Kerry SFC: Can Kerins O’Rahilly’s youthful spine take down the 'standard-bearers'?

While back-to-back semi-finals were reached in 2017 and 2018, no further were Rahilly’s able to go as they bid to make a first final in 15 years

David Moran of Kerins O'Rahilly's Dingle's Barra O Suilleabhain in action during the Kerry SFC quarter-final. Picture: Domnick Walsh 

Ross O’Callaghan was in his second year on the Kerins O’Rahilly’s senior panel when the club reached the 2008 Kerry county final.

Just 18 at the time of the replay defeat to Mid Kerry, O’Callaghan, along with the likes of David Moran, Tommy Walsh, and Barry John Keane, was a graduate of the club’s first and only county minor winning team from two years earlier.

Taken together, the minor triumph and subsequent senior final run lent themselves to a justified expectation that there would be further county final appearances in the seasons after 2008.

13 years on, though, and Kerins O’Rahilly’s are still searching for that next involvement in the concluding afternoon of the Kerry SFC.

During this near decade and a half wait, county U21 silverware was annexed in 2015, a win that delivered fresh optimism of a return to the senior showpiece.

But while back-to-back semi-finals were reached in 2017 and 2018, no further were Rahilly’s able to go.

This Sunday afternoon, the Strand Road outfit make their latest bid for final inclusion. Dr Crokes, as was the case in their most recent semi-final appearance three years ago, stand between them and an overdue final berth.

“If you look on paper, some people might say we have underachieved as a group,” begins team captain O’Callaghan, “but look, there are different scenarios every year. Within those years, you had Tommy Walsh going to Australia, you had David Moran’s two cruciate injuries. You could say we have underachieved, but you could also say we are still knocking on the door, still there.

David Moran is one of a number of familiar faces in the Kerins O'Rahilly's line-up. Picture: Domnick Walsh 

“I came in in 2007 and then in 2008 you are in a championship final. You are thinking, ‘this is great, this will happen every year’. But it just shows, we haven’t been back to one yet.

“When Mike Quirke was in charge a couple of years back, it was a pity we didn’t at least make a final as we were going well at that time.”

Their run to this season’s semi-final has been noteworthy for the standout contributions of their thirty-something members, Tommy Walsh throwing over three marks and three from play in the first-round win over St Kieran’s. His second-half showing against Dingle was every bit as impressive, the recently retired inter-county footballer assisting for Rahillys’ opening goal as well as again finding the target from the mark and open play.

Beside him in the inside line, 31-year-old Barry John Keane had three points to his name by the first water break in the second-round clash with Dingle.

But fellow 31-year-old O’Callaghan maintains this Kerins O’Rahilly’s team is not being driven by the survivors from 2008, rather those that backboned the aforementioned U21 success six years ago.

“You have got good young guys coming through who are leaders, the likes of Gavin O’Brien, Tom Hoare, Cormac Coffey, Jack Savage.

It is not just about the guys who are 30-plus. It is the younger leaders, big, physical men that are really driving us on and maybe that is where we are getting it from too. Maybe that is what the key was for us all along.

“Younger again then are the five players who have made their county championship debuts this year, corner-back Donagh Buckley, goalkeeper Shane Foley, Daniel Bowler, Conor O’Sullivan, and Jerome Daly.

“There is a good blend there now and I definitely think there is more in us.”

Which they’ll need to extract from themselves if Dr Crokes are to be removed from the county championship at the semi-final stage for the second year in succession. Rahilly’s did get the better of the Killarney men in the early rounds of the 2018 championship, coming from nine down in the second half, but, as mentioned above, when they renewed acquaintances in the penultimate round in the same season, it was Crokes who prevailed with nine to spare.

“Maybe we are further down the line as a group and we understand what it feels like to lose at this stage of the championship,” remarked the full-back.

“It’ll take a massive effort to beat them. They have been the standard-bearers for the last decade. We just want to go out there and give it a crack.”