Dingle 4-13
East Kerry 0-12

Paul Brennan reports from Austin Stack Park, Tralee

THREE GOALS IN the first 10 minutes of an eagerly anticipated Kerry SFC semi-final replay this afternoon paved the way for Dingle to book a county final meeting with champions Dr Crokes next Sunday back at the Tralee venue.

And on this performance the West Kerry team will give the defending champions plenty of it in seven days, even if East Kerry self-destructed in the second half when the game was still just about within their grasp.

It was an afternoon of contrasting fortunes for the Geaney and Clifford players involved, with Paul Geaney scoring a hat trick of goals, and his cousin Mikey getting the fourth, while the Clifford brothers, David and Paudie were both sent off for red card offences.

Having recovered from an 18-point loss to East Kerry in Round 2, Dingle found a late, late equaliser last week against the same opposition to take this semi-final to a replay, and the West Kerry club finished the job in emphatic fashion against the divisional side.

Paul Geaney was in devastating form for Dingle – having only returned on Saturday from a family wedding in Portugal on Friday – and his third minute goal from the penalty spot (he was fouled for it) and his second six minutes later gave Dingle the perfect start.

Paul Geaney converts 4th Min penalty to see @DingleGAA ahead 1-1 to 0-1 #GAA pic.twitter.com/hrbNJYqWVX

— Donal Barry (@BarryDonal) October 21, 2018

From the restart from Geaney’s second goal, Dingle won possession and raided forward for Michael Geaney to score a third goal to make it 3-1 to 0-3 after nine minutes and leave East Kerry reeling.

East Kerry never really settled into this contest, and though the Cliffords scored five first half points between them, they still trailed 0-7 to 3-7 at half time.

A big all-in row at the start of the second half resulted in a red card for Paudie Clifford and a member of each management team being sent off also, before East Kerry scored three points to make it 0-10 to 3-7 and give them a whisper of hope.

However, a momentary moment of rashness from David Clifford saw him strike out at an opponent and he followed his brother to the dressing room after 47 minutes, effectively ending any hope of an East Kerry comeback.

Dingle kicked on with the extra men, Paul Geaney scoring his third goal in the 53rd minute as Kerry defender Tom O’Sullivan finished with five points from play.

The West Kerry men are back in Tralee in a week’s time to face Dr Crokes in the final in a repeat of the 2012 decider, which Crokes won by 11 points. It shouldn’t be as one-sided this time.

Scorers for Dingle: Paul Geaney 3-1 (1-0 pen), Tom O’Sullivan 0-5, Michael Geaney 1-2 (0-1f), Tomas Sheehy 0-1f, Gavin Curran 0-1 ’45′, Barry O’Sullivan 0-1, Padraig O’Connor 0-1, Niall Geaney 0-1

Scorers for East Kerry: David Clifford 0-3 (2f), Paudie Clifford 0-3 (1f), Dara Moynihan 0-2 (1f), Darragh Roche 0-2, Chris O’Donoghue 0-1, Jeff O’Donoghue 0-1 ’45′

Dingle

1. Gavin Curran

2. Michael Flannery
3. Tom Leo O’Sullivan
4. Padraig O’Connor

5. Michael Begley
6. Tom O’Sullivan
7. Aidan O’Connor

8. Billy O’Connor
9. Barry O’Sullivan

10. Brian O’Connor
11. Michael Geaney
28. Eoin Murphy

13. Tomas Sheehy
14. Paul Geaney
15. Matthew Flaherty

Subs

29. Brendan Kelliher for M Flannery (40)
22. Niall Geaney for M Boyle (inj, 49)
17. Brian O’Connell for E Cronin (55)
18. Brian Devane for B O’Connor (60)
20. Sean B Brosnan for L O’Connor (61)
25. Cathal Sheehy for P Geaney (65)

East Kerry

1. Brendan Kealy

2. Darren Brosnan
3. Dan O’Donoghue
20. Chris O’Donoghue

5. Sean O’Leary
6. Jack Sherwood
7. Philip Casey

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8. Shane McSweeney
9. Kevin O’Gorman

10. Darragh Moynihan
11. Paudie Clifford
12. Liam Kearney

13. Evan Cronin
14. David Clifford
15. Darragh Roche

Subs

18. Noel Duggan for E Cronin (ht)
24. Ronan Buckley for K O’Gorman (42)
21. Jeff O’Donoghue for P Casey (52)
17. Brian O’Donoghue for L Kearney (60)
28. Anthony Kennedy for S O’Leary (61)

Referee: Paul Hayes (Kerins O’Rahillys)

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