Lixnaw’s heroics hailed by Kerry chief

Kerry chairman Patrick O’Sullivan has welcomed the latest statement by a hurling club from the county in the Munster IHC.

However, he warns much more work has to be done on the game in the Kingdom.

Lixnaw’s quarter-final win over Cork champions Ballyhea was a turn-up for the books even though they led by seven points at half-time.

“To be honest, over the last few years the standard of the senior championship has been very good,” said O’Sullivan. “Ballyduff reached the Munster final two years ago and last year Munster probably came too quick for St Brendan’s.

“To Lixnaw’s credit, they were excellent in this year’s championship and they would have fancied their chances of beating Ballyhea. At one stage, they were eight points up and that’s a testament to the fight that they carried throughout the game. It’s a credit to them and they’re a credit to Kerry.”

O’Sullivan is hoping recent funding commitments on top of a soon-to-be-released strategic plan for hurling in the county will produce more greenshoots in Kerry hurling.

“Things are improving slowly but until we get the base right at under-age level we’re not going to make significant progress. It’s about getting the right people in charge of teams and with the money from Croke Park we’ll be investing in proper development squads and the Causeway school will be a large part of that.

“The big question for Kerry is how are we going to get more people playing the game in the south of the county in areas like Kenmare, Killarney and Tralee. Our hurling teams are playing each other almost week-in, week-out.

When we have teams from those towns competing with the established clubs we’ll know we’re going places.

“We can’t do everything from the start, we’ll have to cherrypick teams initially. Gerald McCarthy and the hurling steering group are putting the final touches to their plan and will soon be presenting to the hurling chairman, secretary and myself.