Kerry schools make their bid for O’Sullivan Cup final place

Jimmy Darcy

IS Killorglin v Mercy Mounthawk, Tralee

Wednesday, November 6 at 1.30pm (venue tbc)

IS Killorglin reached the Taft, Dunloe, and Frewen Cup Finals last year, winning the Frewen and losing the Taft and Dunloe Finals last year but won the Frewen (having reached the semi-final the year before).

Kieran O’Sullivan, Sean O’Brien, and Gearoid Hassett all wore the green and gold with distinction. Matthew Leslie is unerring from both play and frees. ISK are young, very young (only one player is gone from minor) but they are on an upward curve and Micheal O Se and Chris Flannery both know a bit about helping teams with young talent to win. They lost to Tralee by 2-15 to 1-11 in their openimng Corn Uí Mhuirí game,

Mercy Mounthawk haven’t had the best of luck in recent years but Padraig Sugrue has quality to draw from in the likes of David Burke, Joey Nagle, Brian Shanahan, and Shane Bastible. The switch of Kerry minor Jack Sheehan from wing back to full forward against Tralee CBS saw them claim a big scalp, 3-10 to 3-7, in their opening game and a one point win over Sliabh Luachra saw them top the group.

They will be looking to get back into the final and go a step further than last year.

BOTH of these colleges have made strong starts to the year. PS Sliabh Luachra went down to Mercy Mounthawk in their opening game of the O’Sullivan Cup by a single point before beating Tralee CBS to qualify as second in their group and reach the semi-final. They followed that up with a very convincing 2-11 to 0-9 victory over a Clonakilty team that included three All Ireland winning Cork minors in the opening round of the Corn Uí Mhuirí.

David McCarthy has a lot of big guns back from the team that reached the O’Sullivan Cup and the Paddy Drummond (All Ireland B) Finals last year, the likes of Ian O’Connor, Damien Cronin, Alan Dineen, Ronan Collins, Dan Murphy, Cathal Ryan, and James Darmody. Joining them are Eoghan Ruadh U16 County Champions like the Bowlers Tommy and Kevin, Michael Dennehy, and Dylan Roche.

St. Brendans opened with a good win over Killorglin and a hard-earned 2-12 to 1-15 draw (they trailed by 1-14 to 1-7 at the three quarter stage) to Corca Dhuibhne to qualify for this semi-final. Mark Cooper anchors a defence that includes Terry Sparling, Ruairi Doyle, and Neil O’Shea. Eoghan O’Sullivan and Mike Lenihan marshal midfield, while Dylan O’Callaghan, William Shine, Emmet O’Shea, and Ryan O’Grady are their chief sharpshooters.