No problem for St Brendan’s to cross Shannon Rangers and into quarter-finals
THE final scoreline provides a fairly true reflection of a contest which was a foregone conclusion from an early stage in this County Senior Football Championship Round 3 clash in the Austin Stack Park last Saturday.
Going into the game St Brendans would have been the more fancied side to progress, but, one expected a strong challenge from Shannon Rangers, given that, they had travelled to Templenoe and eleminated Kenmare District in round two one week ago. The absence of such as Jack Goulding, Jack Kennelly and Jack O’Sullivan obviously lessened their chances somewhat, but such was the gulf between the sides in mostly all facets of play that, even with a full complement of players available the North Kerry side would always have struggled to compete on equal terms.
The tone was set from a very early stage in proceedings with St Brendans scoring a goal in the very first minute, after Ivan Parker set up James Duggan for an easy finish from close range. Briefly Paul Kennelly showed early signs of his ability to make an impact at the other end, but, it was St Brendans who were dictating matters with relative ease exploiting gaps in the Shannon Rangers defence with runners in support coming from deep positions not being tracked at times, which allowed them to build up a commanding lead 2-3 0-1 by the tenth minute with dual player Brandon Barrett netting their second goal.
A response from Shannon Rangers which yielded successive points left them adrift by those two goals 2-3 to 0-3 by the end of the opening quarter, but with Diarmuid O’Connor imposing his presence on proceedings, and, scoring two points St Brendans reastablished a 2-6 to 0-4 lead by the 23rd minute. Certainly, there was no lack of effort on the part of Shannon Rangers, but, St Brendans were operating in a higher gear, and, by the half time break, nine different scorers, including the goalkeeper, along with all of the six attackers had featured on the scoresheet to leave them comfortably in front 2-11 0-5 at the interval.
Restarting without Jason Foley made the task facing Shannon Rangers doubly difficult, but, displaying a lot of composure, and, combining quite effectively they kicked successive points. Momentarily it offered some hope, maybe of a revival, but, it was short lived, as St Brendans responded to assume complete control, and, reastablish a firm grip overall in all sectors of the pitch. Within a five minute spell they had consolidated their situation even further to lead by all of sixteen points, 3-14 to 0-7, by the 40th minute with their third goal having been converted by Jack Barry after he intercepted a short kick out, and finished neatly with a low left footed drive.
Thereafter, the encounter drifted to its enevitable conclusion as both sides took the opportunity to introduce a number of substitutes. The gap was stretched to nineteen points 3-17 0-7 by the end of the third quarter, and while Paul Kennelly continued to be quite industrious and resourceful in attack for Shannon Rangers the encounter had ceased to be a contest with time and space being afforded to St Brendans to rather effortlessly add to their spiralling scoring tally. James Duggan, under very little pressure, scored his second goal in the 48th minute, and with the encounter drifting to its enevitable conclusion Gerald O’Sullivan, one of Shannon Rangers better performers, netted a consolation goal in the 57th minute. It concluded a contest which offered very little in terms of entertainment or excitement for those in attendance, and, fell far short of what one anticipates, even expects, in the premier football competition in the county. With Feale Rangers having already been eliminated in the preliminary round it once again, puts the spotlight on North Kerry in terms of the football well being in the district.
Only those within the confines of the camp will be aware of the situation - and maybe have the solution - but looking at it from the outside there seems to be a lack of adequate preparation, while the unavailability of some players, for whatever reasons, who would provide a lot more strength in depth to their squad seems to be a recurring theme down the years.
On occasion Shannon Rangers have offered some hope maybe of being championship contenders again, and they were semi finalists in 2014, but this particular performance and result will reignite the debate in terms of the championship structure currently in place, with the situation regarding the Kenmare District combination in next year’s competition being another item on that agenda.
St Brendans, meanwhile, look forward to their participation in the quarter-finals of the competition, and they have shown enough in the earlier rounds to suggest that, they can provide formidable opposition at that particular juncture. However, they will have learned very little from this encounter, and while the scoring statistics might be a source of confidence for them, this contest didn’t in any way test or measure their championship credentials.
ST BRENDANS: Eoin O’Brien 0-3 (2f, 1 ‘45’) (Churchill), Thomas Kearns (John Mitchels), Kieran O’Dwyer (St Pats), Trevor Wallace (Ardfert), Fergal Barry (Na Gaeil), Andrew Barry (Na Gaeil), Patrick Kearney 0-1 (John Mitchels), Jack Barry 1-0 (Na Gaeil), Diarmuid O’Connor 0-3 (Na Gaeil), James Duggan 2-3 (0-1f) (John Mitchels), David Griffin 0-2 (Ardfert), Brandon Barrett 1-1 (Ardfert), David O’Callaghan 0-2 (St Pats), Niall Sheehy 0-2 (1f) (John Mitchels), Ivan Parker 0-3 (Churchill). Subs: Brendan Poff (St Pats) for T Kearns, Cillian Fitzgerald 0-1 (Churchill) for N Sheehy, Shane O’Connor 0-1 (John Mitchels) for P Kearney, Paul McMahon (St Pats) for D O’Connor, Jack O’Connell (Churchill) for J Barry, Eoin McElligott (Ardfert) for D Griffin
SHANNON RANGERS: Darragh O’Se (Ballydonoghue), Danny Wrenn (Tarbert), Jason Foley (Ballydonoghue), Tadgh McEllistrim (Ballylongford), Shane Enright 0-2 (Tarbert), Michael Foley (Ballydonoghue), Ian Mannix (Beale), Jeremy King (Beale), Mark Buckley (Tarbert), Cormac Linnane (Beale), Brian O’Seanachain (Ballydonoghue), Gerald O’Sullivan
1-2 (Tarbert), Paul Kennelly 0-5 (3f) (Ballydonoghue), Darragh Keane 0-1 (Asdee), Ger Gorman 0-1f (Beale). Subs: Danny Power (Ballydonoghue) for J Foley, Michael Heaphy (Tarbert) for C Linnane, Philip Lucid 0-1 (Ballyduff) for I Mannix, Martin Collins (Asdee) for D Wrenn.
REFEREE: Edmund Walsh (Rathmore)