Ballydonoghue retain North Kerry SFC title
When it looked as though the game was getting way from Ballydonoghue, Thomas Kennelly and Darragh Sheehy stood tall, writes Damian Stack
HIS brother stood there with ball in hand. Sizing it up and not quite fancying it. Down the left hand side of the pitch, hugging the touchline, facing into the scoreboard end Ballydonoghue had a free.
Ballyduff started the second half positively with a Mikey Boyle point. Ballydonoghue’s five point half-time lead was down to four. Thomas Kennelly would have known then that if you give Ballyduff an inch, they’ll take a mile.
The best way to see off a Ballyduff insurgency is to strangle it in its cradle and, so, he took the responsibility upon himself. He could take it off the ground, Paul is much more comfortable with ball in hand and therefore the brothers came to an understanding.
Thomas did his thing, got a sense of which way the wind was blowing and struck sweetly over the black spot. The cheer which greeted it was every bit as loud as the one which greeted Darragh Sheehy’s first half goal.
The Ballydonohgue cognoscenti knew just what it meant, knew that the day would be theirs. They knew too the quality of what the younger of the two Kennelly brothers had just delivered. On a bad day for football this was a piece of outrageous skill.
It was a day Kennelly all but made his own. When Ballydonoghue needed somebody to grab hold of the game he put his hand up. He was the guy who claimed the kick-out and set up Darragh Sheehy for the goal in the wake of Martin O’Mahony’s dismissal.
Sheehy, to give him his dues, still had plenty to do and he did it well. Striking low and hard and underneath Seán Browne in the Ballyduff net. Alongside Kennelly, Sheehy was the key performer. In the space of three or four minutes he was involved in 1-2 – going on to assist Paul Kennelly for a point before scoring one of his own.
“We just felt the game was going away from us and they had to lift it,” Ballydonoghue selector John O’Carroll explained.
“Tommy Kennelly, Darragh Sheehy all these lads went up to another level and that’s where the game was won, that five minute period.”
That’s the thing about finals. You can never be sure who’ll put their hands up, but you can be sure that somebody will. Usually it’s those guys who do something proactive that catch our eye.
They stand out because they stand out. Others do their thing a little more under the radar. Those are the guys who measure success in terms of what didn’t happen more so than in terms of what did.
Jason Foley rarely caught the eye the way Kennelly or Sheehy did – though he did kick a second half point – but don’t for a moment think he wasn’t a key man in Ballydonoghue’s
success.
The job he was asked to do was arguably the most difficult of all – to keep tabs on Mikey Boyle, a whirling dervish who can turn any game upon its head. He did it in Brosna against Listowel Emmets and Ballydonoghue – and Jason Foley – were absolutely determined he wouldn’t be permitted to do so against them.
The full-back saw to it that he didn’t. It was a brilliant performance of patience and dogged determination. At one stage in the second half he snuffed out a Boyle attack using every bit of his heft and dexterity.
When the free went against Ballyduff, you could practically see what little wind was remaining in their sails ebb away. On this occasion – and it is a rare occurrence – Boyle was bested.
It didn’t help either that Ballyduff persisted with playing him in the full-forward line for as long as they did. He did his best work in the semi-final when allowed the freedom to roam around half-forward line and midfield.
Such was Foley’s determination, however, that it likely wouldn’t have made much difference had they done so. You could see the logic of leaving Boyle inside, hoping he’d pilfer a goal, but ultimately it didn’t work out.
There’s no shame in it. No shame for Boyle and no shame for Ballyduff. Ballydonoghue are an exceptionally good side, a side who play an exciting brand of football, even in the most trying of conditions.
“Absolutely brilliant football, running football and it’s great for the fans to watch entertaining football as well,” O’Carroll concurred.
“We’re waiting seventy years for it [to win back-to-back titles]. There’s even greater satisfaction out of winning it this year than even last year. Wrote off, had a hard year, we pulled it back together and you can see there for yourselves it was absolutely brilliant.
“It all came together, the age balance in the team was excellent from the back to front, we’ve experience in every line of the field. This team can go further, we were a bit unlucky in the junior championship this year.
“Went in missing six or seven key players, it was our target, but we refocussed and hopefully that might be the target for next year.”
As O’Carroll readily acknowledges to win any county title in the Kingdom is a difficult thing indeed – “Kerry football is unforgiving,” he says – but it’s got to be, and is, the ambition for 2018 for the Coolard outfit.
To our eyes at least, they should have what it takes to challenge for the Premier Junior crown. Then again we said similar things after Emmets’ triumph in 2015 and Ballydonoghue’s triumph last year.
For now we’re probably better off celebrating what Ballydonoghue achieved in his year’s North Kerry Championship. The grit they showed in the drawn semi-final was hugely admirable. The quality of their football in the replay blew us all away. Then last Sunday we had a combination of the two.
“We were just saying Ballyduff are never finished,” O’Carroll maintained.
“We have to keep driving to the end and that we weren’t going to go defensive. We we had it in our legs to drive forward and get scores, we said we’re not parking the bus here, we’re going to keep driving on.
“Our kick-outs were very good, we won them and we kept driving at them. We said if we drop deep here they’re capable of getting goals and the plan was to attack, attack in the second half.
“There’s something special about this one. I think last year we didn’t even soak it in at the time. We’re really taking it in this year.”
As well they might. It’ll shorten the winter in Lisselton and its surrounds. That’s for sure.
The full back saw to it that he didn’t. It was a brilliant performance of patience and dogged determination