Power praises South Kerry leaders as Rathmore rues Moynihan loss

SOUTH Kerry selector Willie Power paid due credit to the leadership of several of his team’s players, in the absence of Kerry panellists Killian Young and Bryan Sheehan, the latter going off injured before half time.

“One aspect of being a divisional side is that when you have some of your players with the Kerry senior team during the year and you don’t see them too often, it’s important to build other leaders so that when you’re missing these guys everybody can turn into a leader and you’re also expecting one or two of them to turn up on the day,” Power said. “John Curran fetched a few great high balls, Brendan O’Sullivan as well. Conor O’Shea and Paul O’Donoghue stood up today, Daniel (Daly) ran a great amount of ball, and everybody really stood up when Bryan went off and it’s important to have those leaders.

“There were a lot of challenges throw at us so the first thing was that is was great to still be in the game at half time, level at seven points each. Coming out for the third quarter it was critical just to get a foothold in the game, and though we went behind first we dug back again and went into the lead.

“Rathmore had a couple of goal chances and we were lucky to resist that and then we suffered another blow with Paul (O’Sullivan) getting a second yellow card so we were down to fourteen men for the last seven or eight minutes. Again it was our subs and the guys that came on that really had the legs to hold the ball and get us over the line.

“After Paul Murphy’s two points the lads made a couple of crucial tackles to break up the next two Rathmore attacks and that really turned the game. Another Rathmore score there would really have put us under the cosh but it was just inspirational stuff for our lads they way they dealt with that pressure and saw the game out.”

Rathmore manager Derek Moynihan bemoaned the early loss of John Moynihan through injury and some missed chances from his team.

“We’re gutted. We knew the opposition we were facing and that they were going to be a stern test but we had huge belief in the group we had and that they would sneak across the line. In say that, huge congratulations to South Kerry, they just got important scores at important times, whereas we missed a couple of opportunities and you can’t forget the loss of John Moynihan. He was a huge player for us early on, and his input would have been hugely valuable for us.

“We felt we were a bit wasteful up top, we had left maybe twelve or thirteen turnovers in their half, but at the same time we felt at half time that if we could improve on that and take our chances that we’d be there down the stretch. We just failed to get enough scores and that’s really it. When you come to this level and you give too many turnovers and kick too many wides you’ll be punished and South Kerry are a really good team. I think we needed a goal in the last quarter just to reignite us a bit and had we got that it would have lifted the lads hugely but unfortunately it just never came.