Abbeydorney 3-16 St Brendan’s 1-12

Oisín Maunsell starred with 2-04 as Abbeydorney were crowned Kerry senior hurling champions for a third year in-a-row after overcoming a determined St Brendan’s side in a one-sided 3-16 to 1-12 contest before a large crowd in Austin Stack Park.

The Neilus Flynn Cup will now make the short trip back up the R556 and ‘Odorney’ can now look forward to the Munster Intermediate Club Championship where they play the Waterford Intermediate champions in November.

While it is their forwards that will make the headlines, scoring all 3-16 of Abbeydorney’s final tally between them, an impressive defensive display that limited St Brendan’s to just 1-8 from play was the baseline for their historic three-in-a-row victory.

Goals from Michael Slattery and Oisín Maunsell were the difference as Abbeydorney took a seven-point lead – 2-07 to 0-06 – into the half time break, before Maunsell got a second for the Kerry champions as the men in black and amber outscored their Ardfert counterparts by 1-09 to 1-06 in the second half.

Despite playing against a strong breeze, it was St Brendan’s who started the strongest and were 0-03 to 0-01 to the good inside the opening 10 minutes with all three scores coming from the impressive Fionán Egan.

Abbeydorney slowly grew into the game from here on in, and after Slattery raised the game’s first green flag in the 16th minute, Maunsell scored his first of two goals to put five between five less than a minute later.

To their credit, St Brendan’s responded superbly as Nathan O’Driscoll and Liam Óg O’Connor pointed without response to narrow the deficit to three.

Just shy of the 20th minute mark, Abbeydorney were awarded a penalty after Michael Slattery was pulled down by Gavin Raggett as he bore down on goal. However, Michael O’Leary’s penalty was superbly saved by Darren Delaney.

Despite the penalty miss, Abbeydorney scored four points in the next two minutes to take a seven-point lead – 2-06 to 0-05 – into the 25th minute, before Brian Donovan’s charges took a seven-point lead into the break.

Moments after the restart, a double save from Abbeydorney goalkeeper Jason Fealy first denied Liam Óg O’Connor and then Gearóid Sheehan in what would have been a much-welcomed lifeline for the men from Ardfert.

By the time Niall O’Mahoney pointed in the 37th minute, all six Abbeydorney forwards had got on the scoresheet, opening up a comfortable looking eight-point lead – 2-09 to 0-07.

The result was all but beyond doubt 12 minutes from time when a superb piece of skill resulted in Maunsell finding himself one-on-one with Delaney.

After Michael Slattery superbly flicked the ball back from the end line, Maunsell eased through the St Brendan’s defence and kept his cool to find the back of the net to ensure Abbeydorney regained their Kerry SHC title for a third year in-a-row.

Abbeydorney: Jason Fealy; Ruairí Ó hAiniféin, Stephan Egan, Jedd Maunsell; Damien Hogan, Ronan Donovan; James O’Connor (joint-capt); David Egan, Darragh O’Connell; Michael O’Leary (joint-capt) (0-06, 5f, ‘65), Mikey Clifford (0-01), Jack Sheehan (0-02); Michael Slattery (1-02), Oisín Maunsell (2-04), Niall O’Mahoney (0-01).

Subs: Kian Sheehan for O’Connell (ht), Adam Maunsell for Hogan (45 minutes), Brendan O’Leary for Slattery (55), Jack Hannon for David Egan (58), Calum O’Sullivan for O’Mahoney (60).

St Brendan’s: Darren Delaney; Gavin Raggett, Eric Leen (capt), Killian Wolff; Hugh Linehan, Daithí Griffin, Nathan O’Driscoll (0-02); Odhran Ferris, Gary O’Riordan; Seán Brosnan, Liam Óg O’Connor (0-02), Eoin O’Flaherty, Earnán Ferris, Gearóid Sheehan, Fionán Egan (0-05, 4f).

Subs: Cian Hussey (0-02) for Brosnan (half time), Darren Dineen (0-01) for Wolff (38), Seamus O’Halloran (1-00) for Sheehan (38), Stephen Leen for Raggett (45), John Egan for Earnán Ferris (52).

Referee: John O’Halloran (Limerick)