GAA: It Sneem's good for St Mary's 

St Mary’s 0-9, Sneem 0-6
THE Jack Murphy trophy will reside in Caherciveen for the next year, and there will be no one more welcome than the visitor who has not been around since 1995. 
Sneem came to town with fears that the Con Keating Park would give the Mary s an unfair advantage, whatever the merits of that theory, there was no doubting that the Caherciveen men had decided to be resolute to the end. 
Their three-point victory in many ways belied the strength that underpinned this truly solid performance. Sneem s late forays forward possessed real danger, but this was a day when a stylist as well known as Maurice Fitzgerald, moved to the half back line in the second half, was busy dismantling the threat posed by the opposition. 

"We had about a 120 training sessions in the ground Over the Water. It was often wet and mucky but it s all worth it now. This is the one that s always in the back of your head, its game you always want to win," explained St Mary s trainer, Jer D O Sullivan 
All that rain and muck was in many ways the perfect dry run for Sunday s game, when the rain sweeping up the Fertha from Valentia Harbour, made conditions woeful-ly imperfect. 
The start was furious with frees coming aplenty within the first few seconds. Then before the opening minute had closed St Mary s captain Mark O Shea came forward with gusto and his incisive pass found Austin Constable. 
And the player who went on to win the man of the match award made no mistake and put over a fine point. 
Brendan Galvin then went close for Sneem, but even at this early juncture the 
Mary s were beginning to assert their authority at mid-field. 
This advantage was doubled in the eight minute when Maurice Fitzgerald sent over a free, having missed one from a similar position two minutes earlier. 
Wet conditions favour very few, and Sunday s weather menu was never going to get thumbs up from the nimble Mary s forwards, who powered their way to the summit of the intermediate championship when summer was in the air. 
Reflected 
"It really didn t suit us, we re a light forward line and we d prefer the dry day," Ray Keane reflected afterwards. 
But the hunger of the Mary s, which resulted in nearly all the team getting to the ball those few vital micro seconds before their opponents, saw them dominate the middle period of the opening half. 
John Alan O Sullivan was immense during this phase, and he made three menacing runs from his berth in the half back line. Indeed he could have crowned one of these searing runs with a goal after he fired a shot just wide in the 10th minute. 
These forward surges, combined with some intelligent distribution by midfielder John Quirke, resulted in Daniel O Sullivan scoring a brace of well-taken points. Both scorers coming with a minute of each other following some neat interplay between O Sullivan, Quirke, Keane and John Alan. 
Ray Keane, himself, also scored during this period of dominance to put the Mary s five points to the good. 
Sneem s problems at mid-field resulted in the selectors deploying a number of forwards to the middle of the park in an effort to win some possession. For long periods this strategy allowed the Mary s defenders to mop up and clear the ball with ease. 
But, the first half did close on a high point for Sneem when Kieran Burns put a free over from an acute angle to open their account in the 26th minute. Buoyed by this Sneem moved forward with purpose again one minute later and another point from Burns boot one left his side trailing five points to two at the interval. 
Sneem looked more potent after the restart and Maurice Fitzgerald was moved to the half back line in an effort to stem the resurgence. 
The Mary s title hopes were boosted by a fine second performance from Austin Constable, who took over the free taking from Fitzgerald, and he put two further scores on the board inside the first six minutes of the half. The first of these came from a free in the second minute and that neat link up play was in evidence again when he latched on to a ball twenty yards from goal before sending it over the bar with aplomb. 
Sneem were unwilling to face the prospect of losing their second successive South Kerry final and they were brought back in to the game when Kieran Burns converted a free after Leonard Burns was fouled about thirty yards from goal. 
Effort And Burns should have reduced the Mary’s advantage even further one minute later, but his effort went wide after Sean O’Sullivan had been impeded. 
But the never say die attitude of Sneem saw them stay within touching distance at all times, and when Don Riney scored on 16 minutes the gap was down to three points again. But Austin Constable then sent over another free from a tight angle to give his team some breathing space, as the clock ticked down on the Mary’s six year wait for the championship. 
This desire to end the waiting game has seen the Mary’s training intensively since January, and such was the intensity of the preparation that 13 panel members didn’t make it from spring to winter. Ray Keane probably summed it up most simply when he said; "we had to make up for two years ago when we slipped up against Waterville. 
"All the lads really were really committed to it this year. Hopefully they will all be back next year because this team has a lot more to win". 
The job of landing South Kerry’s football holy grail reached it toughest point for the Caherciveen team when they had to endure a nerve wracking final ten minutes with Sneem aiming to pierce a fatal hole in their rear guard. 
But some solid Mary’s defending from among others; Gearóid Driscoll, Maurice Fitzgerald and John Golden snuffed out a number of late goal mouth scrambles, as Sneem made a gallant attempt to secure an elusive equalising goal. Sean and Frank Hussey each got a point in the final six minutes, but sandwiched in between those scores was another Constable classic, which laid the final paving stone for his team’s elevation to South Kerry champions. 
Chances 
There were chances a plenty in the final moments, as Sneem floated a number of close in frees in to the danger zone, in a last ditch effort to find a way through Seamus Fitzgerald’s goal. But The Mary’s stood firm and saw off the challenge despite the pressure which was there to the finish. 
Mark O’Shea lifted the Jack Murphy memorial trophy to a chorus of resounding cheers from a set of supporters who had been waiting six years for this redemption day on their home turf. The Waterville team of 1976, which included Mark O’Shea’s father, Sean, was honoured at half time. 

Teams and Scorers: 

St Mary’s: Seamus Fitzgerald, Gearóid Driscoll, John Golden, Stephen Curran, John Alan O’Sullivan, Liam Corcoran, Mark O’Shea, Maurice Fitzgerald (0-1 free), John Quirke, Austin Constable (0-5 0-2 from frees), Ray Keane (0-1), Gearóid Constable, Daniel O’Sullivan (0-2), Bernard O’Connor, Niall O’Driscoll. 

Sneem: Mark Drummond, Donal O’Sullivan, Brendan Teahan, Gerald Sugrue, Frank O’Sullivan, Chris Drummond, Gary Hussey, Brendan Galvin, Sean Hussey (0-1), Ronan Hussey, Don Riney (0-1), Sean O'Sullivan, Leonard Burns, Kieran Burns (0-3, 2 from frees), Michael Galvin. 
Subs: Frank Hussey (0-1) for Ronan Hussey, David Drummond for Frank O’Sullivan. Mike Hussey for Don Riney. 

Referee: Muiris O’Sullivan (Ballyheigue