North Kerry unification in Kingdom's county championship is on the cards

At the February Kerry County Board meeting, representatives from Feale Rangers and Shannon Rangers said both divisional teams want to amalgamate into one side. However, their application has come late in the day with a new format for the 2025 Kerry SFC already decided. 

Feale Rangers in 2007 were the last of the north Kerry divisional teams to win a county title. Pic: Stephen McCarthy / SPORTSFILE

Decades of rivalry between the Feale Rangers and Shannon Rangers district sides will be set aside and with one team set to represent north Kerry in the county championship. The ground breaking news emerged at this month's county board meeting. 

This is subject to the CCC being able to accommodate a request from the two entities to merge into one team and if it can be done, a decision will be taken at the April meeting of the board. 

Correspondence was read out from both Feale Rangers and Shannon Rangers seeking the approval from the county committee to enter just one team in the senior football championship in 2025 to represent north Kerry football. 

The major stumbling block is the application has arrived very late in the day, as alluded to by CCC chairman Terence Houlihan. It will have to be assessed by the committee as the format of this year’s SFC has already been decided in line with the recommendations of the Football Review Committee report under chairperson Dara O Cinnéide. That format may now have to altered.

Traditionalists in both Feale and Shannon Rangers had opposed a move to amalgamate when it was suggested previously but it appears pressures from the younger brigade in north Kerry have won out.

Shannon Rangers were founded in 1940 and have won five Kerry SFC titles while Feale Rangers were set up in 1946 and have won three. The correspondence from both teams sought permission to enter one team in the SFC using the North Kerry name.

St Senans delegate Tom O’Connell, speaking on behalf of Feale Rangers, said that it was difficult to get a panel of players together. 

“I played and won a championship medal myself in the 1980’s and have been a selector on numerous occasions since," he said. 

"We have found it almost impossible to get players to commit as we just do not have the numbers. 

"I think for the betterment of football in north Kerry, I would like to see Shannon Rangers and Feale Rangers coming together as one team. I really hope that the county board will support us. It will have the added advantage of feeding into the county team as well because north Kerry would be competitive and it would raise standards.” 

Alan Kennelly, secretary of Shannon Rangers, also asked the county board to support the request.

“We find it increasingly difficult to get teams out and be competitive in the county championship," he said.

"I think there has been a bit of a push from younger players who have competed in recent years at underage level to see can it be replicated at senior level. Numbers are very much against us in Shannon Rangers as five of our six clubs were mentioned in demographic officer Michael Murphy’s report as being areas where numbers are falling and are continuing to fall. 

"It’s not a plan to create a super region or superpower rather is it an effort to put together a decent panel, be competitive in the most important championship in Kerry. We just want to put our best foot forward in it and we ask that you might support our proposal."

North Kerry Rangers were formed around the time of the covid pandemic. They won a county minor title in 2022 and were beaten finalists in 2023, while the North Kerry U21 side won the county championship in 2023 with such rising stars as Eddie Healy, Robert Stack, Evan Boyle and Cormac Dillon.

Newly elected North Kerry Board chairman Eamon Whelan said that if the Kerry County Board and CCC pass this proposal, the divisional board will certainly endeavour to get the best team on the field. 

“Obviously it is a bit late, and I understand that, so it will be a decision for the county board and the CCC if this is possible," said Whelan.

"Hopefully we can move on and an amalgamation is the best way forward at this stage.“ 

Terrance Houlihan said that the proposal was coming very late in the day.

“From the CCC point of view, we would look at this as an application that has come late to the table but again if the county committee decide to pass and approve this, we will have to look at it," he said.

"From a CCC point of view, we have to outline here if this is passed, the format that Dara Ó Cinnéide came up with will not work going forward. We will be going from eight district groupings down to seven and that doesn’t work in the formula that the championship review came up with. 

"So will have to look at a new formula and that will be something the CCC will have to look at it. But it certainly will not be what the county committee voted in last April for 2025.” 

Chairman Patrick O’Sullivan recommended that “subject to the CCC finding a suitable format to play the SFC and the county committee agreeing to said format, that we will make a decision at the April county board meeting.”