'Kerry has eight or nine of the best free-takers in the country'

Abbeydorney manager Francis O’Halloran has been struck by the standard of free-taking in Kerry's hurling championship

Brendan O’Leary of Abbeydorney during the Kerry SHC semi-final win over Kilmoyley. Photo By Domnick Walsh 

Abbeydorney are the only one of eight North Kerry clubs in the Senior Hurling Championship not to have raised the Neilus Flynn Cup since the start of the new millennium. Once Crotta O’Neills ended a 55-year wait last year, Abbeydorney stand alone in enduring a 50-year wait since they last annexed the title in 1974. Even worse that Crottas are based in the same parish.

Francis O’Halloran, from the Ruan club in Clare, is the man at the Abbeydorney helm, with just Ballyduff in Sunday's final standing in the way of a famine ending.

“It’s great for the club to be here," he says. "We actually sat here last January, we had our players’ meeting, we had our values, we set out our stall, and one of the aims was to get to a county final. Now we’re 60 minutes away from winning it. If we perform, we’ll have a chance.

“I go back to my own county of Clare, and we’ve had good celebrations over the last couple of weeks, but you can guarantee that Tony Kelly and these lads, they all do the extras. Whether I’m here or not again next year, I could be run out of here next Sunday evening, but we’re enjoying it. The boys are bouncing off me, and I’m trying to get the best out of them, it’s working so far.” 

The manager is loud in his praise of star player Michael O’Leary, who he knew about long before arriving in Abbeydorney. "I was involved with the Clare 21s in 2015 or 2016, when he came on the scene in Kerry that time. We played them in a challenge match, Eamon Kelly or Conor Gleeson was maybe over the team at the time, and I said ‘who is this giant?’. He had everything."

One thing that has struck O’Halloran in his time in Kerry is the standard of free-taking.

"You have eight or nine of the best free-takers in the country in this county."

“Every club you go to, you would be hoping for a seven or eight out of ten. What I’ve seen over the last three months in league and championship is that you have absolutely outstanding free-takers. 

"Podge (Boyle) didn’t miss a thing the other night, Ronan Walsh, Philip Lucid, young Fionan Egan there, he’s going to be a great player, Shane Conway of course, he’s outstanding.“ 

Can Francie get Abbeydorney over the line and end a 50-year famine. “If we perform, we’ve a chance, and that’s in every game. That was the same in the match in Croke Park. We will be no different. 

“We won’t go too crazy on the opposition, we’ll do our own thing, we’ll get our own house in order, and if that’s good enough and we perform, I can do no more, or the group can do no more. If it’s good enough, it’s good enough."