Corn Uí Mhuirí Football – Tralee CBS 1-16 St. Francis College Rochestown 3-10

TRALEE CBS 1-16 ST FRANCIS COLLEGE ROCHESTOWN 3-10

Report by By Sylvester Hennessy

Two late Rochestown frees earned the Cork students a share of the spoils in this pulsating second round Corn Uí Mhuirí clash in Millstreet.

Tralee CBS will be left to wonder how they did not win this contest however. Marc O’Sé’s men made the perfect start when Tom Hoare scored a cracking goal and they led by 1-6 to 0-2 after the first quarter. Tralee were cruising but they lost their influential midfielder Joe O’Connor and Rochestown capitalised. What followed was a bizarre ten minutes of play. A short kick out by Tralee was seized upon by the dangerous James Holland and he duly despatched the ball to the net. They won the next kick out and finished the move with their second goal in a minute from Adam Hennessy. To complete the ten minutes of madness Hennessy grabbed a third Rochestown goal when he reacted quickest to an effort for a point falling back in to play off the top of the post. Rochestown went in at the interval 3-5 to 1-8 to the good. Tralee were further depleted by the loss of Jack Myers at half time. Rochestown had to field without Cork 2016 minor captain Nathan Walsh, while Tralee were minus the services of Gearóid Fitzgerald, Sean Mortimer and Niall O’Mahony.

The second half ebbed and flowed but Tralee regained their lead with 10 remaining when the impressive Eoin Greaney kicked 4 points without reply. A Tom Hoare point gave Tralee a 2 point cushion with 2 minutes remaining. Rochestown showed great resilience however to engineer two scoreable frees in injury time. Douglas corner forward Conor Russell proved the hero of the day for the Cork students with two well struck frees. Both sides now have a win and a draw ahead of the vital 3rd round fixtures so it is still all to play for in this tight group.

ST FRANCIS COLLEGE ROCHESTOWN: David O’Keeffe (Douglas); Eoghan Riordan (Carrigaline), Dylan Corkery (St Michael’s), Adam Murphy (Shamrocks); Ross Coleman (St Michael’s); Jack Lyons (Nemo Rangers), Sean Hilliard (Cobh), Liam Grainger (St Michael’s), Cian Denn (St Michael’s); Adam Hennessy (St Michael’s)(2-0), Matthew McAuliffe (Douglas) (0-2), Colin O’Mahony (Douglas); James Holland (Douglas) (1-3), Brendan Powter (Douglas), Conor Russell (Douglas) (0-5,3f)

TRALEE CBS: Shane Foley (Kerins O’Rahillys); Brian Murphy (St Pat’s), Tommy Lynch (St Pat’s), Jack Myers (John Mitchel’s), John Walsh (Knocknagoshel), Kieran Dwyer (St Pat’s), Austin Clifford (Churchill); Joe O’Connor (Austin Stacks), Tomás O’Connor (Ballymac) (0-3); Seán Donnellan (Churchill) (0-1), David Fitzmaurice (Austin Stacks), Tom Hoare (Kerins O’Rahilly’s) (1-2), Jason Mortimer (Churchill), Mikey Kelliher (John Mitchel’s) (0-3,2f), Eoin Greaney (St Pat’s) (0-7,2f)
Subs: Michael Scanlon (Castlegregory) for Murphy, Michael Hoare (Ballymac) for O’Connor (inj), Aaron Roche (Kerins O’Rahillys) for Myers (inj)