Momentum swings with historic first-ever all-Tralee Corn Uí Mhuirí final

HISTORIC CLASH: Mercy Mounthawk Captain Odhran Ferris and Tralee CBS Captain Jake Foley with the Corn Uí Mhuirí

A fixture that points to a prosperous Tralee future. A final pairing that is most timely.

Over the past two years, there’s been a shift in Tralee’s football plates. And very little of that movement could be described as healthy.

In October of 2022, and 12 months after winning the Bishop Moynihan Cup, the town’s long established standard-bearers, Austin Stacks, were relegated from Kerry’s senior ranks.

If that wasn’t unthinkable enough, wait till you hear what happened next.

A year further on, and only 10 months after they had tasted Munster senior club success, Kerins O’Rahilly’s followed Stacks down to intermediate. The two modern-day totems of Tralee football banished to the second tier of local fare.

Austin Stacks’ failure to bounce back at the first attempt means the 2024 county intermediate championship will house two very recent Munster senior club finalists. Go riddle me that one.

Travelling in the other direction has been Na Gaeil. Tralee’s shiniest new entity won the junior in 2019 and earned promotion to the big time two years later. The season not long concluded saw them reach a first senior quarter-final.

Impossible to foresee was that there would come a day when they alone would carry the Tralee torch at the top table.

Such is the small number of senior spots and such is the competitiveness at intermediate level, there is absolutely no guarantee that any neighbour will have joined Na Gaeil at the top table by close of year.

Stacks and Strand Road will contend for intermediate silverware. But they must also contend with Fossa, Legion, Kilcummin, and Beaufort.

Look under the bonnet, though, and the back-to-back relegations suggest more of a blip than any long-term decay. Look in the gate of Austin Stack Park this afternoon and you’ll find a very healthy diagnosis for Tralee football.

History will be made if Mercy Mounthawk capture a first-ever Corn Uí Mhuirí. History has already been made with a first-ever all Tralee Corn Uí Mhuirí decider.

Across the two semi-finals, 13 Austin Stacks players featured. Kerins O’Rahilly’s representation might have been significantly lower at just two, but Tralee CBS were without injured captain and Strand Road talent Jake Foley. And a real talent he is.

John Mitchels have standout youngsters on either side of the fence. Seán Corkery is at half-forward for fancied Mounthawk. Raiding half-back Andrew Kerins and full-forward Darragh Cunnane are two key figures for Tralee CBS.

For Na Gaeil, Kian Sheehan was first Mounthawk sub in against the Sem, while corner-back Seán Barrett and replacements Oisín O’Sullivan and Seán Óg Brosnan are clubmates that saw semi-final minutes for Tralee CBS.

“Austin Stacks have an abundant amount of players,” says Mounthawk joint-manager Aidan O’Shea, whose starting team has eight Stacks boys.

“Their challenge is to try and keep them all playing. They’re obviously going to bounce back.

“Kerins O’Rahilly's are an unbelievable club, and no doubt they will be looking to bounce back this year, as well. They’re one of the strongest traditional clubs out there, and obviously it’s a huge blow for them to go down, but I think football in Tralee is healthy.” 

That view is shared further down the sideline by the Tralee CBS management.

“You can see that the Tralee clubs probably recognised a few years back that this was going to be an eventuality, that there would maybe be a lull at senior level,” says Tralee CBS joint-manager Liam O’Sullivan.

“To be fair to all those clubs, they put in fierce work at underage. The Tralee clubs will come again. That is for sure. This is probably the green shoots of it now. And it will take a few years then for us to fully see it at senior level.

“You do see cycles of it. A lot of it has to do with the general age-profile of areas of Tralee. People move out of houses, there is a lull, then younger couples move in, and it comes again. That is what you are seeing.

“On top of that, there has been very good coaching at club level. Because the lads are so strong on the basics coming into us, you can really hone in on the other areas then.” 

Wayne Quillinan was manager when Stacks won the county in 2021. He was manager when they were relegated in 2022. He is now the Kerry minor manager.

All that packed together, he’s no bad person to give their take on Tralee football’s current position.

“I know a lot of the guys coaching behind the scenes in Kerins O'Rahilly’s, you'd have the influence of Mike Quirke, Mark Fitzgerald, and others. They're going in the right way,” he says.

The structures appear similarly sound closer to home. The Kerry minor club championship was introduced in 2022. Stacks have won its first two iterations.

“We’ve always had a clear pathway going from 11s, 13s, 15s, 17s, and onto senior. That has always been there, and that has been there through hard work,” Quillinan continues.

“There was no kneejerk reaction (when we were relegated). It was a case of let's keep doing what we are doing, stick to what we have always known, and things will turn around. And I've no doubt that they will turn around.

“To see these two teams going head-to-head in a major schools final, it can only be good for Tralee football.”