The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
Fab four: two top quality semi-finals this weekend
COUNTY SFC QUARTER-FINAL
East Kerry 1-23 Dingle 1-11
‘BE careful what you wish for’ was the main takeaway from this largely forgetable SFC quarter-final in Tralee on Saturday. Twelve months previous, the meeting of Dingle and East Kerry in a county semi-final replay threw up all kinds of thrills, spills and incidents that made more front pages than back pages. A year on the hope was that football, not fighting, would carry the day, and while both sides were on their best behaviour, and there was some excellent football played, as a contest and a spectacle this match never sprung to life.
Perhaps in their efforts to be on their best behaviour, both teams in particular Dingle - appeared to sacrifice a little too much of their natural hard edge, which diluted this eagerly anticipated match from a red-hot Championship rating to a lukewarm League one. That’s not to say that East Kerry weren’t excellent in much of what they did, nor that they weren’t impressive or deserving winners. On both counts they were just that.
Nor can Dingle be charged with being anything other than committed and determined and courageous in their pursuit of getting back into successive county finals, but on this occasion they ran into a better team against which they simply couldn’t muster enough scores to win.
Dingle can brook no argument with the result here: East Kerry’s 12-point win was as comprehensive on the pitch as it reads in print. Not for the first time - nor the last - a little piece of magic from David Clifford was, by and large, the highlight of an otherwise disappointing game that was broadcast live by RTE television.
Clifford found the net in the 16th minute with an audacious piece of skill to dummy solo the ball around Dingle goalkeeper Deividas Uosis and score to push the divisional side 1-5 to 0-2, after three early points from Darragh Roche (2f) and two from Ronan Buckley, as East Kerry bossed a slow-burning first quarter.
Dingle responded well to that goal with points from Conor Geaney and Tom O’Sullivan, and they would have fully cancelled out the goal within 90 seconds if Barry O’Sullivan’s point, which was initially awarded by the umpire, wasn’t cancelled after consultation between the referee and umpires.
Buckley and Paul Geaney exchanged scores, but Geaney’s inside threat was well curbed by Jack Sherwood who dropped back on his county colleague, while Conor Geaney was peripheral to the action for longers periods than Dingle would have wanted.
East Kerry continued to benefit from the fraternal telepathy of the Cliffords, while Roche was another valuable inside outlet for the divisional side.
East Kerry were full value for their 1-10 to 0-6 half time lead, and if Dingle were to have any chance of saving themselves they needed a really strong third quarter. It didn’t happen. Within six minutes of the restart East Kerry had outscored Dingle by six points to one with Roche (2), David Clifford (2), Liam Kearney and Evan Cronin raising the flags, and with that this quarter-final was stamped and mailed. Paul Devane scored Dingle’s consolation goal in the 50th minute, but it says much about Dingle’s disappointing performance that Devane - a half time substitute - finished as his team’s top scorer with that goal and a point. The Geaney cousins, Paul, Mikey and Conor, contributed 0-2 apiece for last year’s beaten county finalists. East Kerry were 1-19 to 0-19 clear when Devane’s neatly finished goal arrived for Dingle, but it was all elementary by then.
David Clifford could and should have another goal at the other end but Brendan Kelliher stopped his shot on the line after the Fossa club man had done all the hard work except for finishing the move.
No matter, East Kerry had their semi-final place secured, where they will play St Brendans.
EAST KERRY: James Devane (Spa), Chris O’Donoghue (Glenflesk), Jack Sherwood 0-1 (Firies), Niall Donohue (Firies), Dan O’Donoghue (Spa), Pa Warren (Gneeveguilla), Mike Foley (Spa), Liam Kearney 0-1 (Spa), Shane Cronin (Spa), Ronan Buckley 0-2 (Listry), Paudie Clifford 0-2 (Fossa), Brian O’Donoghue (Glenflesk), David Clifford (Fossa), Dara Roche 0-9 (4f) (Glenflesk), Evan Cronin 0-1 (Spa). Subs: Darren Brosnan (Gneeveguilla) for N Donohue (54), Padraig Doyle (Gneeveguilla) for B O’Donoghue (54), David Spillane 0-1 (Spa) for P Warren (56), Mike McCarthy (Spa) for M Foley (61), Shane Courtney (Glenflesk) for S Cronin (63), Eoin Fitzgerald (Spa) for P Clifford (63)
DINGLE: Deividas Uosis, Michael Boyle, Tomas Leo O’Sullivan, Tom O’Sullivan 0-1, Aidan O’Connor, Padraig O’Connor, Brendan Kelliher, Billy O’Connor, Barry O’Sullivan 0-2, Matthew Flaherty, Michael Geaney 0-2, George Durrant 0-1, Conor Geaney 0-2 (1f), Paul Geaney 0-2, Niall Geaney. Subs: Paul Devane 1-1 for N Geaney (ht), Eoin Murphy for B O’Connor (44), Michael Flannery for G Durrant (47), Tomas Sheehy for B Kelliher (55), Brian O’Connor for M Boyle (58), Michael Boland for Conor Geaney (63)
REFEREE: Seamus Mulvihill (St Senans)