St Brendans Killarney 2-20 Tralee CBS 0-11
Defending champions St Brendan’s Killarney flexed their muscles in the second half of this absorbing Munster Colleges SFC final at Austin Stacks Park when they blew Tralee CBS away with a devastating second half performance to claim a 22nd provincial title.
In truth, Killarney’s big guns really came to the party in the second period with Billy Courtney awesome in the middle and it was his goal scored after a neat one-two with Donnchadh O’Sullivan in the 36th minute that killed off the brave Tralee CBS challenge.
AFL trialist David Shaw also gave an exhibition of score-taking firing over four points and scoring the Sem’s second goal in the 44th minute which ended the game as a contest.
In fact the entire St Brendan’s forward line carried too much potency for a Tralee CBS defence which not surprisingly tired in the second half due to their trilogy over the past three weeks with Colaiste Chriost Ri.
In fact, Tralee CBS matched their more vaunted opponents in the opening half with their inside line of Daire Keane, Gearoid Fitzgerald and Michael Kelliher troubling the St Brendan’s full-back line.
It took until the 15th minute for St Brendan’s to edge 0-4 to 0-3 in front, thanks to the free-taking of Kelliher and points from Tom Hoare, Daire Keane and excellent midfielder Tomas O’Connor meant Tralee CBS trailed 0-8 to 0-6 at the break.
However, after points from Kieran O’Dwyer and Michael Kelliher were matched by a Billy Courtney free and a fine effort from wingback Jack Griffin, the game changed in the Sem’s favour as their attack cut loose.
Once Courtney, who had also made three superb blocks at the other end, buried the Tralee net the writing was on the wall as the Sem served warning that they will make a bold bid to retain their Hogan Cup.
Donnchadh O’Sullivan with 0-7 was another player to shine but in truth St Brendan’s is a clinical footballing unit and Tralee did well to stay with them for so long.
ST BRENDAN'S: R Osborne; L McMonagle , C O'Donoghue, S O'Leary; N Donoghue (0-1), M Potts, J Griffin (0-2); B Courtney (1-1 1f), C Gammell; D Moynihan (0-1), D O'Sullivan (0-7 4f), B Keane (0-1); D Shaw (1-4), M O'Shea (0-2), C Flynn;
Subs: Michael Devlin (Killarney Legion) for Keane and Mark Harnett (Dr Crokes) for Flynn (both 44), Evan Cosgrave (Firies) for Donohoe (53), Mark Fitzgerald (Dr Crokes) for Griffin, Niall McCarthy (Spa) for O’Shea (57) and Diarmuid Brosnan (Firies) for McMonagle (58)
TRALEE CBS: S Foley: B Patterson, T Lynch, J Myers; J Walsh, K Dwyer (0-1), N O'Mahony (0-1); J O'Connor, T O'Connor (0-2); S Donnellan, T Hoare (0-1), M Scanlon; D Keane (0-1), G Fitzgerald, M Kelliher (0-4 3f).
Subs: Sean Quilter (Austin Stacks) (0-1) for Donnellan (41), Aaron Roche (Kerins O’Rahillys) for Scanlon (51), David Fitzmaurice (Austin Stacks) for Kelliher (54), Eoin Greaney (St Pats/Blennerville) for Joe O’Connor (57) and Sean Hamilton (Churchill) for Hoare (59)
Referee: E Walsh (Rathmore).
