Kerry’s big asset

WHEN you’re six ft six, the view over the horizon is as good as the one over your shoulder. Mike Quirke appears an unlikely weathervane for the state of Kerry football, but he has an unique perspective of the Kingdom’s pasts, present and its future.

“Thomas Hickey,” he suggests as the table talk in Tralee’s Mount Brandon Hotel lurches back to the future. “He’s an Under 16 from Castleisland, his brother Maurice was a Kerry minor last year. He’s left-legged, red-haired, a super footballer,” says Quirke.

This much I know. Hickey’s father, Tommy ‘Juicy’ was a freakishly natural basketballer, footballer and soccer player. Quirke says his junior ticks those boxes, and then some.