Castlegregory 2-09 Ballyduff 1-05.

Castlegregory chairman Pat O'Shea read an excerpt from the Irish Proclamation before kick off, in honour of those who gave their lives for Irish freedom in Easter 1916. The weather was not as kind to West Kerry as it was in O'Connell Street, Dublin, with wet and windy conditions making it difficult for good football. Ballyduff opted to play against the wind and started better, with a nice build up the pitch, causing a close in free which was scored by corner forward, Jeremiah Houlihan in the third minute.
It was the tenth minute, before Castlegregory registered a point, which came from play by lively corner forward Brandon Hoare. It was just as difficult for both sides to kick and pass with any degree of accuracy,but the home side finally started to take hold of proceedings. Castlegregory wing forward, Jason Griffin, received a pass from Liam Maunsell into the danger zone and could have claimed a goal, but blazed it over the bar on the 13th minute. Full forward Maunsell followed up with a point minutes later, as the home side seemed to be winning all the breaks from the Ballyduff kick out. Three pointed frees (Keelan Dowling) before half time, as a result of relentless pressure on the Ballyduff defence left it 0-06 to 0-01 at the break.

Despite being against a big wind, Castlegregory continued to dominate in the second half with yet another pointed free in the 33rd minute. Ballyduff did pull one back within a minute from centre forward Barry O'Grady, but Castlegregory kept their work rate high and ended an intense two minutes of passing with a Timmy Moriarty goal, which came from a rebounded James Galwey shot off the post in the tenth minute. A pointed 14th yard free a minute
later (Dowling) and it seemed Ballyduff heads would drop, but they battled on and pegged back a point from play (O'Grady) on the 14th minute, followed by the North Kerry side's midfielder Paul O'Carroll with a 20th minute point from play to reduce the lead to seven points.
However, Castlegregory came right back with a point and it looked like the lead was secure, but then things changed as Kerry senior hurler, Jack Goulding, got a great solo goal on 30th minute for Ballyduff, to leave only four between them. With plenty injury time to be played, this was Ballyduff's chance to drive on. However, on the kick out Castlegregory went up the field and
ended a great move with a Griffin goal and held them to just one more score in the five minutes of injury time to record their second victory in the Country League on a score line of 2-09 to 1-05.
Teams:
Castlegregory: David O'Dowd, James Galwey, Nicholas Fitzgerald, Timmy Walsh, Joe O'Connor, Gearoid Fitzgerald, John Joe Hussey, Timmy Moriarty (1-0), Adam O'Donnell, Jason Griffin (1-2), Gavin O'Connor, Keelan Dowling (0-5 frees), Jordan Quirke, Liam Maunsell (0-1), 15. Brandon Hoare (0-1). Subs: Thomas O'Connor for B Hoare.
Ballyduff: James Sheehy, Paul Nolan, Eddie Joy, Thomas Slattery, John P Leahy, Anthony O'Carroll, Michael Hussey, Roger Costelloe, Paul O'Carroll, John O'Regan, Barry O'Grady (0-3, 0-2 free), Jack Goulding (1-0), Ger Houlihan (0-1 free), Cathal Kearney, David Goulding.
Subs: Liam Boyle for D Goulding, Declan Boyle (0-1) for J O'Regan.