Dr Crokes 2-19
Kerins O’Rahilly’s 2-10
Paul Brennan reports from Austin Stack Park
DR CROKES’ TITLE defence remains on course after they eased into their third Kerry county final in a row on the back of a nine-point win over a Kerins O’Rahillys team that had beat them earlier in the Championship.
That surprise result in Round 2 added a little extra heat to this rematch with a few flashpoints breaking out in a game that wasn’t really decided until the game almost spilled into eight minutes of additional time at the end of the hour.
Dr Crokes were just a point to the good after 55 minutes before Jordan Kiely’s goal put the first bit of daylight between the teams since Gavin O’Brien’s goal for O’Rahillys after just 30 seconds. That Kiely goal was another damaging blow to the Tralee club who had lost Kerry panelist Jack Savage to a red card after 44 minutes, and Crokes smelled blood and went after it.
Brian Looney’s sending off in the 59th minute evened up the playing numbers for the last nine minutes but late points from Brosnan, Johnny Buckley and Kieran O’Leary, along with Kiely’s second goal fashioned by O’Leary, was enough for the champions to advance to the final with something to spare.
That O’Brien goal after just 30 seconds teed up a fascinating first half that saw the teams level, 0-6 to 1-3, after the first quarter. It looked as if Crokes would take a slim lead to the interval but O’Brien struck again for his second goal on the brink of the break to leave it honours even, 2-5 to 0-11, at half-time.
Colm Cooper came on at half-time but only lasted 15 minutes before being black carded just after Savage’s dismissal, at which stage the teams were still deadlocked, 0-14 to 2-8.
An injury to Kerry and Dr Crokes goalkeeper Shane Murphy punctuated the action for a while and when play resumed, Crokes hit O’Rahillys for 1-2 in a couple of minutes to open up a lead they wouldn’t lose again.
The county champions await the winner of next Sunday’s replay between East Kerry and Dingle, after they drew in the first semi-final earlier in the day.
Scorers for Dr Crokes: Tony Brosnan 0-6 (0-3f), Jordan Kiely 2-0, Kieran O’Leary 0-5, Johnny Buckley 0-2, Micheal Burns 0-2, David Shaw 0-2, Shane Murphy 0-1 ’45′, Brian Looney 0-1.
Scorers for Kerins O’Rahillys: Gavin O’Brien 2-1, Jack Savage 0-3f, Barry John Keane 0-2, David Moran 0-2 (1 ’45′), Karl Mullins 0-1, Tommy Walsh 0-1
Dr Crokes
1. Shane Murphy
2. John Payne
3. Michael Moloney
4. Fionn Fitzgerald
17. Shane Doolan
6. Alan O’Sullivan
7. Gavin White
8. Johnny Buckley
9. Daithi Casey
10. Micheal Burns
11. Gavin O’Shea
12. Brian Looney
25. David Shaw
14. Kieran O’Leary
15. Tony Brosnan
Subs:
13. Colm Cooper for D Shaw (HT)
20. Jordan Kiely for G O’Shea (44)
19. Michael Potts for C Cooper (b/c, 48)
16. Johnny O’Leary for S Murphy (51)
22. Eoin Brosnan for M Burns (63)
29. Billy Courtney for T Brosnan (67)
Kerins O’Rahillys
1. Gary Kissane
2. Cormac Coffey
24. Darragh McElligott
4. Danny O’Sullivan
5. Ross O’Callaghan
6. Shane Brosnan
7. Ryan Carroll
8. David Moran
9. Con Barrett
10. Gavin O’Brien
11. Barry John Keane
12. Karl Mullins
13. Jack Savage
14. Tommy Walsh
15. John Ferguson
Subs:
19. Tom Hoare for R Carroll (b/c, 8)
17. John C O’Connor for J Ferguson (55)
18. Gearoid Savage for D McElligott (61)
20. Padraig Griffin for G O’Brien (68)
Referee: Brendan Griffin (Clounmacon)
Subscribe to our new podcast, Heineken Rugby Weekly on The42, here:
I think it’s hilarious all the hating on Robbie on this. People seem to forget he’s the only player we have who can nick a goal. Granted we have more technical strikers but it’s all about scoring and Robbie is the only source we have
Have a lot more time for Robbie than Roy, yet some people still slag Robbie and rubbish his achievements with Ireland while at the same time worshiping at the altar of Roy. Never in a million years will another Irishman ever score 66 goals for his country, and deep down we all know that.
Robbie never let us down.
To be honest I think we will be just fine without Robbie keane
If we don’t play Darren in goal, Sol won’t be happy!!
Good article but I’d have to disagree that spurs have used 4-4-2 effectively.
McGeady & McLean or Walters. Its the one position we have a few options
Walters is chronic
Forde
Coleman – Clark – O’Shea – Wilson
McCarthy – Reid – Meyler
McGeady – Long – McClean
Would be a good shout.
Randolph
O’Shea Dunne Wilson
Coleman Brady
Mccarthy Meyler
Reid
Long Keane
Brady will not play again this season so you’ll have to find someone else!
personally I think our best 11 is
Given
Coleman-Dunne-O’Shea-Brady
McCarthy-Gibson
McGeady-Hoolahan-Pilkington
Long
brady left back?! given back in nets?
randolph
coleman – oshea – wilson – delaney
mccarthy – meyler
mcgeady – hoolahan – brady
long
would be a good team for tomorrow night – our best team; im not sure what it is – but what its not
@Brendan, Brady has played left wing back for Hull for the past 2 and a bit seasons and it would be a good balance with Coleman at lb, after all Wilson is right footed so Brady would provide more delivery’s. And why not Given?hes shown in the past couple of months hes still well capable of producing great performance. Im all for Forde but his distribution can be rubbish at times
Delaney is back at his club!
… so is Brady!
I disagree that Hoolihan could only be accommodated in a 4-5-1. He could play in a 4-4-3 or a 4-2-3-1 which given the players currently available to Ireland might be the way forward. There are a few players out tomorrow with injuries but going forward my first choice Irish 11 would be
Forde
Coleman, Dunne, O’Shea, Wilson
Gibson, McCarthy
McGeady, Reid or Hoolihan, Brady
Long
I think that Pilkington could do a job on either side of the 3 as could Walters at a push.
That was meant to be 4-3-3* of course :) tho maybe we could sneak an extra player in, who knows
agreed, best looking line-up there, for the near future at least anyway.
As the article suggested, having McCarthy and Gibson sit in front of the back 4 would be great to utilize one of our best attacking options – right-back Coleman. McCarthy too has been excellent in that sitting position for Everton
Need to start playing Clark, as the only decent centre back we have under 30, the more international gametime he get the better.
Think we’d be better concentrating on the players actually available tomorrow rather than playing pie-in-the-sky selections for the future.
Hopefully it’s the last we see of Paul Green
Long up Front alone is just madness, where on earth are the goals going to come from.
Good player as part of a duo, but terrible goal scoring record at every level…..forget qualifying for anything with him up front alone.
Lewandovski is miles ahead of him.
Yeah and he plays for Poland so we ‘re fooked there boss!
I would like to see use play with wing backs with 3 in the centre of the park and 3 in the centre of defence. Has been utilised to good effect by the like of Hull and Villa recently, particularly when taking on the bigger teams giving you stability at the back and a chance to pack the midfield (both places we have struggled recently).