Sunday evening in Ballyhooly, the scene was set for yet another meeting of Fermoy and Kilworth in the first round match up of these two teams. A carbon copy of last years first round draw. Fermoy lined out with what was the strongest 15 and they knew they were in for a hard fought battle. Kilworth had quite the first half, which would prove to be the difference in the end. The first 30 minutes were made feel longer as Kilworth dominated through-out. Kilworth would raise the green flag twice in the first half and with well taken points, the opponents stretched their lead out to 14 points at one stage. Fermoy seemed to be shock but through tough playing Kieran Morrison and Brian O’Sullivan, Fermoy began to make their mark on the game. The First half being one to forget, Fermoy went in at the half with a scoreline of 2-13 to 0-5.
Fermoy had some hard words at half time but Kilworth would return with a goal nearly straight away, as the second half began. Kilworth had been in command for the most but Fermoy showed guts and started to find their range. Points from Liam Colman and Martin Brennan got the scoreline rolling and the introduction of Jack Hutchings would bring out first goal. With a seventeen point deficit at one stage, the hill seemed to be too hard to climb. Fermoys defence had found their feet and the forwards were now pulling the weight too. Moving into the last few minutes of the game Fermoy could only hope that they would bring the game back into contention, the lads showed massive character to back such a effort to bring the game back but time wasn’t on our side but also Kilworth won some individual battles, enough so to keep us at bay. Fermoy out scored Kilworth 1-9 to 1-1 in the second half which only showed that were could have been at the races earlier in the game ut just took too long to get up and running. Brennan, Morrison and O’Sullivan really showed how good Fermoy could be but the effort came too late. The game ended 3-14 to 1-13 which was respectable considering that at one stage Fermoy trailed by 17 points. Kilwoth had a game plan which they stuck to and executed well and fair play. The next round shows that Fermoy will have no east path if they are to repeat last years campaign to reach county final time. Cloyne and Tracton face off soon and it will but the loser of that game who Fermoy will be facing next while Kilworth will play the winners. Hopefully now after two opening round defeats, training and hard work will be the focus for the next few weeks to return to the optimum levels we are used to seeing Fermoy at. The team lined out as following: C Quinn, A Bagrary, J Daly, R O’Callaghan, E Clancy, P Murphy, M Brennan, K Morrison, B O’Sullivan, P de Roiste, T Clancy, L Colman, D Geary, M Flynn, A O’Connor.