{"id":530401,"date":"2026-07-03T02:45:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T02:45:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/530401\/"},"modified":"2026-07-03T02:45:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T02:45:16","slug":"division-7-fl-final-carbery-rangers-prove-too-good-for-st-james-in-second-half-to-win-league-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/530401\/","title":{"rendered":"Division 7 FL Final: Carbery Rangers prove too good for St James in second half to win league final"},"content":{"rendered":"

Carbery Rangers 2-16 (2-2-12)\u00a0<\/p>\n

St James 0-9 (0-2-5)\u00a0<\/p>\n

A powerful second half performance saw Carbery Rangers defeat St James in the McCarthy Insurance Group Division 7 county football league final at Clonakilty on Thursday evening.<\/p>\n

Separated by a mere 11km, the West Cork neighbours served up an entertaining league decider in which the Rosscarbery club emerged merited winners.<\/p>\n

Second half Eoghan Hayes and J P Eady goals put the seal on Rangers\u2019 success in a final Jack O\u2019Regan and Mark Hodnett\u2019s accurate shooting proved critical.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Coached by former Cork senior inter-county and All-Ireland winning footballer John Hayes, Carbery Rangers deservedly lifted the trophy and showed why they will be a force in next year\u2019s Division 6.<\/p>\n

\"DivDiv 7 League Final Mark Hodnett (Carbery Rangers) is about to be challenged by Aaron Hayes (St. James) during the McCarthy Insurance Group 7 Football League final in Clonakilty. Picture: Martin Walsh.<\/p>\n

It was an evening to forget for St James who, despite drawing level late in the opening half, coughed up possession far too often and could have little argument with the outcome.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Poor shooting also blighted the league final\u2019s runners-up\u2019s evening but St James also have Division 6 football to look forward to in 2027.<\/p>\n

Carbery Rangers\u2019 seconds string entered Thursday\u2019s showdown off the back of an impressive seven wins and one draw from their nine county league outings.\u00a0<\/p>\n

St James finished two points behind the table toppers but struggled to get going and went a full quarter of an hour before altering the scoreboard.<\/p>\n

Rangers had already floated over three points by that juncture thanks to John O\u2019Brien, James Fitzpatrick and Mark Hodnett.<\/p>\n

Guilty of repeatedly coughing up possession, St James\u2019 Mark Evans finally split the posts after 15 minutes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A superb Jack O\u2019Regan two-pointer stretched the leaders advantage to four before Alan O\u2019Shea\u2019s side got to grips with the occasion.<\/p>\n

Ian Evans landed a two-point free, James O\u2019Donovan raised a white flag and Aaron Hayes blazed over from close range to make it five points apiece.<\/p>\n

Rangers remained patient in possession and utilised their long-range scoring ability to finish the half strongly.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mark Hodnett and Eoghan Hayes fired over from distance and Jack O\u2019Regan added his second two-pointer.<\/p>\n

Colm Hayes completed a fine half hour\u2019s work to make it 0-10 to 0-5 in Carbery Rangers\u2019 favour at the short whistle.<\/p>\n

A scrappy start to the second period saw neither team settle until Sean O\u2019Reilly finished off a pitch-long move to reduce the deficit.<\/p>\n

John Hayes\u2019 side quickly reasserted control around the middle of the pitch. Jack O\u2019Regan and Colm Hayes fired over before Conor Hayes offered St James hope with a terrific two-pointer.<\/p>\n

Their opponents response was instant and deadly. A swift team move concluded with Alan O\u2019Rourke floating a pass towards Eoghan Hayes who bravely flicked to the net.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"DivDiv 7 League Final Aaron Hayes (St. James) about to get the ball ahead of Mark Hodnett (Carbery Rangers) as Joe O’Sullivan and Conor Whelton provide support during the McCarthy Insurance Group 7 Football League final in Clonakilty. Picture: Martin Walsh.<\/p>\n

Hayes\u2019 collision with Cathal Hennessy, in the act of scoring, resulted in both players going off injured.<\/p>\n

1-12 to 0-8 ahead, John O\u2019Brien and Mark Hodnett (two) points put the result beyond doubt despite Aaron Hayes landing a late St James free.<\/p>\n

Patrick Hurley round off the scoring to confirm Carbery Rangers as Division 7 county league winners.<\/p>\n

Scorers for Carbery Rangers: J O\u2019Regan 0\u20135 (2 2pts), M Hodnett 0-4 (0-1 f), E Hayes 1-1, J P Eady 1-0, J O\u2019Brien, C Hayes 0-2 each, J Fitzpatrick, P Hurley 0-1 each.<\/p>\n

St James: I Evans (1 2pt f), C Hayes (1 2pt), A Hayes (0-1 f) 0-2 each, M Evans, J O\u2019Donovan, S O\u2019Reilly 0-1 each.<\/p>\n

CARBERY RANGERS: P Shanahan; P \u00d2g Hill, K Eady, C Buchanan; P Hurley, B Kerr, A O\u2019Rourke; J Fitzpatrick (captain), J O\u2019Brien; M Maguire, M Hodnett, A Jennings; C Hayes, J O\u2019Regan, E Hayes.<\/p>\n

Subs: C O\u2019Donovan for E Hayes (51, inj), P Hodnett for M Maguire (54), J P Eady for C Hayes (60), D Kerr for C Buchanan (60), R Hayes for A O\u2019Rourke (60).<\/p>\n

ST JAMES: N Evans; M (B) McCarthy, C Hayes, C Hennessy; C McShane, Joe O\u2019Sullivan, James O\u2019Sullivan; D McCarthy, C Hayes, A Hayes (captain), M Evans; S O\u2019Reilly, J O\u2019Donovan, I Evans.<\/p>\n

Subs: K O\u2019Leary for J O\u2019Sullivan (39), F Hayes for S O\u2019Reilly (39), K O\u2019Brien for J O\u2019Donovan (44), T Feen for C Hennessy (51, inj), J O\u2019Sullivan for D McCarthy (56, inj), S O\u2019Connor for C Whelton (59, inj).<\/p>\n

Referee: Andrew Whelton (Clonakilty).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Carbery Rangers 2-16 (2-2-12)\u00a0 St James 0-9 (0-2-5)\u00a0 A powerful second half performance saw Carbery Rangers defeat St…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":530402,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1964,61,60,112],"class_list":["post-530401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-cork-gaa","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=530401"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530401\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/530402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=530401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=530401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=530401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}