Connect with us

Sport

Crokes hurlers close to upsetting natural order

Published

4 years ago

on

David Carroll of Dr Crokes in action against Abbeydorney in the Kerry SHC.

Kerry SHC: Group 3

Dr Crokes v Crotta O’Neills

Friday at 7.30pm

Austin Stack Park

Dr Crokes came extremely close to causing an upset in their first ever Kerry Senior Hurling Championship fixture. Tonight, they’re hoping to go one step further.

Few gave the Crokes a chance against Abbeydorney last weekend but a spirited display saw the Lewis Road club give their more established black and amber counterparts a real scare. In the end, they fell just short by the narrowest of margins (0-17 to 0-16), but they will surely take heart and encouragement from the fact that they pushed O’Dorney, last year’s beaten semi-finalists, to the pin of their collar.

After David Carroll scored a historic first point at this level for the Crokes, O’Dorney settled and led 5-3 at the water break. Both sides doubled their tallies in the second quarter to leave the scores at 10-6 at half-time, and when the North Kerry club powered into a seven-point lead early in the second half, Crokes’ travelling support must have feared the worst.

But full credit to the debutants, they stuck to their task and a rip-roaring fightback, which included overs by Mark Heffernan, Tom Doyle, Carroll, Aaron Murphy, and goalkeeper Conor Bohane, narrowed the gap to just a single point in stoppage time.

Abbeydorney hung on for the win, and now Crokes will need some kind of result against Crotta O’Neills to have any chance of progressing to the next phase of the competition. Two teams from each of the three groups of three will advance, with the bottom side in each pool making an early exit.

Crotta are sure to provide a stern test. They have five Kerry seniors in their ranks, including the likes of Shane Nolan and Barry Mahony, although the unfortunate loss of Jordan Conway through injury has dampened their championship prospects somewhat.

The Kilflynn club have real pedigree in this tournament having gone all the way on new fewer than nine occasions. Their last triumph may have been many moons ago now (1968) but they are well used to the rough and tumble of the Kerry Senior Hurling Championship and they will certainly provide the Crokes with a very stern test.

Crokes manager John Lenihan will have his boys well psyched up for the challenge, however, and if they can show the grit and determination that brought them to within a point of O’Dorney, you never know where it might take them. Upsetting the natural order of things at the first time of asking is a tall order, but they showed last weekend that they’re not all that far away from doing just that.

Elsewhere in this weekend’s championship action, Ballyheigue take on Lixnaw on Saturday at 7.30pm. Ballyheigue fell to a heavy enough defeat to defending champions Kilmoyley (4-23 to 1-16) in their opening Group 2 fixture so it’s do or die for them this time out. Lixnaw, the 2018 champions, will be a tough challenge.

In Group 1, Ballyduff take on a Causeway outfit who had a big win over St Brendan’s last weekend (3-20 to 0-13). That match is on Sunday at 2pm and Causeway will fancy themselves to prevail and book a place in the quarter-finals.

All matches will be played in Austin Stack Park in Tralee.

Related Topics:
Advertisement

News

Home cup tie for St Paul’s could be epic

Published

2 weeks ago

on

7 November 2025

By

Paudie O’Connor National Cup (Round 1)

Utility Trust St Paul’s v GCU Brunell

Saturday 7.30pm

Killarney Sports and Leisure Centre

The St Paul’s women’s team will be hoping to get their National Cup adventure off the ground on Saturday when they welcome 2024 champions Brunell to Killarney. Tip-off in the Killarney Sports and Leisure Centre is at 7.30pm.

Paul’s have displayed some fine early season form, although their unbeaten start in the Super League came to an abrupt end last weekend when they lost to the Trinity Meteors in Dublin. James Fleming’s side weren’t at their best on the day but they were well in contention heading into the final quarter with the scores at 47-45 in favour of the hosts. The Meteors pushed on in the fourth, however, eventually running out 63-53 winners.

St Paul’s scorers on the night were Maisie Burnham (13), Tara Cousins (12), Lorraine Scanlon (12), Lovisa Hevinder (9), Denise Dunlea (5) and Leah McMahon (2).

The Killarney club are now joint second in the table alongside the Meteors with both teams holding a 4-1 record. Killester are top having won each of their first five games.

Paul’s opponents on Saturday, Brunell, have won three out of five league matches so far.

LAKERS

The Utility Trust St Paul’s Lakers have now won three of their last four games in Division 1 of the Men’s National League following an impressive home victory over Moycullen in Killarney.

Eoin Carroll and Jack O’Sullivan made significant contributions of the Boys in Black; Carroll hit 17 points and collected 13 rebounds while O’Sullivan had 14 points, 12 rebounds and some spectacular blocks.

Steve Kelly posted 30 points and the durable Sam Grant played every second, adding 21 points along the way.

The Lakers started well before the visitors found their footing and the sides went in level at the half-time break after scores by home captain Carroll. There was still nothing to separate the teams entering the fourth quarter (68-65) but buckets by Carroll, Pablo Murcia and Grant opened up a nine-point lead. Moycullen fought back admirably, however, cutting the deficit to just four, but Luke O’Hea’s charges held firm to prevail by eight (88-80).

Next up is a cup tie against the Tipperary Talons, a side they defeated by 30 points just a couple of weeks ago. The cup can be very different to the league, though, and they will need another solid performance to advance to the next round. Tip-off in in Killenaule is at 6.30pm on Saturday.

Attachments

Continue Reading

News

Chances of Kerry v Cork Munster final in 2026 decrease as Munster GAA delay seeding plan

Published

2 weeks ago

on

7 November 2025

By

After facing a backlash from Limerick, Clare, Waterford and Tipperary players, Munster GAA have postponed their plan to keep Cork and Kerry separate in the 2026 Munster Football Championship.

The new seeding system – which gives the two highest ranked Munster teams in the National League byes to separate semi-finals – will now come into play in 2027, twelve months later than initially planned.

This will give Clare and Limerick a chance to earn promotion to Division 2 of the league, potentially overtaking Cork if the Rebels were to get relegated to Division 3.

Despite traditionally being the two main contenders for Munster football honours, Kerry and Cork haven’t met in a provincial decider since 2021. The Kingdom have won each of the finals since then (one versus Limerick and three versus Clare) by an average margin of 15.75 points.

More high-profile Kerry v Cork finals might be desirable for fans of those teams, businesses in Killarney and Cork, and neutrals alike but Munster GAA’s plans to effectively keep the great rivals on opposite sides of the draw understandably drew criticism from the other participating counties. A statement by the GPA confirmed that players from Limerick, Clare, Waterford and Tipp had met via Zoom to discuss the matter. They were said to be “deeply disappointed and concerned” by the decision.

The 12-month delay will at least give two of those disaffected teams an opportunity to benefit from the new seeding process.

The draw for the 2026 Munster Football Championship will take place on November 27 under the old rules. As 2025 finalists, Kerry and Clare will get byes to the last four (but they will not necessarily be kept apart).

Nine members of Kerry’s squad are up for All-Stars at tonight’s awards ceremony in Dublin with Joe O’Connor and David Clifford also in contention for the prestigious Footballer of the Year award.

Attachments

Continue Reading