Goulding steers Ballyduff to victory after a closely fought Kerry SHC affair

Jack Goulding. Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

Kerry SHC Group A: Ballyduff 1-15 St Brendans 0-16 

Despite losing their talisman Padraig Boyle to a calf injury during the first half, Ballyduff - thanks to the leadership of Jack Goulding - held on to beat a gusty St Brendans Ardfert side at the Austin Stack Park on Saturday night. 

It was a game that was in the balance all through the second half as a Fionan Egan led St Brendans refused to accept defeat and in fact with a bit more accuracy might well have caused an upset.

Ballyduff were without their injured veteran Mikey Boyle while St Brendans were missing their strong man Fionan Mackessy who has transferred to O’Loughlin Gaels in Kilkenny who will not play with them this season.

Despite playing against the wind in the opening half, it was Ballyduff who were quickly into their stride after Padraig Boyle and Fionan Egan exchanged a brace of frees apiece. Boyle and Nathan O’Driscoll then exchanged points so that it was 0-3 apiece after ten minutes. 

Eric Leen was keeping tabs on Padraig Boyle while at the other end, Anthony Kavanagh was having difficulty curbing the threat of young Fionan Egan who ended the game with a ten point haul. But both sides had effective sweepers with Kevin Goulding playing a pivotal role for Ballyduff while veteran John Egan was operating a similar role at the other end.

Ballyduff then enjoyed a purple patch during a ten minute spell when they scored 1-3 without reply with their goal being a thing of beauty when Jack Goulding sent Jack O’Sullivan racing through and though Darren Delaney made a heroic effort to save it, the sliotar ended up in the net. 

Then disaster for Ballyduff as they lost their leading marksman Padraig Boyle to a calf injury in the 21st minute, but Darragh Slattery soon had the Duffers coasting as they led 1-7 to 0-3 in the 23rd minute and things looked ominous for St Brendans.

But suddenly, with Kerry players Eric Leen and Daithi Griffin leading example, St Brendans fired over 0-6 without reply with Fionan Egan scoring four and one each from Nathan O’Driscoll and Graham Horan that saw Ballyduff’s lead reduced to the minimum at half time (1-7 to 0-9).

The third quarter was a ding dong battle with Jack Goulding giving Ballyduff a two point lead but then Fionan Egan leveled the contest with two frees and in the 40th minute substitute Seamus O’Halloran gave St Brendans the lead for the first time.

At the end of the third quarter St Brendans were still a point to the good after Nathan O’Driscoll and Luke Rochford exchanged points.

But it was Jack Goulding that took the game by the scruff of the neck and scored the final four points for Ballyduff down the stretch and though Seamus O’Halloran and Fionan Egan reduced the deficit, St Brendans hit three late wides.

Ballyduff struck the first blow in this so called group of death, but at a cost with the likelihood that Padraig and Mikey Boyle could be out for the rest of the group games.

Scorers for Ballyduff: J Goulding (0-6, 4fs), P Boyle (0-4fs), J O’Sullivan (1-0), D Slattery, D Carroll, D Moriarty, J P O’Carroll and L Rochford (0-1 each).

Scorers for St Brendans: F Egan (0-10, 8fs), N O’Driscoll (0-3), S O’Halloran (0-2), and G Horan (0-1).

BALLYDUFF: D Quinlan; N Mangan, A Kavanagh, K O’Connor; D Slattery, P Costello, D O’Carroll ; A Segal, J O’Sullivan; P Boyle, J Goulding A O’Connor; K Goulding, E Boyle, D Moriarty. Subs: L Rochford for P Boyle (inj, 22), JP O’Carroll for Kavanagh (43), J Enright for Moriarty (43), A Curley for A O’Connor (46), J Bowler for O’Sullivan (inj, 56).

ST BRENDANS: D Delaney; T O’Flaherty, E Leen, G O’Riordan; D Griffin, J Egan, F Horgan; P Kearney, N O’Driscoll; C Healy, G Horan, L Óg O’Connor; S Brosnan, E Ferris, F Egan. Subs: S O’Halloran for Healy (inj, 18), P O’Mahony for Kearney (46).

REFEREE: K Jordan (Tipperary)