Kerry in it for long haul as away days add up

It was Cork last year. Before they made their way up the M8 for a league semi-final in April, the odometer on the team coach read almost 3,400km for their four away days in the round stages of Division 1.

For diehard supporters in the west of the county, their loyalty would have clocked in around 4,500km.

Now it’s Kerry’s turn. This spring sees them travel to Dublin, Down, Mayo, and Monaghan — “and Dublin is the shortest of them” says Kerry chairman Patrick O’Sullivan.

At least at this time of year the snipes at Cork and Kerry’s stayaway football fans are misplaced when, apart from Donegal and Mayo, more is asked of them to show their support than other leading football counties.

Geography hurts in many ways. “The rest of the country might be exploding but it’s not here in Kerry,” bemoans O’Sullivan.

“Kerry is busy in the tourism section but it’s seasonal. There are no permanent jobs coming down here and when that happens you have no loose cash. Peter Crowley’s father Joe is in charge of registration and boundaries and it’s come to the stage in South Kerry where only one club can field a 15-a-side team at U16.

“The rest of them just can’t. If the county was on a better footing it would be a bit easier for people to get to games. But it’s a long journey for a Kerry supporter to be making at the end of January when he or she would be hoping to be back in Dublin in September. Having cash for these weekends away is difficult. And it’s not going to get any easier.”

Ahead of tonight’s game in Croke Park, the Kerry camp flew to Dublin yesterday where they will stay for two nights in the city’s DoubleTree Hilton Hotel before they take a coach back tomorrow.

Before you mention Kerry can well afford it considering their black tie gala in the hotel last night and their impressive multimillion fundraising in the US the last few years, O’Sullivan will stop you in your tracks.

“People see those figures but they’re not accurate when you take into account costs of staging such events and what we’re doing with the centre of excellence. This is my fifth year as chairman and in the other four years we’ve made a surplus of €150,000 on the day-to-day running and that’s after being in two All-Ireland finals.

“We’re staying a second night because of the evening throw-in. You can’t tell a team they can’t be at their best. Like, we use Mike Buckley’s coaches and they’re state-of-the-art with wifi for the players’ laptops, tablets, and phones. We feed them properly. They’re kitted out well. We try to be as professional as we can.”

After this weekend, their away arrangements return to the usual practice of meeting up the day before the game in the Fitzgeralds Woodlands House Hotel in Adare, having a bite, then settling in for a long trek. Theirs is a schedule shared across the country but for Kerry, Cork, their western brethren and supporters, the journey is longer.