Kerry SFC play-off final: Milltown/Castlemaine 1-8 Laune Rangers 1-4 Milltown/Castlemaine put Laune Rangers to the sword during a torrid opening half of this Kerry final at Austin Stack Park, Tralee. The winners meet Clare champions Kilmurry-Ibrickane at Quilty next weekend.
Rangers rarely sparkled in the first half, scoring a solitary point from Pa O'Sullivan and it was obvious they missed their injured trio of Eoin Ferris, John Lynch and Liam Hassett. Tempers became frayed towards the end of the opening half. When stand-in referee Pat Sheehy blew for half-time an ugly incident involving players from both sides took place in the middle of the field and appeared to continue as the players made their way through the tunnel.
Donal Kelleher levelled when he might have goaled in the sixth minute and further points from Gavin Wrenn (two) and Shane Murphy saw Milltown/Castlemaine lead 0-4 to 0-1 after 20 minutes. Then as Mike Frank Russell moved outfield Milltown/Castlemaine's Derek Twiss found Paudie McCarthy and his overhead pass was latched on to by Georgie McKenna who blasted the ball to the net for a 1-4 to 0-1 lead.
Milltown/Castlemaine continued to hold the upper hand in the second half as Rangers could not get Russell into the game while at the other end Kelleher was landing some superb points. Wrenn and O'Sullivan swapped points as Rangers continued to waste scoring chances. Russell's free narrowed the gap as Milltown/Castlemaine led 1-5 to 0-3 at the end of the third quarter before Kelleher began to dominate, firing over three unanswered points. Rangers got a late consolation goal in injury time through Brian Gannon.
MILLTOWN/CASTLEMAINE: G Murphy; D Murphy, F Kelliher, J Blennerhasett; G McKenna (1-0), F Murphy, J Giles; M Burke, P McCarthy; S Murphy (0-1), A Giles, G Wrenn (0-3, 2 frees); D Twiss, C Kerins, D Kelleher (0-4). Subs: W Harmon for J Giles, J McAuliffe for Twiss, L Burke for Kerins.
LAUNE RANGERS: T Lyons; C Falvey, N Lynch, T Houlihan; P Costello, J Sheehan, J Coffey; A Hassett, B O'Sullivan; B O'Shea, C O'Connor, S Foley; B Gannon (1-0), P O'Sullivan (0-3, 1 free), M F Russell (0-1). Subs: M Foley for Hassett, K Falvey for Houlihan, P Sheehan for O'Connor, G O'Brien for O'Shea.
Referee: J Hegarty ( J Mitchels).
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