Northern spice
Stack Park, once the home pitch of Ogie Moran and the Bomber Liston, will heave to the sounds and stories of the North Kerry football championship final - this year's edition being an especially tasty treat between Listowel and Finuge.
Where else would you get seven All-Ireland SFC medal holders, one current All Star, an Aussie Rules professional, and a liberal sprinkling of testosterone on St Stephen's Day.
The fabled history of the North Kerry Championship, traditionally the final football title of the year nationwide, has produced epics and one truism - reputation and rank mean nothing. How else are Moyvane the reigning champions?
Listowel, home club to AFL star Tadhg Kennelly, who is expected to play some part on Sunday, are in Division One of the County League next season, and were only defeated by An Ghaeltacht in the quarter-final of the Kerry SFC.
Not alone does that not guarantee them favouritism in a game that will draw over 5,000 supporters, they go into the final as underdogs to Finuge, two divisions below them but on a roll after their Munster Club JFC victory last Sunday over Aghabullogue.
And that's the secret of its success according to Stephen Stack, an All-Ireland winner in 1997. "The North Kerry championships is one of the few competitions where your standing in the county league means nothing. You can have a Division Five team beating a Division One side. You will always see ferocious honesty."
He should know having represented Listowel for close on twenty years, bagging three titles in that spell.
"Naturally the All-Ireland medal (1997) is very special, but when you are playing with guys you grew up with, it is a different thing. North Kerry is very special and really I can't describe it any better than that.
"I remember my first win was against Castleisland Desmonds in 1991. Back then they were not only one of the best sides in the county, they were one of the most feared teams in the country. Billy Keane (son of John B) was a selector and made us all put ÂŁ20 on us winning at 14/1. We were rank outsiders but we won it, and went on a holiday on the back of our takings at the bookies."
It will be a swan-song for Stack who announced his retirement after the county championship exit. "Sunday will be my last time," he vowed. "I retired after the county championship but then I felt I would be leaving fellows in the lurch. So this is it, the last push."
Fine Gael TD, Jimmy Deenihan, will be on sideline patrol with his native Finuge. After thirty years of championship football, he has one medal to show for his efforts, won in 1987. And does he treasure it. "It is so valued in the hierarchy of football medals. I'd put it next to an All Ireland championship medal. Indeed many in these parts would consider it more important than winning a county championship."
But what separates this from the hundreds of other divisional championships that are run off throughout the country? "There's passion for football in North Kerry that is not to be found anywhere else in Ireland.
The identification with their own parishes makes it more competitive.
"From Lixnaw north, hurling and rugby never took hold. Soccer has to an extent but football is the game of the people.
But for all the mystique it is not without criticism. "I describe it as the North Kerry championship syndrome," adds Deenihan. "Players are totally focused on the North Kerry championship and disregard all other competitions. They are at their most competitive in the months between September and December.
"Maybe consideration should be given to playing the first round in July, and introducing a backdoor which mean teams are not concentrating solely on the latter quarter of the year."
Sunday's opponents Listowel have worked hard on breaking out of the local mindset. Over the last couple of years, they focused on getting their affairs in order at county level. The plan was worked perfectly with senior championship status and a place in Division One attained.
"Listowel will benefit from the fact that they are playing at pace in the county league and the county championship and that is their big advantage on Sunday."
Liam O'Flaherty, another All-Ireland winner, won his first and only North Kerry medal in 1992 said, "We in Ballydonoghue hadn't won the thing since 1959. The big thing is about trying to emulate your father and your grandfather by winning the championships."
O'Flaherty, running a bar in Listowel, with Finuge stalwart Eamon Breen alongside him is keeping quiet on predictions.
"All the talk in the bar is about Tadhg (Kennelly) and whether he will play or not. We'll only know for sure on the day." But for all the hyperbole about the competition, O'Flaherty, like Deenihan, has a few concerns about the divisions pecking order in the greater scheme of county things.
"The county league is not taken seriously by most of the North Kerry teams who seem to base a lot of their plans on the final few months of the year. The other downside is in the county championships with the amalgamations of Feale Rangers and Shannon Rangers. There is so much rivalry between the teams that make up these divisions that they can't play to their full potential with the divisional sides."
"It shows the importance of the thing that Tadhg Kennelly is home from Australia," Deenihan adds.
"This means as much if not more to him than anything in the AFL. I met him in Australia last year and I was amazed with the knowledge and interest he had in the day to day results of North Kerry football and how closely he kept in contact with what has happening.
"His heart has never left North Kerry football. This would be up there with a Grand Final for him. The size of the crowd may be different but the passion would be the same."
*All-Ireland SFC winners playing on Sunday: Brendan Guiney, Noel Kennelly, Stephen Stack, Eamon Breen, Eamon Fitzmaurice, Paul Galvin, Enda Galvin.
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