Kealy’s day arrives as Kerry begin title defence

KERRY football boss Jack O’Connor has named ten of last September’s All-Ireland winning team for the opening clash of their All-Ireland title defence in Sunday’s Munster SFC quarter-final against Tipperary in Semple Stadium.

The five new players in are goalkeeper Brendan Kealy, who is the sole championship debutant in the starting 15, midfielder Michéal Quirke, left half-forward Donncha Walsh, full-forward Kieran Donaghy and left corner-forward Bryan Sheehan.

That quintet fill the voids left by the retirements of Diarmuid Murphy and Darragh O Sé, and the departure of Tadgh Kennelly and Tommy Walsh to pursue careers in Australian Rules. Last year’s captain Darran O’Sullivan drops to the bench with this year’s captain Sheehan taking his place. Of the 11 players O’Connor has named on his bench only three were involved in last year’s campaign with David Hennessy, Adrian O’Connell, Kieran O’Leary, Barry John Keane, Niall O’Mahony, Pat Corridan and Brendan Guiney all new to this year’s squad.