-0 each) and P O’Sullivan (0-1) 

ST MARY'S: M Daly; B Curran, T O’Connor, O Moran; C O’Donoghue, C O’Shea, D Casey; B Sheehan, J Daly; C Quirke, A Cournane, M Quigley; S Cournane, D Daly, A Walsh 

Subs: D O’Sullivan for M Quigley (16) and D Daly for C Quirke (50) 

DROMID PEARSES: Donal O’Sullivan; C Ó Sé, Dominic O’Sullivan, S O’Connor; P O’Sullivan, J Curran, M Curran; N O’Connor, J Lynch; E O’Leary, P O’Connor, K Sheehan; D Donohoe, N O’Shea, A Quigley 

Subs: Denis O’Sullivan for P O’Connor (41), G O’Sullivan for A Quigley (55) and T Curran for E O’Leary (60) 

Referee: P O’Sullivan (Firies)