Kerry SFC: East Kerry brush aside Templenoe to ease into quarter-finals

David Clifford scored five points for East Kerry while Paul O'Shea added 1-3.

Ruairi Murphy scored 1-6 in East Kerry's victory over Templenoe in round 1 of the Kerry SFC. Pic: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

Kerry SFC round 1: East Kerry 3-23 Templenoe 1-10 

As expected East Kerry, were far too good for a battling Templenoe side at a windswept Beaufort pitch on Saturday afternoon and now advance to the county championship quarter-finals next weekend.

While Templenoe were competitive enough, were combative enough, they always appeared to be fighting a losing battle against a powerful East Kerry outfit, for whom David Clifford, Paul O’Shea and Jack Sherwood started despite not being on the 30. In fact it was a strange sight to watch David Clifford wearing the number 31 shirt, probably for the first time ever.

East Kerry had the aid of the strong wind in the opening half and once Ruairi Murphy got going, Templenoe were struggling to get their hands on breaking ball around midfield.

Ruairi Murphy and Aidan Crowley swapped early points. Darragh Lyne then slalomed through the Templenoe defence, but he shot wide of the target, with the goal at his mercy.

Kerry senior panelist Murphy then got hot and kicked three points including a two while fellow Listry teammate Ronan Buckley added a point and suddenly East Kerry led 0-5 to 0-1 after just 12 minutes. Tadgh Morley was keeping tabs on David Clifford who was acting as a link man and he soon added two frees as East Kerry continued to dominate.

Murphy brought his first half tally to six points as he added two points and Philip O’Leary made it a 0-10 to 0-1 by the 20th minute. Killian Spillane was Templenoe’s sole scoring threat and he added three points before the interval but East Kerry looked untouchable as they retired 0-12 to 0-4 in front at half-time.

Any hopes of a Templenoe fightback were dashed as East Kerry added 2-4 in the third quarter with goals coming from O’Shea who finished a sweeping move involving Lyne and Cian Gammell to net in the 36th minute. A minute later, O’Shea passed to Murphy to find the net and two David Clifford points had East Kerry out of sight at 2-16 to 0-4.

Templenoe, thanks to Gavin Crowley and the Spillane brothers Adrian and Killian, never threw in the towel and a two-pointer from Killian and two more, one from play, plus a Sean Sheehan goal, gave some sort of respectability to the scoreline.

But East Kerry were able to rest David Clifford for the final ten minutes and his replacement Emmett O’Shea kicked two points while Paudie O’Leary added a third goal at the death as East Kerry, without every hitting top gear, eased into the next round on the back of this 19-point win.

Scorers for East Kerry: R Murphy (1-6, 1tp), P O’Shea (1-3), D Clifford (0-5, 2fs), Paudie O’Leary (1-1), D O’Brien and E O’Shea (0-2 each), C Gammell, Philip O’Leary, M Keane and R Buckley (0-1 each) 

Scorers for Templenoe: K Spillane (0-9, 1tpf, 4fs), S Sheehan (1-0), A Crowley (0-1)

EAST KERRY: S O’Sullivan (Fossa); N Donohue (Firies), K O’Sullivan (Fossa), D Fleming (Killarney Legion); J Sherwood (Firies) , D O’Brien (Glenflesk), D O’Callaghan (Kilcummin); R Collins (Gneeveguilla), R Buckley (Listry); R Murphy (Listry), D Lyne (Killarney Legion), P O’Leary (Gneeveguilla); D Clifford (Fossa) , P O’Shea (Kilcummin), Philip O’Leary (Kilcummin).

Subs: C Lynch (Glenflesk) for D O’Callaghan (inj 20), C Gammell (Killarney Legion) for R Buckley (36), M Keane (Kilcummin) for R Murphy (41), S O’Leary (Kilcummin) for N Donohue (41), E O’Shea (Fossa) for D Clifford (50).

TEMPLENOE: M Looney; M Hallissey, K O’Neill, Ciaran Crowley; M Reilly, T Morley, J Spillane; S Sheehan, G Crowley; Colin Crowley, M Casey, K McCarthy; K Spillane, A Spillane, A Crowley.

Subs: R O’Byrne for Colin Crowley (43), C Breen for Ciaran Crowley (56), J Moriarty for G Crowley (60) 

Referee: P Curtin (Brosna)