O’Donoghue’s late strike caps off a memorable semi-final victory for Glenflesk over St Marys
COUNTY IFC SEMI-FINAL
Glenflesk 1-18 St Mary’s 1-12
SCORELINES don’t always the full story.
The margin at the end of this game, for instance, would lead one to think Glenflesk had a pretty comfortable victory, when the reality was a little bit different. That’s not to suggest that the East Kerry men didn’t deserve their victory – they absolutely did – it’s just to make the point that St Marys were well in this game until quite late on.
This was a contest that was delicately poised for long periods, being level on nine occasions with just one point separating the teams with five minutes of normal time remaining.
A pretty fortuitous goal from a long range free in the final minute put a somewhat false complexion on the scoreboard at the end, but such was Glenflesk’s ability to respond with some extremely well worked scores, with their greater level of resourcefulness in attacking situations ultimately crucial to the outcome.
A tally of 1-8 from placed balls for Glenflesk confirmed some pretty indisciplined defending from the Cahersiveen rearguard unit and, having lost a player to a second yellow card coming up to the end of the third quarter at a period in the game when they held a one point lead, they were subsequently battling against the odds, even if, they were still on level terms with ten minutes of normal time remaining.
Glenflesk got to grips with the situation from the outset of proceedings and were two points in front after as many minutes. Michael O’Shea was unlucky not to have added a goal to their tally before Bryan Sheehan with a superb score, opened his side’s account in the seventh minute and levelled matters two minutes later.
The lead was exchanged twice at opposite ends before Bryan Sheehan landed another huge score from distance to leave the encounter deadlocked on four points apiece after twelve minutes.
Cian Horan, the fourth Glenflesk player to feature on the scoresheet, edged Glenflesk in front by the bare minimum 0-5 0-4 at the tell
THE GAME IN 60 SECONDS
MAIN MAN
Overall, Glenflesk owed much to their collective effort and input, even if, the contribution of both Lee O Donoghue and Darragh Roche was hugely significant to the outcome. However, given the quality of the scores which he kicked, Bryan Sheehan was the stand-out performer.
KEY MOMENT
Probably the sending off, given that St Mary’s were in the ascendancy at that particular juncture. They did cope for a period thereafter, and, briefly regained the lead. However, going down the stretch they struggled to keep pace with Glenflesk’s strong finish,
TALKING POINT
The type of support and atmosphere which is generated by championship encounters. Kerry fully embraced the window of opportunity for the clubs during April. A pity that it will all come to a conclusion this weekend given that the heartbeat of the Association was very much in evidence throughout all of the competitions.
end of the opening quarter, but with Bryan Sheehan producing a masterclass in finishing St Mary’s kept pace, going in front 0-7 0-6 with four minutes of normal time left in the half.
However, three unanswered scores, which included two pointed frees from the unerring Darragh Roche meant that Glenflesk with five different scorers contributing retired for the interval break two points in front 0-9 0-7.
Bryan Sheehan with a personal tally of five points had, almost single handedly inspired his side’s challenge up until this particular juncture. Glenflesk had increased their lead to four points 0-12 0-8 within seven minutes of the restart, reduced to three by a Bryan Sheehan free.
A goal from Jack Daly with a pretty emphatic finish in the ninth minute after Aidan Walsh had created the chance for him levelled matters and with Daniel Daly putting St Marys back in front shortly afterwards the momentum had now swung in favour of the South Kerry side.
However, a foul, followed by a second yellow and the sending off of Oisin Moran, with the resultant free being converted levelled matters once again, before Daniel Daly with his third point afforded St Mary’s a one point lead 1-11 0-13 going into the final quarter.
They were still in front 1-12 0-14, after substitute Denis Daly had kicked a magnificent score from outside the forty five metre line in the forty ninth minute, but, with Lee O’Donoghue excelling at full forward, and, Darragh Roche adding to his spiralling tally of scores Glenflesk finished with a flourish kicking four successive scores, before Jeff O Donoghue’s long range free put the issue completely beyond doubt, with a delivery which finished in the net, off the fingertips of one of the St Marys players on the goal line.
It sealed a victory which owed much to Glenflesk’s collective endeavour, their purposeful kicking game and most of all to their character. It meant that they never lost focus or direction which ultimately saw them over the finishing line with a bit to spare at the end of an extremely competitive encounter.
St Marys might justifiably point to the absence through injury of Paul O’Donoghue and Denis Daly from their starting fifteen. However, their manager Kieran McCarthy while making reference to their loss, along with some other issues which might have had an impact was, was as always extremely gracious in defeat, fully stressing that the better team won on the night.
“The best way to describe it was that they were too strong up front. I suppose the sending off had a big bearing on it, but, look overall I think Glenflesk were just the better team.
“We hung in there, we drew, we went ahead and, I suppose we should have retained the lead, but we didn’t. They came down and they hurt us, and, the last goal was no reflection on the game as such.
“It was still only a three point game with five minutes to go, but, we just ran out of steam, I suppose. We had two big injuries, two big players [Denis Daly and Paul O’Donoghue] missing, all these things, but fair play to Glenflesk they won it on merit.
“Overall, we had a good display throughout the team, Bryan [Sheehan] is a big player, I don’t know what Kerry are doing without him, that kicking was immaculate there tonight and he gave it everything.”
GLENFLESK: Roy Kelliher, Ciaran O’Mahony, Shane Courtney, Chris O’Donoghue, Daniel O’Brien, James McCarrick, Cian Horan (0-1), Kieran Murphy (0-1), Jeff O’Donoghue (1-1 frees), Padraig Healy, Darragh Roche, (0-11, 7f), Brian O’Donoghue (0-1), Michael O Shea, Lee O’Donoghue (0-3), Ian Roche. Subs: Stephen O’Donoghue for S Courtney, Alan Murphy for I Roche
ST MARYS: Michael Daly, Killian Nolan, Brian Curran, Oisin Moran, Pat Cournane, Darragh O Sullivan, Conor O Shea, Bryan Sheehan (0-6, 2f), Jack Daly, (1-0), Anthony Cournane (0-1), Adam Quirke, Aidan Walsh, Sean Cournane (0-1f), Daniel Daly (0-3, 1f) Darren Casey. Subs: Denis Daly (0-1) for D Casey, Paul O’Donoghue for A Quirke
REFEREE: Seamus Mulvihill (St Senans)