St Brendan’s College Killarney defeat St Francis College Rochestown to retain Corn Uí Mhuirí title

The Killarney team's win makes it 11 consecutive final victories by a Kerry school.

CHAMPIONS AGAIN: St. Brendan's College Killarney stand for the national anthem. Pic: ©INPHO/Evan Treacy

St Brendan’s College, Killarney 1-12 St Francis College, Rochestown 1-4 

No change in the Munster school’s pecking order, St Brendan’s of Killarney continue to occupy the top rung of the ladder.

Saturday afternoon’s comfortable - if not overly impressive - final win delivered the Sem a 24th Corn Uí Mhuirí title. It also secured the Killarney school a first set of back-to-back titles since 1974.

A couple of other noteworthy points worth mentioning. Today’s result means an 11th consecutive Corn Uí Mhuirí final win by a Kerry school and shoves out the gap to the last success by a Cork school back in 2011.

Ahead by 0-5 to 0-3 at the break, St Brendan’s slowly moved out of Rochestown’s reach during a third quarter where they kicked five unanswered points.

After an opening half an hour of wastefulness and carelessness with their final product, the St Brendan’s forward unit were a great deal more clinical upon the change of ends.

Excellent midfielder John Kelleher, half-back Jamie Moynihan, the half-forward pair of Timmy Moynihan and Alex Hennigan, and full-forward Luke Crowley (free) were all on target to extend the Sem’s lead out to 0-10 to 0-3.

TOUGH TACKLE: St. Francis colllege, Rochstown's Sean Coakley is tackled by St. Brendan's College's Cian Lynch during the Corn Ui Mhuiri final in Mallow. Picture; Eddie O'Hare

Rochestown, who were dealt another injury blow earlier this week with the loss of midfielder Kevin Lyons, didn’t register a second half score until the 53rd minute. That it was a Sean Coakley goal to cut the margin to four momentarily reignited this final as a contest.

The Brendan’s response was game-ending, though. The aforementioned Kelleher went through a great prairie of unmanned space in the heart of the Rochestown defence and finished low to the net.

Timmy Moynihan and Crowley completed their scoring to seal yet another provincial title for the Killarney nursery.

The interval scoreline read 0-5 to 0-3 in favour of St Brendan’s. It was an interval scoreline that was hard to fathom.

Rochestown, despite all their injuries and key personnel absent, were working ferociously hard both at the back and in the middle third. St Brendan’s half-back Jamie Moynihan had a point attempt blocked early doors, corner-forward Cillian Courtney was smothered on another occasion.

So while they were struggling for traction in attack, save for Evan O’Connor back-to-back points in the 20th minute, it was hard to fault their effort and application further back.

As for St Brendan’s, there must have been deep frustration during the half-time debrief as to how they were only two ahead.

In the 17 minutes between their opening and second points, we counted two wides and two more short.

Later in the half, they created three successive goal chances. But from the three chances, they mined just a single point.

Luke Crowley, who finished the half with three points from play, saw his chipped goal attempt creep over the crossbar on 22 minutes.

Rochestown goalkeeper Mikey O’Connell then got down superbly well to keep out Cillian Courtney. In the subsequent play, a Luis Dwane Fogarty foul on Callum Cronin went unpunished as Aodhán O’Neill sent the resulting penalty wide.

The scores came more freely to the winners in the second period. Their attention now turns to avenging last year's Hogan Cup final defeat.

Scorers for St Brendan’s College, Killarney: L Crowley (0-5, 0-1 free); J Kelleher (1-1); A Hennigan (0-3); T Moynihan (0-2); J Moynihan (0-1).

Scorers for St Francis College, Rochestown: S Coakley (1-1, 0-1 free); E O’Connor (0-2); M O’Rourke (0-1).

St Brendan’s College, Killarney: S O’Meara (Dr Crokes); J Williams (Kilcummin), C Lynch (Glenflesk), M Lynch (Dr Crokes); S Fitzgerald (Dr Crokes), K O’Shea (Kilcummin), J Moynihan (Glenflesk); J Kelleher (Glenflesk), D Ryan (Fossa); T Moynihan (Spa), A O’Neill (Reenard), A Hennigan (Dr Crokes); C Cronin (Glenflesk), L Crowley (Glenflesk), C Courtney (Dr Crokes).

Subs: P Moynihan (Kilcummin) for Courtney (42); N O’Carroll (Dr Crokes) for Cronin (50); E Kelly (Glenflesk) for Williams (60); L Daly (Kilcummin) for J Moynihan (61); S Doolan (Kilcummin) for T Moynihan (62).

St Francis College, Rochestown: M O’Carroll (St Michael’s); F Leahy (St Michael’s), D Buckley (Douglas), T O’Brien (Nemo Rangers); C O’Neill (Nemo Rangers), L Dwane Fogarty (Douglas), D O’Callaghan (Douglas); B Kelliher (Carrigaline), M O’Rourke (Cobh); R Hanley (Douglas), D Howard (Shamrocks), O McAdoo (St Michael’s); E O’Connor (Ballygarvan), S Coakley (Douglas), B Fraher (Nemo Rangers).

Subs: J Burke (Douglas) for Kelliher (10 mins, inj); H Quilligan (Douglas) for Fraher (HT); M O’Mahony (Ballygarvan) for O’Callaghan (37); C O’Keeffe (Douglas) for Howard (46); T Vaughan (Carrigaline) for Hanley (52).

Referee: J Hayes (Limerick).