Champions lay down a marker with crushing win

NORTH KERRY SFC QUARTER-FINAL

Ballydonoghue 4-9 Brosna 2-4

THERE was something about the way Ballydonoghue stretched their legs and just pulled away from Brosna in the second half that should worry all the other contenders for the Eamon O’Donoghue Cup.

There was an imperiousness to them. They play with a justifiable self-confidence. They play with precision, poise and pace. When they’re on that sort of form it’s hard to see how any of the other challengers can dethrone them.

Probably saying so will annoy Ballydonoghue and their management team, but the fact remains: after last Sunday they are the near overwhelming favourites to retain their title for the third season in succession.

That’s a challenge in its own way. To keep heads on shoulders and confidence in check. Do that and they stand an excellence chance of retaining the title for the third time in succession, becoming the first team to do so in almost forty years.

None of which is to say they were flawless against Brosna in resplendent Duagh on Sunday afternoon or that they can’t be beaten. They weren’t and they can be, but right now they look the best of what’s out there.

For their part Brosna must be left wondering if their time will ever come. The last three or four years have seen them at near their highest level ever. They’ve just been unfortunate to run up against a brilliant Ballydonoghue side.

Were it not for Ballydonoghue they probably would have won last year’s championship. Indeed there were certain similarities between this quarter-final and the sides’ drawn semi-final contest of twelve months previous.

Much like last year the first half saw Ballydonoghue in a pretty dominant position, lording midfield, cutting open the Brosna rearguard seemingly at will and yet, much like last year, they didn’t have nearly as much to show for their efforts as they ought to have done.

Out of fourteen first half chances they took fewer than half. Indeed, a four point lead at half-time – 2-4 to 1-3 – would have given Brosna every reason to hope they could spring an upset in the second half.

The trouble was, for as competitive as the game was on the scoreboard, Brosna weren’t at their best. They weren’t creating nearly enough chances. In the first half they managed just five chances (now they converted an impressive four of those chances), about a third of what Ballydonoghue had created.

The early exchanges suggested we were in line for another humdinger – after Paul Kennelly converted an early free, he scored a brilliant goal following an assist by Jack Foley and then pretty much straight away Brosna struck back through Kieran O’Donnell (smartest to a break after a Tom McGoldrick free dropped short) – but it never quite turned out that way.

Ballydonoghue were simply better than Brosna. When on eleven minutes Jason Foley made a brilliant burst through the middle to assist Darragh Sheehy for a goal it felt like the floodgates might be about to open, but that too never happened and so we went in at the break with all seemingly still to play for.

Brosna certainly viewed it that way and started the second half in a determined fashion with Patrick Moriarty skinning his man – Conor Kennelly – on the outside before planting it beyond Darragh O’Shea in the Ballydonoghue goal just seconds into the half.

This was it, the moment the game should’ve caught fire. That it never did speaks to the quality of Ballydonoghue. They weren’t rattled by Moriarty’s goal. They responded straight away with a pointed free by Kennelly (after Jim Cremin was fouled).

Indeed, from Moriarty’s goal to the end of the match Ballydonoghue would go on to out-score Brosna by 2-5 to 0-1, which is every bit as big of a whitewash as you might imagine it to be.

Bally’s third goal came on thirty nine minutes when Cremin assisted captain Eamon Walsh and their fourth and final goal came on fifty nine minutes when Kennelly assisted the impressive Jack Foley.

There was a couple of flare ups late in the half – and Micheál Foley was forced to retire through injury following one such incident – but they didn’t detract from the story of the game, which was one of Ballydonoghue dominance.

Ballyduff now await in the semi-final in a repeat of last year’s final.

BALLYDONOGHUE: Darragh O’Shea, Billy Foley, Jason Foley, Conor Kennelly, Thomas Kennelly, Micheál Foley, Jack Gogarty, Martin O’Mahony, Brian Ó Seanacháin, Jim Cremin (0-2), Darragh Sheehy (1-0), Jack Behan, Jack Foley (1-2), Paul Kennelly (1-5, 5f), Eamon Walsh (1-0) Subs: Danny Power for B Foley, 37, Pádraig Enright for M Foley (inj), 54, Kevin O’Donnell for J Cremin, 60

BROSNA: Steven McAuliffe, Killian Fitzmaurice, Shane Fitzmaurice, Maurice O’Keeffe, Daniel Fitzgerald, Eamon Kiely, Flor McAuliffe, Timmy Finnegan, Shane Curtin, Adam Barry (0-1), Mike Finnegan (0-1), Darren Horan, Patrick Moriarty (1-0), Tom McGoldrick (0-1f), Kieran O’Donnell (1-1) Subs: Peter Curtin for K Fitzmaurice (inj), 9, Cillian Keane for D Fitzgerald, 41, Gerard Nash for M O’Keeffe, 41, Don McAuliffe for M Finnegan, 45, Eamon Prendiville for S Curtin, 47, Shane Curtin for T McGoldrick, 56

REFEREE: Stephen Mulvhill (Ballylongford)