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GAA: Mary's cut off Islanders: Thirteen point win for Saints over Valentia
St Mary’s 1-15, Valentia 0-5
THE SEASON just gets better and better for St Mary s. The South Kerry side already have the County Intermediate Football title in the bag and are looking forward to the prospect of competing in Division One of the county league.
After last Sunday, they are now only 6-0minutes away from picking up the South Kerry Senior Football Championship trophy, when they cruised into final last Sunday in Waterville.
Valentia were the surprise package last year as they lifted their first title in over five years, but last Sunday defending their title was always going to be difficult against a side like St Mary s that have so many players in their ranks capable of turning a game.
In the end it was a none-event as the town side ran out easy winners cantering home by 13 points. In fairness Mary s have always racked up a large score in all their games this year and last Sunday was no different, as they simply possessed far too much power and pace for an overpowered Valentia side.
The Islanders will be disappointed with this result, as they have been preparing to defend their South Kerry title for a long time. They got promoted in the county league and were very unlucky to lose out in the semi-final of the County Intermediate championship when they were beaten in extra time by Ballymac.
Flurry
Last Sunday they were up against it from the off as St Mary s registered a flurry of points in the opening quarter, while Valentia could only muster one score in that time.
The Islanders hadn t played a competitive game in over six weeks and really their rustiness showed on the day with only John Shanahan and Declan Lynch raising a gallop throughout the match.
Maurice Fitzgerald played superbly for the town side and it was obvious that a lot of people turned out to see Fitzgerald and his team mates as the game was delayed fifteen minutes due to the big crowd attending the game.
Fitzgerald at midfield played very well over the hour, linking up with his defence and spraying passes to his forwards with his usual deadly accuracy. His passing was pivotal to the St Mary’s win as he supplied the inside forward line with quality ball throughout the game.
The winners defence was always in control of the Valentia attack with Stephen Curran, Sean Golden and especially the dashing wing-back John Allen O’Sullivan outstanding.
Valentia struggled in most areas of the field and indeed only John Shanahan and Declan Lynch looked like getting the scores in their attack, and in fairness as mentioned already, it was very evident in their play that they had gone six weeks without a game.
Speedy
The Mary’s attackers always looked threatening with the speedy Bernard O’Connor, Sean Quirke and Ray Keane always willing to run at the losers backs and a final tally of 1-15 tells its own story.
The winners raced into a six points to one lead after just 20 minutes with Bernard O’Connor getting the ball rolling from a free inside the first few minutes.
He repeated the trick in the fifth minute when he swapped passes with Ray Keane and drilled the ball over the bar. Niall O’Driscoll, Ray Keane, Maurice Fitzgerald and the rangy John Quirke kept the umpire busy in the next ten minutes and even at this early stage it was obvious that the Islanders were in trouble.
John Shanahan eventually settled Valentia’s nerves on the quarter hour mark from a dead ball, after Declan Lynch was fouled. It was Lynch who fired over their sole score from play in the first half and that didn’t come until one minute before the break – when in the 29th minute had their only score from play a minute before half time.
Maurice Fitzgerald continued to set up his team-mates for a number of scores and Valentia were glad to hear the half time whistle as they got the chance to re-group and launch an sustained attack on the St Mary’s goal in the second half, as the town side led 0-7 to 0-2 at the break.
However the second half proved no different as Mary’s turned the screw and Valentia had no answer to their power packed display. But it might have been a lot different had John Shanahan goaled five minutes after the restart. Shanahan cut right into the square from the right wing on a great solo but blasted over the bar with only the keeper to beat. If this strike had gone in it could have changed the flow of the game, but as it happened it was their final chance of staying with the town side and with 15 minutes left Mary’s grabbed the only goal of the game.
Maurice Fitzgerald set up Bernard O’Connor and he in turn transferred to John Quirke and the Mary’s man blasted to the net from 21 yards to finish the contest. It was now 1-10 to 0-4 and as both sides went through the motions in the final ten minutes Mary’s added on another five points to Valentia’s one.
So St Mary’s will now face Sneem in the final and they will know that it will take a huge effort if they are to finish off the year with three trophies in their cabinet. The final is fixed for December 2nd.
Teams and Scorers:
St Mary’s: Seamus Fitzgerald, Gearoid Driscoll, Stephen Curran, Sean Golden, Sean Allen O’Sullivan (0-1), Liam Corcoran, Mark O’Shea, Maurice Fitzgerald (0-2), Donie Constable (0-1), Austin Constable (0-1), Ray Keane (0-2), John Quirke (1-2), Daniel O’Sullivan (0-1), Bernard O’Connor (0- 3), Niall Driscoll (0-1).
Subs: Js Fitzgerald for Dodie Constable, Pa O’Connell (0-1) for Daniel O’Sullivan and Aidan O’Sullivan for Gearoid O’Driscoll.
Valentia: Pat O’Sullivan, Raymond Lyne, Patrick O’Connor, Stephen O’Connor, Junior Murphy, Mark O’Sullivan, Brian Murphy, Finán Murphy, Barry Lynch (0- 2), Barry Murphy, Declan Lynch, John Shanahan (0-3), Richard Quigley, Paul Curran, Brian Connor.
Subs: Brian O’Sullivan for Brian O’Connor, Seamus O’Connor for Barry Murphy, John Daly for Mark O’Sullivan, Jer O’Shea for Barry Lynch and Sean Falvey for Junior Murphy.
Referee: Maurice O’Sullivan (Ballyheigue)
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