The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
Memories to last a lifetime for Kerry sides at Féile
OVER the sweltering weekend, five Kerry sides embarked on a journey of a lifetime in the north east of the country for John West Féile Peile na nÓg 2018. Taking place in Louth, Meath and Down the clubs were greeted with overwhelming generosity and goodwill from each and every one of their host clubs.
Competing in the top division, Laune Rangers boys found themselves in an incredibly tough group where the three other teams went all the way to finals Sunday. Burren losing out in the Division 1 cup final and New York in the semi-final to winners O’Donovan Rossa from Derry.
Their hosts Clonduff were beaten in the shield final by a Claregalway side who pipped Rangers in the semi final with a stunning comeback.
Under the tutelage of Mike Frank Russell and Billy O’Sullivan the Killorglin youngsters played an open brand of football, easy on the eye and built up a large lead via impressive Darragh O’Grady and Eoghan Hassett in the half forward line while stout defending from Tim Mangan who couldn’t be faulted before the Down sides eventual comeback.
An beautiful, but unseen highlight of the weekend for the boys in blue was the way in which their mentors-in unison-quietened their own bench after they began to applaud an opposition player being black carded.
The club and entire county should be proud of that level of sportsmanship they are teaching to the next generation.
In the top Girls Division Southern Gaels scorched through their group in devastating fashion. Beating Skyrne and Claregalway before showing their hosts Walterstown no mercy en route to topping their group.
After edging Kilkenny city in the quarters Eugene Dennehy’s valiant side succumbed to a traditional Féile powerhouse Westport from Mayo in a heartbreaking semi-final exit.
Half-back Leanne O’Sullivan didn’t put a foot wrong all tournament, Midfielder Ellie O’Connell and full back Shonagh Fitzpatrick are ones to watch, while Cousins Aoife and Leah Dywer showed the pedigree of their uncle Maurice Fitzgerald in the scoring stakes also.
Legion boys and Fossa girls had the novelty of sharing hosts. With Mattock Rangers and Hunterstown Rovers boys hosting the boys and Hunterstown girls welcoming the girls.
Mentor Phillip Gammell praised his hosts no end: “We received a fantastic reception, Terry Donegan the Mattock chairman and the entire club rolled out the red carpet for us, even providing us water showed the level of thought they went to.”
It wasn’t just the H2O, but the entire village of Collon was covered in the green and white of the young Killarney side and showed that familiarity on the pitch topping the group mixing both aspects of the game to classy effect.
With a notably strong spine, Sam Benson and Matthew Horgan on both flanks came up trumps in a big win over Ardee St Marys and 2-8 to 2-5 triumph over St Laurence of Kildare.
They then proceeded to take care of their hosts on the Saturday morning before beating Dicksboro of Kilkenny to reach the Division 5 cup semi-final where they went to a strong Glencar-Manorhamilton side from Leitrim.
The Fossa girls fell at the quarter-final stage, but will take consolation that they lost out to the eventual winners of the Division 5 cup Moycarkey-Borris from Tipperary.
Louth sides Dreadnots and Hunterstown were accounted for in the group with St Gabriel’s pipping them to top place after a narrow 5-3 to 3-3 defeat. They can take pride in the way they played the game in a running up huge tallies and finding the net on 17 occasions in four games.
The final word goes to Cordal / Scartaglen boys who went all the way to the Division 8 Shield final losing out to Owenmore Gaels from Sligo.
The resilience the boys showed to get there in the first place was the most pleasing, after drawing the opening game with Drogheda side Oliver Plunketts expectations sunk and sunk even more when captain Trevor O’Sullivan was ruled out through injury in their defeat in the next match to a powerful Warwickshire team.
Saturday morning they put all the setbacks behind them and started a fresh and beat their hosts St. Kevin’s and fellow Louth side Roche Emmets to reach the semi-final on Sunday.
With a final at stake Rathkenny from Meath were duly cast aside with driving runs from Patrick Fitzgerald and Eoin O’Connor now cast in at full back shoring things up to a titanic 1-4 to 0-4 win. Owenmore did claim the shield on the day, but a special mention to the classy Ryan Dennehy who showed superb vision throughout the entire Féile weekend.
A glorious weekend each and every Kerry player, mentor, parent and supporter will never forget.