East Kerry 0-20
Kerins O’Rahilly’s 3-9

(after extra-time)

Paul Brennan reports from Austin Stack Park Tralee

THREE GOALS INSIDE the first 12 minutes wasn’t enough upon which Kerins O’Rahilly’s could build an extra-time victory, as East Kerry – helped by eight David Clifford points – advanced to the quarter-finals of the Kerry county SFC in Tralee this evening.

Having dominated the first quarter of the regulation hour, O’Rahilly’s allowed East Kerry right back into an always riveting and often spiky contest, but they surrendered their lead for the first time in the 59th minute, and were ultimately undone late in the second period of extra-time when Clifford struck with two scores.

If those three early goals seemed the near perfect platform for O’Rahilly’s, the club side made a rod for their back at the start of the second half when Barry John Keane was sent-off for some needless off-the-ball stuff.

That left the Tralee club with an onerous task for the second half, and with East Kerry growing into the game O’Rahilly’s might feel a little fortunate to have still been alive at the end of the hour, despite East Kerry needing to engineer a late, late equaliser.

It took just 15 seconds of the game for Keane to have the ball in the East Kerry goal after slick build-up play from O’Rahilly’s inter-county trio of David Moran, Tommy Walsh and Gavin O’Brien, and when Karl Mullins rose a second green flag after O’Brien’s flick was well saved by James Devane, O’Rahilly’s led 2-1 to 0-2 after 11 minutes.

Before that Con Barrett had slalomed through the East Kerry defence and cracked a low shot wide off the post, as O’Rahilly’s played tuned-in, turned-on football.

A minute after Mullins’ goal, Keane did really well to recycle Walsh’s air-ball and feed it into Jack Savage who stepped inside and finished with aplomb to make it 3-1 to 0-2. That’s where O’Rahilly’s dominance came to an abrupt halt.

East Kerry won the second quarter by seven points to one, with perhaps the most remarkable thing about it being that David Clifford scored just one of those points. Points from Dara Roche, Ronan Buckley, Paudie Clifford, Brian O’Donoghue and two from substitute Mike Foley made it 3-2 to 0-9 at half time, pretty much wiping out O’Rahilly’s early superiority.

Four minutes into the second half Shane Cronin won an East Kerry penalty but Paudie Clifford’s low shot was well saved by Gary Kissane; in between the penalty award and penalty miss, Keane did the damage that earned him his red card.

David Clifford and Savage exchanged pointed frees before Walsh kicked O’Rahilly’s first point from play in the 47th minute. Two more Clifford points made it 3-4 to 0-12 in the 51st minute.

The equaliser came in the 58th minute via Foley before Liam Kearney kicked East Kerry into the lead for the first time a moment later. Ryan Carroll (free) and Tommy Walsh wrestled back the lead for O’Rahilly’s, before Shane Cronin’s 64th minute equalising point sent the game to extra-time.

The first period of extra-time saw Mullins, Savage and Moran trade points with Dara Roche, Foley and David Clifford to make it 3-9 to 0-18 at the turnaround.

The second period kept all its drama for the last couple of minutes, with Clifford landing the lead point from a free in the 80th minute and the insurance score in the 82nd and final minute.

East Kerry will be joined in the quarter-finals by St Brendan’s, who had a 4-22 to 1-12 win over Shannon Rangers in the first match in Tralee. West Kerry and Kenmare Shamrocks meet in the other Round 3 game in Killarney on Sunday afternoon, with the final Round 3 game between Kilcummin and St Kierans deferred until next weekend due to a bereavement.

Scorers for Kerins O’Rahilly’s: Jack Savage 1-4 (0-3f), Karl Mullins 1-1, Barry John Keane 1-0, Tommy Walsh 0-2, Ryan Carroll 0-1f, David Moran 0-1

Scorers for East Kerry: David Clifford 0-8 (0-3f), Mike Foley 0-4, Dara Roche 0-3 (0-2f), Liam Kearney 0-1, Shane Cronin 0-1, Ronan Buckley 0-1, Brian O’Donoghue 0-1, Paudie Clifford 0-1 ’45′.

East Kerry

1. James Devane (Spa)

2. Chris O’Donoghue (Glenflesk)
3. Shane Courtney (Glenflesk)
4. Niall Donohue (Firies)

5. Dan O’Donoghue (Spa)
6. Jack Sherwood (Firies)
7. Pa Warren (Gneeveguilla)

8. Liam Kearney (Spa)
9. Shane Cronin (Spa)

10. Ronan Buckley (Listry)
11. Paudie Clifford (Fossa)
12. Brian O’Donoghue (Glenflesk)

13. David Clifford (Fossa)
14. Dara Roche (Glenflesk)
15. Evan Cronin (Spa)

Subs

21. Mike Foley (Spa) for S Courtney (23)
23. Padraig Doyle (Gneeveguilla) for B O’Donoghue (58)
22. Padraig De Brun (Firies) for R Buckley (59)
12. Brian O’Donoghue for S Cronin (76)

Kerins O’Rahillys

1. Gary Kissane

18. Con Barrett
3. Ross O’Callaghan
4. Cormac Coffey

5. Ryan Carroll
6. Karl Mullins
7. Darragh McElligott

8. David Moran
9. Shane Brosnan

10. Tom Hoare
11. John Ferguson
12. Gavin O’Brien

13. Jack Savage
14. Tommy Walsh
15. Barry John Keane

Subs

17. Conor Hayes for T Hoare (37)
20. Gearoid Savage for J Ferguson (57)
19. Sean Walsh on for extra-time
11. John Ferguson for C Hayes (74)
22. Danny O’Sullivan for K Mullins (79)

Referee: Brendan Griffin (Clounmacon)

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