Kildangan facing trip to Kerry

TIPPERARY champions Kildangan have failed in an attempt to change the venue for next Sunday’s Munster club JFC final against Kerry outfit Dromid Pearses.

The game will take place at a Kerry venue, Moyvane, the home club of Munster Council chairman and former Kingdom chief, Sean Walsh.

Kildangan team manager Eamon Kelly revealed a request went into the Munster Council last week, requesting a venue in a neutral county. But that appeal fell on deaf ears, and Kildangan will fly the flag for Tipperary on Kerry soil next weekend.

“We emailed Munster Council to see if we could have a neutral county venue, somewhere like Mallow [Cork] or Newcastlewest [in Co Limerick],” Kelly revealed yesterday.

“Sean Walsh is the Munster Council chairman and his home club is Moyvane. They say it’s a halfway point, I don’t know. But we had an email back to say that the game is definitely going ahead there. From a supporters’ perspective, Dromid Pearses will have a lot more support but we asked the question, it didn’t happen, so we just have to move on.”

Kelly admitted winning in the Kingdom would make victory all the sweeter but acknowledged the size of the task facing his players against a team backboned by Kerry senior star Declan O’Sullivan and Eanna O’Connor, highly-rated son of county boss Jack.

“We’re under no illusions — we’ll have to produce something we haven’t seen already; they’re a very good side.”

It’s already been a remarkable year for this group of Kildangan players, many of whom featured for Thomas MacDonaghs in their historic county SFC success.

“We’ve had a huge knock-on effect from the MacDonagh’s win,” he said.

“Chris Conway [former Leinster SFC winner with Laois] was training MacDonaghs and he’s giving a hand with Kildangan now. His level of knowledge is invaluable.”