There was a period during the most successful spell in the county’s storied football history when North Kerry was the living pulse and beating heartbeat of the game in the Kingdom.
During the famed ‘Glory Years’ from 1975 to 1986, when the Sam Maguire Cup was collected on eight occasions by Mick O’Dwyer’s team of the ages, men of the calibre of Charlie Nelligan, Tim Kennelly, Jimmy Deenihan, Denis ‘Ogie’ Moran and Eoin ‘Bomber’ Liston were among the first names on the team sheet, with a younger attacker John Kennedy soon to make his mark as well.
At county championship level, North Kerry’s dominance at the time was exemplified by the meeting of the district’s two divisional outfits, Feale Rangers and Shannon Rangers, in the 1977 final, won by the latter, who had also lifted the Bishop Moynihan Cup five years previously.
Feale Rangers might have tasted defeat to their neighbours, but that didn’t stall their progress as they proved by lifting the county titles of 1978 and 1980, while also bringing home runners-up medals in 1982, 1983 and 1985, during their halcyon days of reaching six finals in nine seasons. Such illustrious moments are now just a distant memory for residents of a region that is soaked in football folklore, with Feale Rangers’ against-the-odds victory over South Kerry in the 2007 decider the only occasion in the last 40 years where ultimate championship honours have rested with the north of the county.
To add to the downbeat mood in the locality, Shane Enright’s retirement in January after 10 years at the coalface of senior inter-county activity has left Ballydonoghue’s Jason Foley as the only North Kerry representative on Peter Keane’s 26-man squad that hammered Galway in their Allianz League opener last weekend, although Brian Leonard of Castleisland Desmonds (the 1985 All-Ireland club champions) is a newcomer to the extended panel.
Enright, who collected an All-Ireland medal in 2014 and picked up an All-Star the following season, believes that the road back to respectability and increased recognition for players in the area must begin at underage and schools’ level.
“You would probably question what is going on at underage level, because players are not coming through at the moment. Maybe there’s a slight lack of interest or whatever, because I know from talking to people back around East Kerry, that the 15 and 16-year-olds are mad to get into the gym and to do weights, whereas here in North Kerry, it’s a bit more difficult,” he said.
“There are different interests, fellas are into soccer and rugby, plus the schools is a big thing as well. You have the Comprehensive in Tarbert where I went to, you have Listowel and Ballybunion, but none of them would be at ‘A’ level at schools level.
That’s a big stepping stone, because if you’re playing well at that colleges level, you’ll get a chance with the Kerry minors and you can develop players that way.
“That isn’t happening at the moment, because you are playing at weaker levels, and I suppose if you look at the likes of the ‘Sem’ (St Brendan’s Killarney) and the ‘Green’ (Tralee CBS) who are playing top class football, they are playing in Corn Uí Mhuirís and Hogan Cups. A combined North Kerry schools team in the Corn Ui Mhuirí would be very hard to do. How are you going to get three schools to train together? It’s virtually impossible. They would have to train in the evening when club football is going on. So that’s probably not an option, even though it would make it a lot stronger.”
North Kerry Board chairman Johnny Stack admits that there is certainly room for improvement in the progression of players through the system, but he believes that there are green shoots of recovery to be seen already.
“We might not be having success at bringing players through at senior level, but we have had a lot of players on the different minor teams that won five All-Ireland titles (2014-18).
“We should also have a good representation on this year’s Kerry minor squad as well. We have about ten players in that 40-man training panel at the moment” he said.
“There is a lot of work going on behind the scenes in all the clubs as well. Ballydonoghue are in the 2020 junior premier final, Brosna were in that semi-final, Desmonds are in the 2020 intermediate semis, and I have also seen in the North Kerry Championship in the past two or three years that there are a pile of young players with great potential. I have no doubt that, if we all pull together that it’s only a matter of time before we turn things around.”
The lack of employment, the commitment to hurling in some villages, and the fact that many of the North Kerry clubs are operating in the lower divisions of the County Leagues are also factors that are stalling football’s development, with the County Board recently establishing a North Kerry Football Review Committee to undertake a complete root and branch review.
All-Ireland-winning player and manager Éamonn Fitzmaurice, captain of Feale Rangers’ victorious county championship side of 2007, will chair the new committee, with recommendations to be brought back to the County Board in November.
Both Enright and Stack are confident that the Finuge man’s involvement will be important.
“Éamonn will leave no stone unturned anyway in trying to get the football up to standard in North Kerry.
He’s brilliant at what he does that way. He will look into every aspect of the football and see what he can do. I’m thinking of a couple of solutions there, but he’s probably got five or six of them. I have no doubt but that he will bring North Kerry football on,” said Tarbert’s Enright.
“Anything that can help football in the locality is a good thing. Éamonn Fitzmaurice is a North Kerry man. He knows the ins and outs as much as anyone does,” added Moyvane’s Stack.
An interesting development is that Feale Rangers and Shannon Rangers will amalgamate this year with one North Kerry team being entered in the county minor championship. Could this be the precursor for a similar move at senior level in the next couple of years?
Enright is not convinced that that would be a panacea for all of North Kerry’s problems.
“They are talking about North Kerry coming together as one football team in the County Championship but I’m not sure about it.
“Obviously, you would have a strong team and be more competitive, but you are looking at 10, 11, 12 clubs, and a lot of clubs would probably have no player then. The weaker clubs would be giving out, and it would be hard for fellas to make it as there probably would be too many teams.”
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