Tralee’s footballing overlords have the chance to make history — together
ROCK AND A HARD PLACE: Austin Stacks’ Cian Purcell is harrassed by Pa Kilkenny and Oisin O’Connor of Glenbeigh-Glencar in Sunday’s Kerry IFC semi-final at Fitzgerald Stadium. Pic: MacMonagle
THE final of Kerry’s intermediate football final has been scheduled for Sunday, Sept 8th, a week before the start of the county senior championship. Two traditional powerhouses - indeed All-Ireland club SFC champions - will vie for the right to reclaim their senior status, Killorglin’s Laune Rangers facing Austin Stacks of Tralee. Neither side has a pup in charge, Killorglin are managed by Liam Hassett with Billy O’Shea alongside while Stacks have former Limerick boss Billy Lee at the helm.
It may not do a whole pile for the SFC preparations of Mid Kerry, with whom Laune Rangers are aligned, nor St Brendan’s, who count Stacks among their constituent parts, but that’s not what has tongues wagging in the Kingdom about the St Brendan’s amalgamation.
For the first time in Kerry championship history, Tralee’s venerable footballing overlords – Stacks, John Mitchels, and Kerins O’Rahilly’s, with 29 SFC titles between them – will be playing on the same senior county championship team.
Or at least are eligible to do so.
It hasn’t come about by choice, of course. Recent relegations in Kerry’s cut-throat grading system from senior to intermediate has seen the Rock and Strand Road join their old adversaries from Boherbee (though Mitchels have now decamped to a purpose-built facility in Farmer’s Bridge, outside the town) as part of the St Brendan’s amalgamation. Throw in some talent from Churchill, Ardfert, and Blennerville, and there’s serious potential there to rattle a championship if they can be corralled into a pen and pointed in the right direction.
Mice at a crossroads and all that.
Where was the county town delivered five championships in a row, now the only Tralee club left in the senior grade is its newest - the Na Gaeil club in Oakpark.
For St Brendan's to be a threat this autumn, much would depend on who was in charge, and when the tandem of Mark Fitzgerald, the Clare manager, and James Costello, his coach in the Banner and a former Kerry minor manager, was mooted, there was a spike in interest. The Fitzgerald rumour turned out to be false but Costello, from Blennerville, is at the St Brendan’s helm. For those unconvinced, he is likely to be joining Jack O’Connor’s Kerry management ticket in the coming days, so he’s got to have some game.
Whether that is enough to convince the Stacks players to throw their lot in may be determined by the IFC final. A Stacks win would mean a return to senior in 2025 and, in all likelihood, less interest in the St Brendan’s voyage, which kicks off with a winnable clash against South Kerry in round one.
In Ben Murphy, Daniel Kirby and Paddy Lane, Stacks have some of the brightest young footballers in the county, but as Billy Lee points out, they are still nascent talents.
“There’s a transition going on. Paddy and Daniel, that’s probably just their fifth game,” he said in the wake of Sunday’s IFC semi-final win over Glenbeigh-Glencar. “Daniel hasn’t even played five games because he was sub in the first two. People need to give the lads time. There is a lot of talk about the youth coming through in Stacks, and they are there, no question, but youth is the word. Unless you are exceptional like David Clifford, and you have 15 of those, in the modern game it’s very hard to win with youth because of strength and conditioning, power and pace and fitness. Young lads generally don’t have it at that stage. They do need to be given time.”
The Tralee clubs haven’t been as one since winning the 2001 Under 21 championship as part of a short-lived Tralee amalgamation in that grade. It was felt the townie combo was simply too strong. On paper, the St Brendan’s squad is a contender to displace East Kerry – both the team and the region – as the centre of power in Kerry football. Whether Costello and his lieutenants can seduce them all into the same dressing room for Sept 15th is a different matter altogether.
Meanwhile, Dr Crokes and Dingle will vie this Sunday for the right to be crowned Kerry senior club champions – and be the county’s representative in Munster Club were East Kerry, St Brendan’s or any of the divisional sides to win the county championship.
: (first named team has home venue, ET and winner on the day): Currow v Firies, 5pm; Keel v St Senan’s, 5pm; (first named team has home venue, ET and winner on the day): Cordal v Lispole, 5pm, Duagh v Cromane, 6pm.
(Replay if level after extra time): Dingle v Dr Crokes, Austin Stack Park, 2pm; : Ballymacelligott v Annascaul, John Mitchels, 12.30; Ardfert v Castlegregory, Lerrig, 4pm.
Skellig Rangers v Tarbert, 1pm; Knocknagoshel v. St Michael’s Foilmore, 2pm.
(Replay if level after extra time): Austin Stacks v Laune Rangers, Fitzgerald Stadium, 3pm.
(ET and winner on the day): Kenmare Shamrocks v Dr Crokes, Kenmare, 4pm; Na Gaeil v Shannon Rangers, Austin Stack Park, 5pm; St Kieran’s v West Kerry, Austin Stack Park, 7pm.
: Templenoe v Feale Rangers, Templenoe, 2pm; St Brendan’s v South Kerry, Austin Stack Park, 4pm; Milltown/Castlemaine v Spa, Fitzgerald Stadium, 1pm; Rathmore v East Kerry, Fitzgerald Stadium, 3pm; Mid Kerry v Dingle, Austin Stack Park, 6pm.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
