Goal-hungry Austin Stacks cruise to 26-pont Munster final victory
Joe O'Connor, Austin Stacks breaking past Darragh O'Sullivan, Kilshannig during their AIB Munster Club Intermediate football championship semi-final. Pic: Dan Linehan
Austin Stacks found themselves in seventh heaven at Mallow GAA Complex after they put their first half profligacy behind them to annihilate an out-of-their-depth Aherlow in a predictable cruise to Munster intermediate football championship glory.
In what turned out to be a most disappointing encounter played in difficult windy conditions, the Kerry champions hit at least eleven wides in a hugely unimpressive opening 30 minutes, despite completely dominating the territorial and possession exchanges.
Aherlow dug in, commendably, and while they posed no scoring threat themselves, they made it difficult for a Stacks’ forward unit that wasted opportunity after opportunity, before their opening green flag, right on the 30th minute, belatedly ignited their spluttering engine.
At that juncture, Billy Lee’s charges were leading by six points, and an injection of pace from Joe O’Connor, a one-two with substitute Darragh O’Brien, and a lovely assist from the Kerry midfielder, released Paddy Lane to rocket a left-footed drive to the Aherlow net.
With tempers fraying a little, the Tipperary side lost the experienced Cathal Dillon to a second yellow card before the break, and with referee Niall Quinn issuing a straight red card to a member of the Aherlow back-room coming off the pitch, the underdogs were in deep trouble (1-5 to 0-0).
Lining out without full-back Dylan Casey, Austin Stacks, even with an eight-point cushion, would have been unhappy with their first half shooting woes, and they were more focused on the resumption, with Kingdom star O’Connor driving them on from the middle of the park.
Indeed, it was the Rock Street number nine who supplied the winners’ second goal in the 35th minute, with a low right-footed shot past Aherlow ‘keeper Jack Whelton, before Barry Grogan finally opened Aherlow’s account with a pointed free four minutes later.
Austin Stacks’ full-forward Cian Purcell added a brace of green flags by the end of the third quarter, as the competitive edge in the game disintegrated completely (4-6 to 0-1), with Aherlow unable to cause any problems for the opposing defence, where Jack O’Shea stood out.
Utilising their bench to full effect, the Tralee outfit saw Sean Quilter and Shane O’Callaghan bring up goal numbers five and six, with Mark Russell firing over Aherlow’s only score from play. The dynamic Purcell completed his hat-trick with the icing on the Stacks’ 26-point victory cake.
C Purcell 3-1, P Lane 1-2 (0-2fs), S Quilter 1-1, J O’Connor, S O’Callaghan 1-0 each, D McKivergan 0-2 (fs), C Griffin 0-1.
B Grogan (f), M Russell 0-1 each.
M Tansley; C Griffin, B Shanahan, J Nagle; A Heinrich, J O’Shea, P O’Sullivan; M O’Donnell, J O’Connor; F Mangan, G Horan, D Kirby; D McKivergan, C Purcell, P Lane.
D O’Brien for McKivergan (25), R Shanahan for O’Donnell (39), S O’Callaghan for Heinrich (42), J Kissane for Lane (50), S Quilter for Kirby (50). Temp sub: A Curran for O’Brien (55-60).
J Whelton; M Hanley, R Hennessy, T O’Donoghue; T Carew, L Coskeran, D O’Brien; D Looby, M Russell; M Elligott, B Carey, J O’Halloran; C Dillon, B Grogan, G Quirke.
L Carew for Quirke (ht), B O’Brien for Elligott (ht), S Mullins for Coskeran (37), T Fahy for Hanley, inj (43), P Chapman for O’Donoghue (51).
N Quinn (Clare).
