SIDELINES

Listowel Celtic’s Savannah McCar thy was signed up by Glasgow Celtic to play professional football for the Scottish giants. Irish international McCarthy had previously played for Galway WFC and UCD Waves.

Kerry had two new Irish rugby internationals when both Zoe Grattage and Ciara Griffin made their debuts in Ireland’s Women’s Six Nations clash with Wales in Donnybrook.

There were four Kerry winners at the GAA’s annual McNamee awards. Weeshie Fogarty picked up the Hall of Fame award from president Aogán Ó Fearghail. There were also awards for Dara Ó Cinnéide, Tommy O’Connor and Kevin Casey.

The Kerry ladies bounced back from their opening round defeat to Dublin by beating Cork on home soil in the Lidl Ladies National League. The Kingdom ran out 0-11 to 2-4 winners in Brosna. Their momentum was stalled, however, in their very next game when they went down by a wide margin to Armagh in Armagh. The Orchard County put four goals past the Kingdom – 4-11 to 0-12 – and, really, there was no way back from that. In the fourth round Kerry got back on track with a comfortable victory over Galway in Finuge – they ran out 2-15 to 2-8 winners to put their campaign firmly back on track.

St Brendans College were comfortable winners of their Corn Uí Mhuirí semi-final clash with Clare kingpins St Flannans. The Killarney school ran out 2-14 to 0-5 winners in Rathkeale to earn a place in the final with High School, Clonmel. In the final the Sem were equally impressive putting 5-21 past Clonmel, who managed just seven points. With talk of a Hogan Cup title for the school gathering apace their manager, Gary McGrath, insisted their focus was simply on the Munster decider. “To be honest we haven’t discussed it. I just know we are playing the Leinster champions, a school from Dublin. We will go back this evening, enjoy it and look at Monday as training for that,” he said.

Former Kilcummin shot-stopper Shane Murphy made the move to Dr Crokes this month. Murphy had previously played minor, Under 21 and junior football for the Kingdom, winning an All Ireland title at junior level.

Scoil Phobail Sliabh Luachra claimed a famous win in the Munster Ladies Senior C Championship final when they defeated Doon from Limerick on a scoreline of 3-9 to 2-10. Their Junior team also won a Munster C title when seeing off Mercy of Skibbereen 4-14 to 2-5.

The star performer for Kerry at the Munster Indoor Athletics Championships – Under 13 to Under 19 – was Star of the Laune’s Fiona Doyle who claimed gold in the Under 16 high jump. Many other athletics brought home silverware from the finals in Nenagh.

Two young Killarney golfers – Máiréad Martin and Valerie Clancy – were selected for the ILGU High Performance Unit Squad for their four day warm-weather training exercise in Spain.

Killarney Celtic advanced to the quarter-finals of the Munster Junior Cup with a hard-fought victory over Shannon Town after extra-time on home soil in Celtic Park in Killarney. A combination of Jamie Spillane and Conor Randall contributing the all-important goal in the first period of extra-time.

Tralee Rugby Club alumnus Ultan Dillane made a huge splash on his Irish debut in the Six Nations Championship. The Connacht lock was a second half sub in Ireland’s defeat to England in Twickenham. The game seemed to be drifting well away from the Irish, but Dillane made an explosive contribution to breathe new life into the green army’s challenge. Alas it wasn’t to be, but the Tralee man made his mark in spectacular fashion having made one marvellous break leaving a couple of English men on the deck. A try seemed on after Dillane played a sweet one-two with fellow debutante Josh van der Flier. However, the English scrambled effectively to prevent the try.

At the Senior National Indoor Athletics championships Laura Crowe took silver in the 800m with a time of 2.05, while even more impressively Tralee Harriers’ Claire Fitzgerald put in a flawless performance to claim gold in the shot putt with a stadium record throw of 14.95m.

Killarney’s Dan Sugrue was appointed by Dooks as their new professional.