Templenoe and St Mary’s played out an absorbing Final in the 2025 McCarthy’s insurance south Kerry senior football league played in Ballinskelligs on Saturday the game had to go to extra time before Templenoe edged a closely fought encounter.
The local St Michael’s/ foilmore club had everything in order for the first south Kerry league final to be played in Ballinskelligs. The early exchanges were dominated by Templenoe where their midfielder combination of Sean Sheehan and Gavin Crowley took control.
Sean Sheehan opened the scoring by tapping over a point, followed shortly by another point by Adrain Spillane . Bryan Sheehan replied with a pointed free for St Mary’s. Templenoe were leading by 0-7 to 0-2 after 28 minutes when St Mary’s were awarded a soft enough penalty .
goalkeeper Bryan Sheehan smashed the penalty to the net , followed shortly by a point from hard working wing back Conor O’Shea to narrow the scoring to 0-7 to 1-3 at half time in favour of Templenoe . The second half was a ding dong battle which ebbed and flowed both ways.
After Darren Casey for St Mary’s had been fouled Bryan Sheehan tapped over to level the scoring at 1-4 to 0-7 . St Mary’s added 3 further points to lead by 1-7 to 0-7 after 40 minutes, Templenoe responded by scoring the next 4 points to lead by 0-11 to 1-7 after 47 minutes.
Bryan Sheehan who had roamed up field then passed to Ben O’Donoghue and his shot for goal was deflected into the net by one of the Templenoe defenders to leave St Mary’s leading by 2-7 to 0-11. The game was now in the melting pot , Cian O’Donoghue and Brian Crowley exchanged points before team captain Gavin Crowley punched over to level the scores 0-14 to 2-8 with 5 minutes to play.
Then. Darren Casey had looked to have given St Mary’s victory when he pointed on the stroke of full time , But with added time of 5 minutes for an earlier injury to Adam Quirke (St Mary’s) Templenoe scored the equaliser when Colin Crowley tapped over a close in free to leave the scores 0-15 to 2-9 at full time.
Aidan Crowley opened the scoring in extra time with a point, Before centre back Tadhg Morley fired over a great 2 pointer to extend the lead. Points by Bryan Sheehan (free) , Tadhg O’Connor and Jack Daly levelled the scoring before Colin Crowley tapped over an easy free after some sloppy defending by st Mary’s to leave the score 0-19 to 2-12 at half time in extra time. Adrain Spillane and, Gavin Crowley scored crucial points for Templenoe in the second period of extra time as Sean Cournane and Conor O’Shea responded for St Mary’s before Tadhg Morley punched over to leave 2 points between the side.
St Mary’s were unable to get any more scores and Templenoe held on to win by 0-22 to 2-14 . After the game South Kerry Board Chairman Joseph McCrohan presented the Donie Riney cup to victorious captain Gavin Crowley.
He thanked the local Ballinskelligs club for having the pitch in great order and also thanked referee Gerard Murphy for a job well done .
Scorers – Templenoe – Gavin Crowley 0-4 , Aidan Crowley 0-4 (1Free)Colin Crowley 0-3 (1 free), Tadhg Morley 0-3 (1/2p) Adrain Spillane 0-2, Martin Reidy 0-2, Sean Sheehan , mark Casey , Caoilte Harrington and Brian Crowley 0-1
scorers for St Mary’s Bryan Sheehan 1-3 (goal – penalty, 0-3 Frees) Ben O’Donoghue 1-1 , Conor O’Shea 0-2 Jack Daly 0-2 , Anthony Cournane, Cian O’Donoghue, Darren Casey , Tadhg O’Sullivan , Tadhg O’connor & Sean Cournane (free) 0-1 each .
