Examination of Tralee football can be done later, this is all about survival

CRUCIAL HOUR: David Moran of Kerins O'Rahilly's.

It’s the game in Kerry football that everybody wishes they never have to partake in, but by 6pm this evening, either Na Gaeil or Kerins O’Rahillys will have fallen through the senior relegation trap-door, and into the intermediate championship for next season.

Following on from Austin Stacks’ demotion this time last year after their defeat to Kenmare Shamrocks, and the Rockies’ subsequent failure to bounce straight back at the first time of asking, the town of Tralee will be left with just one representative in the Bishop Moynihan Cup race of 2024.

So, how big a match is tonight’s clash at Austin Stack Park?

“The only answer I can give to that is that if you consider all the time and effort that we’ve given coming up from Division 4, winning novice championships, junior championships, intermediate championships, and finally made it as senior, we definitely don’t want to go back down,” says Na Gaeil chairman Conor Kavanagh.

His Strand Road counterpart, Haulie Kerins, is of a similar view. 

“It’s the game that you don’t want to be involved in, because you would be dreading an adverse outcome out of it. You don’t want to become intermediate when you’re senior, and you’ll do everything possible that you can to prevent that from happening.” 

With only eight clubs participating in the senior club championship in the Kingdom, the margins are so fine each and every campaign. 

With the weakened squads that both Tralee clubs have had to endure in the competition, it’s not a huge shock that they find themselves in tonight’s crunch tie.

“We had an interesting year in a lot of ways. We had a lot of long-term injuries, we had a lot of young fellas who played during the league. 

"We survived in Division 2, and really only for a bad result against Templenoe, we wouldn’t be in this situation now,” added the Na Gaeil chairman.

“We were unlucky with all the long-term injuries – the two Barry brothers, Andrew and Fergal, Oisin Maunsell, Enda O’Connor, Diarmuid’s brother, we had Stefan (Okunbor) out for most of the season, Dan Goggin out for a lot of the season. Thankfully, those two lads are getting back.” 

Kerins O’Rahillys, of course, are the current Munster senior club kingpins, and gave a great account of themselves in the All-Ireland semi-final against Kilmacud Crokes back in January. They have also been without key figures like Jack Savage and Gavin O’Brien for the majority of the year.

“It’s a tough spot to preserve your status, because of the fact that there are only eight teams, and I suppose this year, we wouldn’t be making an issue of it, but we did lose a lot of high-quality players to going abroad,” added Kerins.

“There was one stage where we were playing club championship matches during the summer, and we were starting with seven of the fifteen that started up in Croke Park last January against Kilmacud. It’s no surprise that we are where we are, to be honest about it.” 

In the recent county championship, Kerins O’Rahillys didn’t come out of their group, despite winning their opening encounter, but it was a different story for Na Gaeil, who eliminated Dr Crokes on their way to a quarter-final defeat to next week’s finalists Mid Kerry.

The loser of this evening’s game will join Austin Stacks and John Mitchels at intermediate level next season and, whether it’s the Killeen men or the Strand Road outfit who make the dreaded drop, there is a strong belief that this is just a blip in the overall picture of Tralee football.

“These things just come in cycles. It’s disappointing alright when a town with a population of 25,000 people, after this weekend, will have just the one senior club. That would be disappointing in the overall context,” said the Kerins O’Rahillys’ chairman.

“I’m not sure it has long-term implications. These things can be cyclical. There are a lot of good teams around Killarney at the moment. Likewise, you will have a lot of good teams from Tralee playing intermediate next year,” is the Na Gaeil chairman’s take on it.

The wider meaning for Tralee can be examined fully another time. Today is simply about survival.