Facing into the breeze in the first half we got off to the worst possible start when conceding a goal in the first minute after good work from Shane Ryan, who fed an inrushing forward for the opening goal. Mark Reen quickly followed up with a point from play and we had yet to register a meaningful attack.
Tommy Walsh had our opening point on seven minutes from a free but this was quickly negated by midfielder Brian Moynihan who fired over from about 40 metres to leave us four behind after just 10 minutes. Cian Sayers then broke up from wing back to kick a great score which was quickly followed by two points from Tommy Walsh, one from play and the other from a placed ball. However, we were to concede the next score, a goal when Shane Ryan again was the provider and it left the visitors ahead by four adding two further points they lead by 2-06 to 0-06 after 2o mins.
At this stage, we were more in the game in the middle of the field through great work by Con Barrett and John C O’Connor and we had come to grips with the visitors in attack with great defending from Cian Sayers, ” Chucky” Carroll and Karl Mullins; indeed it was Karl who provided the spark before half time when he won a breaking ball about 20 metres from goal and driving forward hit a great low drive to the corner of the net to bring us right back into the game – further points from Tommy and John Feguson both from play had us behind at the interval, 2-07 to 1-09.
The stiff breeze allied to the continued dominance of our midfield, half back line and impressive full backs of Danny O’Sullivan, Ross O’Callaghan and Darragh McElligott meant we were on the offensive for much of the second half and the scores flowed through some great football – we hit 1-08 to 0-03 in this period, restricting Rathmore to one point from play in a power packed second period; we had a four point cushion throughout much of this half and when Ross O’Callaghan intercepted a move he found Karl Mullins motoring through the middle and Karl duly found corner back Darragh McElligott bearing down on goal and he finished coolly to the back of the net to ensure we took the points.
Final score: Kerins O’Rahillys 2-17, Rathmore 2-10.
Overall this was a fine performance given the loss of so many players which included Shane Brosnan and Cormac Coffey who were both injured during the week; we had fine performances throughout the pitch from Gary in goal to Shane McElligott in attack and each and every player can be proud of their contribution. We have a break next week due to the Munster football finals and resume the week after when we travel to high flying Spa for round 8.
Team: Gary Kissane, Danny O’Sullivan, Ross O’Callaghan, Darragh McElligott ( 1-0), Cian Sayers (0-1), Ryan Carroll ( 0-02), Karl Mullins ( 1-0), Con Barrett ( 0-01), John C O’Connor, Donagh O’Brien, Tommy Walsh ( 0-09, 5fs), Padraig Griffin, Seán Collins, John Ferguson ( 0-04), Shane McElligott.
Subs used: Gearoid Savage, Jason O’Leary, Johnny Keane, Gearoid Dillane.
