South Kerry overcome injuries to make semis

COUNTY SFC QUARTER-FINAL

South Kerry 0-15 Rathmore 0-12

NO team manager present, Killian Young out injured and Bryan Sheehan limping off with hamstring trouble after 25 minutes, it wasn’t looking great for South Kerry midway through this quarter-final contest with Rathmore, even if matters were even at the interval, 0-7 apiece.

Rathmore weren’t without their difficulties either, with top marksman John Moynihan forced off through injury after just 14 minutes and Aidan O’Mahony shackled to Matthew O’Sullivan at full back when they might have hoped to deploy him further up the field.

It all added up to a cagey game, devoid of too much exuberant football, with both teams working hard and worked hard to pick off their scores in trying to get ahead and stay ahead. In the end it boiled down to South Kerry’s ability to mine scores from more sources. The got scores from play from seven different players, including brilliant wing-back Robert Wharton and both midfielders, while the inside forward line conjured up seven points from play, fattened by Denis Daly’s four points.

Rathmore’s haul did include scores from play for the Murphy brothers, Paul and Cathal, listed as defenders but playing further up the field for much of the game, while midfielder Donal O’Sullivan also pitched in with a score. However, only George O’Keeffe and Mark Ryan of the starting forwards scored from play, and while Shane Ryan converted five frees for the East Kerry club, a few missed chances from the full forward proved costly at the end.

Of the four quarter-finals played over the weekend this was the one expected to be the closest run thing and so it proved. Rathmore, pushing now for a few years to break into the very top echelon of the county championship, were

THE GAME IN 60 SECONDS

MAIN MAN

Several strong performances from South Kerry, including Brendan O’Sullivan, Matthew O’Sullivan and Daniel Daly, but wing-back ROBERT WHARTON was excellent throughout, constantly probing forward on the ball and scoring a fine point.

KEY MOMENT

Rathmore created two decent goal chances in the second half and at this level they needed to convert at least one. Brendan O’Keeffe drove his shot wide of the goal when he needed to at least test the goalkeeper, while later one Padriag O’Sullivan made a smart save from George O’Keeffe’s shot. Keeping a clean sheet in Championship football is half the battle and those wasted Rathmore chances were of a considerable help to South Kerry.

TALKING POINT

It’s not exactly novel anymore but it was interesting nonetheless to see Shane Ryan play at full forward for Rathmore just weeks after he was called into the Kerry senior player as second choice goalkeeper to Brian Kelly. On the same billing, Shane Murphy kept a clean sheet for Dr Crokes and converted a ‘45’ and he was also called into the Kerry senior panel following Brendan Kealy’s withdrawal during the summer