Austin Stacks 2-9
St Brendans 1-12
(After Extra Time, Stacks win 5-3 on penalties)
Paul Brennan at Austin Stack Park, Tralee
HIGH DRAMA IN the Kerry county senior football championship this evening as Kieran Donaghy – who else? – kicked the winning penalty of a shoot-out as Austin Stacks booked a place in their first final since 2014 – and denied St Brendans their first since 1992 – after extra-time.
Stacks won the penalty shoot-out by five goals to three, with Ivan Parker – who was so much St Brendans’ hero in the match – missing his team’s first penalty, which ultimately cost the divisional team a place against either Dr Crokes or Kerins O’Rahillys in the final.
It was Parker’s goal deep in extra-time that looked as if it would send the Saints to the final, but Sean Quilter nailed an even later free to draw the game, and might have won it with the last kick only for his free to go wide off the post.
Austin Stacks are through to their first Kerry SFC Final since 2014 after a penalty shootout win! 👀🔥 #TheToughest pic.twitter.com/LxLlSW1Vse
— AIB_GAA (@AIB_GAA) November 20, 2021
And so to penalties where Quilter scored the first, only for Parker to have his effort smartly saved by Wayne Guthrie. Adam Curran, Michael O’Donnell and Michael O’Gara all then beat Eoghan O’Brien from the spot before Donaghy placed his penalty to O’Brien right, sending the delirious Stacks supporters spilling on to the field.
The first three quarters of regulation play was mediocre stuff, with the teams evenly sharing just six points in the first half.
St Brendans had crept into a 0-6 to 0-5 lead by the second water break but all the drama only kicked off in the 56th minute when O’Donnell flicked Darragh O’Brien’s free kick on to the post with the ball coming back onto the goalkeeper’s back and then over the line to make it 1-6 to 0-6 in Stacks’ favour.
Points from Parker – his third at that stage – Dan Goggin and Brien, a 69th minute ‘45’ – sent the game to extra-time, and when Quilter’s effort for a point floated in over O’Brien’s head at the end of the first period of extra-time, Stacks looked home and through leading 2-8 to 0-10.
The club side were still ahead, 2-8 to 0-12, when Parker then struck for what looked a winning St Brendans goal, but that, as it turns out, was only the start of the drama.
Scorers
Austin Stacks: D O’Brien 0-6 (3f), S Quilter 1-2 (0-1m, 0-1f), M O’Donnell 1-0, B O’Sullivan 0-1
St Brendans: I Parker 1-5 (0-1f), E O’Brien (45), S Okunbor, A Barry, D Goggin, J Duggan (f), D O’Callaghan, T Kearns 0-1 each
Austin Stacks
1. Wayne Guthrie
2. Colin Griffin
3. Dylan Casey
4. Jack O’Shea
5. Paul O’Sullivan
6. Conor Jordan
7. Ronan Shanahan
8. Joseph O’Connor
9. Greg Horan
10. Michael O’Gara
11. Shane O’Callaghan
12. Fiachna Mangan
13. Brendan O’Sullivan
14. Kieran Donaghy
15. Darragh O’Brien
Subs:
17. Armin Heinrich for R Shanahan (ht)
18. Michael O’Donnell for M O’Gara (43)
19. Sean Quilter for S O’Callaghan (48)
20. Barry Shanahan for F Mangan (54)
21. Adam Curran for P O’Sullivan (55)
10. Michael O’Gara for G Horan (et, 61)
25. Barry Walsh for J O’Shea (et, 65)
28. Niall Fitzmaurice for C Griffin (et, ht)
22. Donagh McMahon for D O’Brien (et, 76)
St Brendans
1. Eoghan O’Brien (Churchill)
2. Enda O’Connor (Na Gaeil)
3. Trevor Wallace (Ardfert)
4. Damien Bourke (Na Gaeil)
5. Fergal Barry (Na Gaeil)
6. Andrew Barry (Na Gaeil)
28. Stefan Okunbor (Na Gaeil)
8. Jack Barry (Na Gaeil)
9. Diarmuid O’Connor (Na Gaeil)
10. Liam O’Donnell (Churchill)
11. Daithi Griffin (Ardfert)
26. Fionan Mackessy (Ardfert)
13. Dan Goggin (Na Gaeil)
14. Alan O’Donoghue (John Mitchels)
15. James Duggan (John Mitchels)
Subs:
23. Ivan Parker (Churchill) for A O’Donoghue (28, blood)
12. Joe Lenihan (Churchill) for D O’Connor (31, blood)
27. David O’Callaghan (St Pats) for L O’Donnell (50)
20. Mikey Kelliher (John Mitchels) for J Duggan (50)
17. Kieran Dwyer (St Pats) for T Wallace (61)
7. Thomas Kearns (John Mitchels) for F Barry (62)
22. Tomas Ó hAiniféin (Na Gaeil) for D Griffin (66)
18. Michael Walsh (John Mitchels) for D Goggin (et, 66)
30. Eric Leen (Ardfert) for E O’Connor (et, 75)
Referee: Eddie Walsh (Rathmore)
What has gone wrong with Athletes in Ireland. It must be our worst ever Olympics. The Irish records for field events like the shot put dates back to the 1980′s. Yes we can’t get thousands of women out jogging and mini marathons. There is no one moving into the sport. The men are no better. We have one last hope Robert Hefferen in the 50 k walk. Best of luck to him.
The banks. It’s the bankseses’ fault.
And Enda Kenny.
Any person who makes it to the Olympics is as a result of huge dedication sacrifice hard work so we should be very very proud of each and everyone of them. Well done you all especially our own
It’s one of our best Olympics!
Not in athletics it wasn’t. They were an embarrassment.
Thankfully our boxers’ successes overshadowed our embarrassing results in athletics.
Track and field in Ireland is just a disaster. One flop after another these games, very few PBs or SBs from our athletes compared to other nations where there athletes are peaking at the right time.
the boxers win because they are hungry…some of the other athletes come from privileged backgrounds