Evan points the way for East Kerry

Evan Cronin: man-of-the-match

WITHOUT David Clifford, who has a niggling shoulder injury, East Kerry had far too much firepower for Dingle in the Kerry Under 21 Football Championship final in Austin Stack Park last night.

Even though their preparations for this decider were very limited, due to players’ club commitments, they triumphed on a 0-19 to 0-8 scoreline and, in Clifford’s absence, Spa’s Evan Cronin stepped up to the mark with a great display of point scoring that earned him the man-of-the-match award.

Dingle too had to line out without the services of their star player, Conor Geaney, and that didn’t help them against a very strong East Kerry side, finely tuned by Jeremiah O’Sullivan.

With the livewire Evan Cronin, David Spillane, Donnacha O’Sullivan from Firies and Spa’s Dara Moynihan excelling, East Kerry were 0-10 to 0-4 ahead at the break and they pulled clear on the restart with Cronin pointing the way.

East Kerry scorers: E Cronin 0-6; D O’Sullivan 0-4 (2 frees); C O’Donoghue 0-3; L O’Donoghue 0-3; D Moynihan 0-2; D Spillane 0-1.

East Kerry: C McCarthy (Legion), E Fitzgerald (Spa), C O’Donoghue (Glenflesk), D Doherty (Legion), S O’Leary (Kilcummin), C Gammell (Legion), N Donahue (Firies), F Murphy (Legion), M Ryan (Rathmore), D Moynihan (Spa), D O’Sullivan (Firies), E Cronin (Spa), D Spillane (Spa), L O’Donoghue (Glenflesk), P McCarthy (Legion).

Subs: D O’Brien (Glenflesk) for Spillane; M McCarthy (Spa) for O’Brien; J Nagle (Kilcummin) for P McCarthy; N McCarthy (Spa) for O’Sullivan; D O’Mahony (Firies) for N Donahue; L Brosnan (Firies) for Murphy.