Championship Preview: In Kerry, the well of tradition is there to be drawn from. But it will no longer win an All-Ireland

WHEN Kerry won one of the most dour and tactically conservative All-Ireland finals in recent memory, last September, it would have been easiest to have put it down to tradition. Kerry win All-Irelands because that is what Kerry traditionally do. 

Right? Kerry’s rich football heritage has been the wellspring for many the fine yarn, poem and ballad. The likes of Joe Smyth, his nephew, Liam Mac Gabhann, Bryan McMahon, his son, Garry, Dan Keane, of Moyvane, and Cormac O’ Leary, of the same parish, are just some of the many who have contributed to the vast store of poetry and balladry that feeds into the Kerry football legend.

In more recent years, Moyvane’s greatest living poet, Gabriel Fitzmaurice, published a book of poetry entitled In Praise of Football. It contains paeans to well-known figures, such as Mikey Sheehy, Páidí Ó Sé, Eoin ‘Bomber’ Liston and Jimmy Deenihan.