Dara Moynihan makes welcome return as Kerins O'Rahilly's joins Austin Stacks on Kerry SFL summit
ON THE day water breaks returned to Kerry club football, Kerins O'Rahilly's moved level on top of the county's SFL Division 1 with Tralee neighbours Austin Stacks with a hard-earned win over Killarney Legion while the Rock were losing to Spa.
O'Rahillys closed out a 1-15 to 0-15 win over Legion in Strand Road but never were comfortable and trailed 0-7 to 0-2 after the opening quarter with Ryan O'Grady, David O'Sullivan and Josh Bowler doing the bulk of the visitor's scoring. Darragh O'Connor and Jack Savage were keeping the Strand Road side in touch, before a Conor Hayes goal for O'Rahillys saw them back in the game. Ryan O'Grady and Gearoid Dillane swapped points as Legion retired 0-8 to 1-4 in front at half time.
Points from Hayes, Darragh O'Connor and a two pointer from Jack Savage saw the Tralee side move three clear and they maintained their advantage to the end despite the efforts of young Josh Bowler and Ryan O'Grady.
Stacks had the opportunity to go two points clear at the top but struggling Spa - with only a win and two draws so far in the league - caused an upset when they ended Stacks unbeaten league run, 2-16 to 1-17. Spa were always on top and though Stacks levelled on a number of occasions, crucially they never led. Dara Moynihan lined out with Spa for his first outing since last year's Club Championship in August, and the sides were level 0-5 to 1-2 after 17 minutes, Colm Browne with the Stacks goal.
Ciaran Spillane and Shane O'Callaghan again swapped points with Kerry panelist Armin Heinrich being prominent for the Tralee side. Evan Cronin restored Spa's lead with a two point free and another two pointer from Cian Tobin gave Spa a 0-10 to 1-6 lead at the interval.
They moved three clear thanks to points from Tobin and Spillane and by the 40th minute it was 0-13 to 1-7. Heinrich was withdrawn a minute later and points by Greg Horan and Adam Curran meant it was a one point game ( 0-14 to 1-10) at the second water break. An Evan Cronin goal appeared to give Spa breathing space but a Ferdia O'Brien two pointer and a Ryan O'Driscoll levelled the contest again at 1-15 apiece with five left.
Michael Foley restored Spa's lead as Stacks wasted a couple of gilt-edged chances and it proved costly when Luke O'Neill finished a searing run with low shot to the Stacks net. Ferdia O'Brien and O'Driscoll cut the deficit to two but they were denied the win when Shay O'Meara saved on the line in the final seconds.
Dr Crokes are going nowhere as they move into joint second place with Legion following a facile 2-18 to 0-6 against a disappointing Laune Rangers side. Rangers actually led 0-2 to 0-1 after four minutes but it sadly went downhill after that for Killorglin side after that. A Mikey Casey goal saw Crokes retire 1-8 to 0-5 at half time. Laune Rangers only added a single point in the second half as Crokes' well-oiled machine added 1-12 with Billy Courtney and David Shaw adding two points each, Alex Hennigan added three, Gavin O'Shea also brought his game tally to 0-3 before Cian McMahon scored a cracking goal but it was all too easy.
Glenflesk had a big win over neighbours Rathmore who introduced Paul Murphy, but he could not stem the Glenflesk goal rush as they won 5-11 to 0-17. Cian Lynch, Ian Roche and Darragh Roche got the first half goals as they led 3-2 to 0-7 at half time with Ciaran Collins and Mark Reen contributing 0-3 each. Rathmore closed the gap to three points on two occasions, but was Jamie Moynihan and Callum Cronin finished Rathmore off with second half goals.
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