Friday 23rd May 2003 Final North Kerry League Kilmoyley 1-11 Abbeydorney 0-6 For long periods in this game it looked as though a new name would be going on the Sonny Harris cup for Kilmoyley wasted chance after chance to keep Abbeydorney in the game. But in the end, Kilmoyley finished the stronger to end up winners. Despit missing Shane and Billy Brick up front, the Kilmoyley forwards did create plenty of scoring opportunities, and at the back Kilmoyley looked solid with James McCarthy slotting in well at full back and despite missing Padraig Regan and Paul McCarthy. Kilmoyley played with a strong breeze in the first half and got off to a perfect start when centre back Sean Fitzgerald pointed from his own '65. But Kilmoyley were slow to settle and gave away numerous frees to give Abbeydorney some scoring opportunities. The lack of training was showing at this stage and Abbeydorney must have been happy to be only two points to one down after fifteen minutes. Micheal Regan missed two goal chances at this stage and Christy Walsh was getting nothing easy from Tom O'Connell at full forward. Maurice Murnane added a couple of frees and Ollie Diggins and Darren Young had one point each to leave the halftime score Kilmoyley 0-6 Abbeydorney 0-2. Kilmoyley were now under real pressure Abbeydorney who had a significant breeze to their backs. Kilmoyley's level of play didn't improve either with many players being beaten by their opponents around the field. Within ten minutes O'Dorney had two more points on the board to narrow the gap to two, and they now looked favourites to win. But they failed to press home their advantage and they didn't score again for another twenty minutes, shooting some bad wides. Colin Harris moved to midfield for the last quarter and he made a number of clearances to ease the pressure off the defence. Maurice Murnane pointed two frees to stretch the lead again and then Kilmoyley had a goal disallowed with ten minutes to go when Christy Walsh was deemed to be in the square after Micheal Regan brought out a good save from Greg Fealey. But Christy was on hand three minutes later to tap the ball into the back of the net (although this time it did look like square ball). At the other end of the field, Kilmoyley were fortunate when an overhead effort hit the crossbar, and James McCarthy saw a 21 yard free come off his shin bone. Referee Mike Hennessy seemed to be trying to make the match a bit more interesting with the number of frees against Kilmoyley, some of the decisions were mind boggling. Abbeydorney only added two more frees and Maurice Murnane scored a glorious point from way out to finish Kilmoyley's scoring. In the end Kilmoyley's final fifteen minutes play earned them the victory, but the fact that they didn't perform at all well for three quarters of the game will be a worry. But they start some serious training the skill and fitness levels should improve significantly. Padraig Sullivan was taken off after receiving a nasty blow to his hand, so hopefully he will be fit to play soon. With four more players to come back onto the team Kilmoyley certainly have some strength in depth and with young players like Brendan Harris and Tom Murnane putting in good performances, the pressure is on everyone else to play well just to keep their place on the team. So a great start to the year with both Intermediates and Seniors winning the North Kerry League titles. But hopefully, there are bigger prizes to come.
The first round of this year's NK League was played in ideal conditions at Crotta last Saturday evening before a large crowd. Neither side was allowed play its county players who were in action the following day against Antrim. Kilmoyley were still expected to emerge as winners, but it was Crotta who led by 1-1 to 0-1 after five minutes due mainly to Kilmoyley's inability to clear their lines. But once their midfield got on top of things Kilmoyley slowly applied the pressure and had eight points scored by half time. Ollie Digggins was replaced by Seamus Regan due to an injury. Kilmoyley now faced a breeze in the second half but they continued to dominate matters, thanks mainly to Sean Fitzgerald and Eoin Sheehy. Sheehy scored four points, Padraig O'Sullivan three and Brendan Lawlor three. Kilmoyley introduced a number of substitues late on, but in the end they ran out easy winners despite a shakey start. Good to see Joe Murnane back in a Kilmoyley jersey.
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Kilmoyley Team Joe Walsh, Brendan Harris, James McCarthy, Ian Brick, Tom Murnane, Sean Fitzgerald (0-1), Sean Griffin, Richard Gentleman, Darren Young (0-1), Maurice Murnane (0-6), Ollie Diggins (0-1), Colin Harris, Padraig O'Sullivan, Christy Walsh (1-1), Micheal Regan (0-1). subs Sean Young for P. O'Sullivan 50 mins
Kilmoyley Team Joe Walsh, Pat Deenihan, Padraig Regan, Brendan Harris, Tom Murnane, Sean Fitzgerald, Sean Griffin, Darren Young, Richard Gentleman, Ollie Diggins, Eoin Sheehy, Colin Harris, Padraig O'Sullivan, Micheal Regan, Brenda Lawlor subs. Seamus Regan, Joe Murnane, Tommy Gentleman, Mike Collins, Gerald Carroll.
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