FOR the first time in five years, the black and amber ribbons attached to the Bishop Moynihan Cup will not spark a night of wild celebrations in Killarney.
Austin Stacks are the newly crowned Kerry senior football champions and they take up the mantle of the Kingdom’s representatives in the Munster and All-Ireland club campaign which had been the private playground of Dr Crokes over the previous four seasons.
What will give cause to rejoice in Killarney and every other part of the county, however, is that one of the greatest and most popular Kerry footballers of modern times is virtually certain to be handed the honour of captaining his county next year.
Kieran Donaghy produced a great performance in this Sunday afternoon’s replay against Mid Kerry to ensure the Rockies got their hands on the cup for the first time in 20 long years.
He sparked what was a torturous afternoon for Mid Kerry when he pointed after just two minutes, flicked the ball to the net after six and he went on to pull all the strings for Stacks who coasted to a 2-13 to 1-7 victory in a manner that was so much easier than the scoreline suggests.
Frankly, this game was over as a contest even before half time and all that was left for an out-of-sorts Mid Kerry to do in the second half was attempt to salvage some pride from a disastrous showing in which too many players were not up to scratch.
Eight minutes after his opening goal, Donaghy was causing havoc again and he was hauled down for a penalty – an incident that led to Mid Kerry goalkeeper Mike Moriarty being black carded – with Pa McCarthy expertly finishing from the spot to put the Tralee side in cruise control.
The fact that Mid Kerry could only muster three points in the opening half – two from frees – underlines the dominance of a slick Stacks side for whom Shane O’Carroll (three), the impressive Shane O’Callaghan and Mikey Collins all found the range while Donaghy and McCarthy added points to their first half goals.
Try though they might, Mid Kerry’s big guns, Darran O’Sullivan, Donnchadh Walsh and Pa Kilkenny all struggled to make any impact and for much of the second half Stacks just concentrated on shutting up shop as Mid Kerry struggled enormously and looked bankrupt of ideas going forward.
Never-say-die Gavan O’Grady – who scored a late consolation goal – and impressive Kerry minor Liam Carey can be pleased with their performances but, overall, it was a day Mid Kerry will want to wipe from the memory bank as quickly as possible.
Donaghy covered an enormous amount of ground and was often found back on his own goal-line and the biggest cheer of the day was reserved for the man they call Star when the final whistle sounded.
Today he held the Bishop Moynihan cup high over his head. Let’s hope he has cause to do likewise with another famous canister next September.
- In the curtain-raiser there was no joy for Dr Crokes who lost to An Ghaeltacht in the Kerry Under 21 Club Championship final on a 0-11 to 2-10 scoreline.
- In the senior county championship relegation play-off at Lewis Road on Saturday Kilcummin had a 0-10 to 0-6 victory over Currow with Jamie O’Sullivan (0-3), Gary O’Leary (0-2), Brendan Kealy (0-1), Chris O’Leary (0-1), Shane McSweeney (0-1), Noel Duggan (0-1) and Tommy Brosnan (0-1) all finding the range.
