The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
Foilmore and Tarbert early leaders in Four
ST MICHAELS/FOILMORE and Tarbert are the early pacesetters after both kept their 100% start at the weekend with Castlegregory. Gneeveguilla and Renard are still unbeaten behind them. Even without Mark Griffin, St Michaels/ Foilmore got the better of Skellig Rangers in a local derby in Portmagee as they scored two goals to take a narrow 2-7 to 0-12 win as despite conceding two goals.
Tarbert got enough points to see off their East Kerry opponents Cordal by two points. Cordal scored their first goal early but Tarbert went in leading by 0-8 to 1-3 at the break. A second goal for Cordal late on kept the game right in the balance but Tarbert came through a tough contest by 0-15 to 2-7 in the end.
Castlegregory’s first win came at home to Fossa where they put in a good second-half to come out on top by seven points. Alan Fitzgerald and Colm O’Mahony gave Castle an early four point advantage but Paudie Clifford brought Fossa back into it before the break in the sides going in level at 0-8 apiece. Castle started the second-half better crucially in taking a three point advantage as despite losing O’Mahony to injury they restricted the visitors to two solitary second-half points. Jimmy O’Grady had three late points in a 0-17 to 0-10 victory that ties them with Gneeveguilla and Renard in the table.
Gneeveguilla were victorious away from home in Cromane as they had enough in hand to cope with a late rally from the Mid Kerry side. Paul Patrick O’Sullivan scored a penalty early on for the hosts but they still found themselves trailing by 0-12 to 1-5 at half-time despite a nice point from Sean O’Sullivan before the break. The visitors scored 1-1 soon after the restart to lead by eight as despite Sean O’Sullivan scoring a further, Gneeveguilla managed to see themselves through to a 1-17 to 1-11 win. Renard won a high scoring affair with Ballylongford meanwhile as no less than seven goals were scored by either side. Four of them were for the South Kerry side crucially as Kevin Kelly, Brian Curran and Mark Sugrue helped them to an interval lead of 3-6 to 2-5. Sugrue added a fourth in the second period to give them enough of a cushion to run out 4-10 to 3-8 victors.
The other game played saw Firies recover from their opening day loss to St Michaels/Foilmore with almost a double score victory over Beale in Farranfore at 4-13 to 2-7. The visitors tested Firies early on with high ball but Colm O’Shea scored 1-4 in the first period and Mike Daly punished a poor Beale kick-out in giving them a 2-5 to 0-4 advantage fter nearly 20 minutes. James McMahon was working hard for Beale though and was the provider to Shane Joy for a goal that kept Beale in it at the break in trailing by 2-7 to 1-5. The visitors had to wait 12 minutes for their first second-half score from Cormac Linnane however as they lost Ian Mannix to a straight red card two minutes earlier.
Diarmuid Brosnan was also black carded for the hosts but further goals from Jake Flynn and Conal Murphy helped them to a 12 point victory, Darragh Buckley scoring a consolation penalty for the visitors with seven minutes left. Firies are at home again to Ballylongford in their next game while Beale host Skellig Rangers.
The two leaders have home advantage with St Michaels/Foilmore hosting Cordal and Tarbert entertaining Castlegregory. Cromane travel to Fossa with Gneeveguilla at home to Renard.