St Kieran’s looking to defy odds in Kerry SFC showdown

Gaelic Football, Football, GAA, generic, stock 1 July 2017; A general view of a football before the GAA Football All-Ireland Senior Championship Round 2A match between Meath and Sligo at Páirc Tailteann in Navan, Co Meath. Photo by Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile

Jimmy Keane will never forget the Kerry county senior football final of 1988.

The Brosna man, a 21-year-old rookie at the time, lined out in the number seven jersey for complete underdogs, St Kieran’s, who stunned Dr Crokes (0-10 to 0-3) to claim the divisional side’s first senior title since the 1950 success of a Castleisland selection.

To put the achievement in greater context, St Kieran’s were without the Desmonds contingent, who were All-Ireland club champions three years previously, while Crokes had been in the previous year’s county decider, and would go on, themselves, to lift the Andy Merrigan Cup in 1992.

“We were rank outsiders for that championship, similar to the situation we are in now, and we were rank outsiders in that final,” said Keane, who will manage the side in this Saturday’s SFC quarter-final against defending champions, East Kerry, at Austin Stack Park (7.15).

“We believed in our own abilities. We knew that, if we performed on the day, we could rattle them. We actually held them to three points and I think Con Houlihan wrote that we were ‘a team of 15 backs!’ “We managed to get over the line and that’s all that counts. I was marking Connie Murphy and he got an All Star the following year. Whether it was my performance that day that helped get him the All Star remains to be seen!

“Pa Dennehy was our trump card, our go-to forward. We actually had a great blend of youth and experience. Sean McElligott went on to play Kerry senior, Timmy Brosnan was on the fringes of the Kerry team and, of course, Mick Galwey was a key player for us. He actually played for Munster the day before and then played the county final the day after.

“John McNally, from Tyrone, was our trainer. He was an outsider who had no prior opinions of clubs or people. He just picked the right players in the right positions, regardless of what club they were from.

We still try and do that today. He was a great motivator and great speaker with a great football brain.” The St Kieran’s backroom team of ’88 also contained Ballymac duo, Tom Donoghue and Johnny Breen, and Cordal’s Jimmy Roche and, even though 32 years have passed, the connection between the past and present remains intertwined.

“Yeah, Johnny Breen is the President of St Kieran’s. He is a great man. He still goes to every single one of our training sessions and challenge games. As well as that, Tim Geaney, who was corner-back in 1988, is our treasurer.” St Kieran’s haven’t won the Bishop Moynihan Cup since, and have only reached one final, when they lost to East Kerry (2-13 to 1-10), in the 1998 decider. Why the long gap?

Trying to put a team together from seven different clubs (Brosna, Desmonds, Knocknagoshel, Ballymac, Cordal, Scartaglin, Currow), incorporating three different district boards (North Kerry, Tralee and East Kerry) is certainly a good starting point.

“It’s frightening in a way that it’s 32 years. We are the only team in the championship that is faced with overcoming those obstacles. We have no voice in the County Board either, because we are split into three different districts,” added Keane.

“It’s a tough ordeal, it’s not easy to get players to buy into it and clubs to buy into it as well. You look at Seamus Scanlon, who has retired this year from us. He won an All-Ireland, won an All Star, but couldn’t win a county championship. It’s a tough competition to win.

“You need an element of luck too. If you could pinpoint the exact reason why we haven’t won it, we would have sorted it out a long time ago!” Promising seeds are starting to bloom, however. In their rip-roaring first round victory over an experienced South Kerry last Sunday, St Kieran’s started five players who are all part of John Sugrue’s Kerry Under-20 squad – Luka Brosnan, Sean O’Connell, Sean and Eddie Horan, and Paul Walsh.

“You could throw in Danny Hickey too, who is injured at the moment. It’s great in a way. They are getting great experience and they have the talent to be in with Kerry. We’re fierce lucky to have them.

They are an integral part of what we are doing.” Keane, and his management team of selectors Eamon John O’Donoghue and Tommy Horan, with Pat White (strength and conditioning), are fostering a club spirit within the group after a conscious decision to remove the players’ clubs from match programmes. It’s one for all, and all for one, in St Kieran’s.

“We are all from different backgrounds but, if we’re trying to foster a team ethic in St Kieran’s, you have to, first of all, want to be there, and then commit 100 per cent when you are there. You can’t ride two horses in the one race!

“Once we are in this, St Kieran’s are our club. The boys have really bought into it, and are doing everything we ask of them. We don’t care where you are from. We are making it as close to a club set- up as we can.” The ultimate challenge awaits now on Saturday night – David Clifford and a star-studded East Kerry.

“They are obviously the toughest test. Maybe we could have done with another test before meeting them, but it is what it is. They are a phenomenal team. I heard somebody saying they could field two teams, and both would get to the county final! And that they could probably hold their own in Division 3 of the inter-county National League.

“It’s a huge learning experience for our young fellas. We will see exactly what we are made of, how far off we might be and how far we have to go.” St Kieran’s may hit a potential roadblock on Saturday night. Their immediate journey may be temporarily stalled. But, with such a conveyor belt of talent coming through, the final destination might not be too far into the distance.