Dr Crokes 3-15
Moyle Rovers 0-8
Conor Kane reports from Ardfinnan
DR CROKES CAMPAIGN to emulate their recent Munster and All-Ireland club successes got off to the best possible start at Ardfinnan in Tipperary today when they blitzkrieged Moyle Rovers with an exhibition of scoring.
Full-forward Kieran O’Leary ended up with 2-2, the goals both opportunistic but well-taken efforts following defensive mistakes in the first half, while Tony Brosnan scored 0-7 and Micheál Burns chipped in with three from play to keep daylight between the teams.
Moyle Rovers opened brightly enough, attacking at pace in the early minutes and earning a couple of nice points through Richard Power and Liam Boland.
But three crucial incidents in that first half prevented them from keeping in touch with their more famous rivals by the interval. The first goal came in the 10th minute when Kieran O’Leary goaled after a defensive mistake and O’Leary had another green flag in the 28th minute, again benefiting from hesitation in the Rovers defence after a long Johnny Buckley ball and fisting to the net, ensuring the Kerry champions led by 2-8 to 0-5 at half-time.
In the mean time, Moyle Rover lost influential corner-forward Liam Boland to a black card, piling difficulty on difficulty.
When they lost Shane Foley to a straight red early in the second half, it was yet another problem and Dr Crokes were more than capable of capitalising in full.
Former Kerry superstar Colm “Gooch” Cooper entered the fray in the 40th minute, set up a couple of scores and scored a point himself after jinking through the defence, with the issue all but decided as the game entered the last quarter.
Scorers for Dr Crokes: Kieran O’Leary 2-2, Tony Brosnan 0-7 (0-6f), Micheál Burns 0-3, Michael Potts 1-0, David Shaw, Colm Cooper, Daithí Casey 0-1 each.
Scorerw for Moyle Rovers: Richard Power, Dara Ryan 0-2 each, Liam Boland, Ross Mulcahy, Sean Carey, Riain Quigley 0-1 each.
Dr Crokes
1. Shane Murphy
2. John Payne
3. Michael Moloney
4. Fionn Fitzgerald
5. David O’Leary
6. Gavin White
7. Shane Doolan
8. Johnny Buckley
9. Daithí Casey
10. Micheál Burns
11. Gavin O’Shea
12. Brian Looney
18. David Shaw
14. Kieran O’Leary
15. Tony Brosnan
Subs
13. Colm Cooper for D Shaw (40)
19. Michael Potts for D Casey (41)
25. Jason Lyne for D O’Leary (47)
21. Mark O’Shea for K O’Leary (51)
Moyle Rovers
1. Ciaran Kenrick
2. Patrick Morrissey
3. Alan Campbell
4. Morgan Irwin
5. David McGrath
6. Ross Mulcahy
7. Luke Boland
8. Richard Power
16. Tadhg Fitzgerald
10. Dara Ryan
11. Stephen Quirke
19. Aidan McGrath
13. Liam Boland
14. Shane Foley
15. Danny Owens
Subs
9. Jack Harney for P Morrissey (17)
18. Diarmuid Foley for L Boland (black card) (18)
20. Riain Quigley for S Quirke (40)
12. Sean Carey for A McGrath (44)
21. Ben Owens for L Boland (48)
Referee: James Bermingham (Cork)
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