Three minutes of action in the second half killed off Saint Colman’s dreams of making it into the Hogan Cup final in Ennis on Saturday. The South Mayo side had just shown remarkable courage to come back into the game after conceding a goal just after the restart to Mark O’Shea to leave them trailing by four points. But they battled back and hit four points on the run, with Evan Ronane kicking three wonders from range and Brian Quinn landing another to leave the game level at 1-8 each.
But the contest swung away from them when David Shaw hit a weak shot for goal that took a deflection off a Colman’s defender and went in under Brian McGuinness’ body. Three minutes later a great ball from Billy Courtney picked out Mark O’Shea who fed it back across the face of the goal into the path of Shaw who punched the ball to the net and put his side 3-8 to 1-8 in front and heading for home.
Colman’s put their heart into getting back into the game, but it just wasn’t to be against a classy St Brendan’s side who had seven of last years Hogan Cup winning team in their ranks for this game and eight Kerry minors. St Brendan’s kicked the next five points of the game to extend their lead with Colman’s solitary response a Ronane free to leave the Kerry side ahead 3-13 to 1-9 with five minutes to go. The final say on the scoreboard was left to the Claremorris lads who hit the final two points of the day with Cillian Golding and Stephen McGreal kicking a point each.
The first half couldn’t have started any better for St Colman’s as they strode into an early three point lead, with Jack Roynane opening the scoring three minutes in with a long range effort into the teeth of the wind. James Jennings doubled their advantage two minutes later after some fine play by Diskin and then Cillian Golding to set up the Mayo Gaels man. Roynane put three between the sides with lovely point from out on the right on eight minutes, which was greeted with huge approval by the large travelling crowd from south Mayo.
That score kicked the Sem’ into life and they reeled off five points on the bounce over the net eight minutes, some of them as fine as a score you’re likely to see anywhere, between now and September, David Shaw, Donnach O’Sullivan (2 ), Mark O’Shea and Cian Gammell all found their range in that burst.
Nine minutes from the break, Colman’s hit the back of the net through Diskin, he followed in an effort by Brian Quinn which dropped short and punched the ball to the net from close range, edging his side back in front again. The Kerry men rallied strongly and points from O’Sullivan, Shaw and a 45’ from Billy Courtney had them two clear, but a late Jack Roynane point left the score 1-4 to 0-8 at the short whistle.
Scores
St Colman’s: E Ronane (0-4, 1f ), C Diskin (1-0 ) J Roynane (0-3 ), B Quinn (0-1 ), C Golding (0-1 ), S McGreal (0-1 ), J Jennings (0-1 )
St Brendan’s: D Shaw (2-2 ), M O’Shea (1-1 ), D O’Sullivan (0-3 ), N Donoghue (0-2 ), D Moynihan (0-2 ), C Flynn (0-1 ), B Courtney (0-1, 1- 45 ), C Gammell (0-1 )
St Colman’s: B McGuiness; K Fahey, K Lydon, B Hughes; D Gannon, P Barry, B Quinn; C Diskin, C Golding; S McGreal, J Ronayne, E Hession; J Jennings, L Og Horkan, E Ronane. Subs: D Trench for P Barry, T Morris for B Quinn, F Regan for B Hughes
St Brendan’s: R Osborne; L McMonagle, C O’Donoghue, S O’Leary; J Griffin, M Potts, N Donohue; B Courtney, C Gammell; D Moynihan, D O’Sullivan, B Kean; D Shaw, M O’Shea, C Flynn. Subs: M Devlin for M O’Shea, E Cosgrove for N Donoghue, B Slattery for L McMonagle, J Flynn for M O’Shea
