Galbally Pearses Rafferty keen to get inside track on Kerry stars from clubmate Tally 

Galbally Pearses take on Shane Ryan and Paul Murphy's Rathmore in the All-Ireland Intermediate club final this weekend. 

INSIDE KNOWLEDGE: Liam Rafferty of Galbally Pearses, Tyrone, left, and Paul Murphy of Rathmore, Kerry, pictured ahead of the AIB GAA All-Ireland Football Intermediate Club Championship Final, which takes place this Sunday, January 15th at Croke Park at 3.30pm. Pic: David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile

Galbally Pearses and Tyrone footballer Liam Rafferty has said he will be tapping up one of his clubmates in order to get the lowdown on the Kerry stars in the Rathmore ranks ahead of their All-Ireland Intermediate club final meeting this Sunday.

County man Rafferty is gearing up for the decider at Croke Park, and is looking to get the lowdown on the Kerry outfit, and in particular, Kingdom stars Shane Ryan and Paul Murphy. 

Rafferty's clubmate Paddy Tally took over as Kerry coach for the 2022 season and alongside coach Jack O'Connor, led the side to their first All-Ireland since 2014. In Rafferty's view, he's the perfect man to pick up the phone to in the coming days.  

"I’ll definitely be getting a chat with Paddy this week to see how the likes of the two county players Paul Murphy and Shane Ryan [operate], they are on the panel," he said. 

"I’d be close to Paddy he’d have coached me at St Mary’s for a couple of years so it will be interesting to see what he has to say but we know what to expect from a Kerry team. 

"We’ll be doing our video analysis watching patterns of play and trying to curb the influence of their key players."

Versatile operator Rafferty had a significant impact on the Tyrone squad during the final Mickey Harte-managed campaign in 2020, but he was not given a chance to feature prominently in 2021 as they won their fourth All-Ireland championship in grand fashion. 

In 2022, he could do little to stop his clubmate from helping bring Sam Maguire back to Kerry. 

Asked if he took pride in what Tally had achieved, Rafferty said he had no doubt that the coach would bring success to the Munster outfit, but, as expected, would prefer if Kerry weren't the team marching up the Hogan Stand. 

"It’s brilliant to see Paddy doing so well although I don’t want to see Kerry win an All-Ireland," Rafferty quips. "I suppose it is nice to see a clubmate involved in a [winning] team. 

"I knew from having Paddy as a coach he was going to make a difference to that Kerry squad and it proved to be successful and Kerry look like a very formidable force going forward they will be hard to stop and I’d say they’ll try and hold on to Paddy for a bit longer too."