Kerry out to beat the drop and defend proud top-flight record

Dara Ó Cinnéide, who has the unenviable record of being on the last two Kerry teams to go down, says the league is the best environment to blood new players for the Kingdom. 

Michael Comer of Galway in action against Dara Ó Cinnéide of Kerry at Tuam Stadium in 2001. Defeat that day consigned Kerry to relegation from Division 1. Pic: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

Twenty-three seasons Kerry have been a Division 1 team. The same amount of time Mayo were a member of the elite before their fall in 2020.

Another proud record is on the line this weekend and no other county currently comes close to boasting such a stay in the top flight. Table toppers Galway only returned to Division 1 in 2023, Dublin and Derry in ’24 and Armagh and Donegal this year. Mayo jumped back up in ’22 and Tyrone, who are also threatened by relegation, have the second-longest stretch going back to ’17.

Like they did in 2001, Kerry go to Galway hoping to avoid what would probably only be considered in the county as an indignity seeing as the last two All-Ireland champions emerged from Division 2.

In Tuam 24 years ago, current Galway manager Pádraic Joyce was his side’s top scorer landing eight points, three from play. His selector John Divilly was also a starter as was Kerry’s first goalscorer Aodán MacGearailt, who will share the sideline with them in Salthill on Sunday.

MacGearailt’s An Ghaeltacht club-mate Dara Ó Cinnéide’s abiding memory of the game is how much Galway, who Kerry had beaten in an All-Ireland final replay the previous October, were up for it when Noel Kennelly scored an early second-half goal.

“Noel got his fist to a ball and Michael Donnellan absolutely lost his head with his team-mates. I was beside him thinking to myself, ‘You’re one competitive man.’ They were well on their way to winning the game but he was furious.” 

That iteration of the league was the last ever commenced pre-Christmas. The first game against Louth in Killarney on October 29 came three weeks after Páidí Ó Sé had led Kerry to a second All-Ireland senior title as manager. Another defeat followed in Tyrone and the losses continued into the new year in Tullamore and Roscommon.

“People hadn’t wintered well and they weren’t taking the time off,” recalls Ó Cinnéide. “You just came back ready to rock. For that Louth game, Darragh Ó Sé and myself were in the stand because we had a club game the following day. Eoin Brosnan and Seán Hegarty were thrown in that day and losing to Louth we knew it was going to be a tough campaign.” 

For the An Ghaeltacht contingent, their football continued up until winning a West Kerry final on December 23. “We had got to the Millennium Cup final, which was the club championship for the year that was in it, and lost by a point. We got to the county championship final and lost by a point.

“After the replay, we had about 10 weeks of constant football after. I remember sitting in a car with Páidí outside O’Flahertys and saying to him, ‘Páidí, I am fucked.’ All the Ghaeltacht lads were fucked.

“We had our holiday to Thailand and China on the 27th and I was sitting beside our physio Aoife Ní Mhuirí on the plane and telling her I was never so tired in my life. My leg was swollen and when we got over it was a balloon because of a stress fracture. We were just so stupid with how we trained. The league was a pain in the hole at the time.” 

Ó Cinnéide has the unenviable record of being on the last two Kerry teams to go down. In 1998, he was part of another All-Ireland winning side who were unceremoniously dumped out of Division 1 the following year. In the final round, Dublin beat them 0-18 to 1-3 in Parnell Park.

“I never remember Páidí as mad as he was at half-time in that game. We all got it. Then we found out the following year that it wasn’t so bad being down in the lower division. It gave you the chance to find your wind again.

“We ended up playing London in Ruislip, great craic. Maurice Fitzgerald was playing against Kilkenny in Ballyragget. Old style league – ‘where are we going today, lads?’” 

Mick O’Dwyer’s adage of the league only being the league for Kerry changed in 2002 when it was organised in the calendar year. In 22 completed Division 1 campaigns, the county have won the title six times, five outright and finished runners-up three times. Of course, before all four of Jack O’Connor’s championship mains, there have been league starters.

Ó Cinnéide can’t speak for the county but to be demoted wouldn’t cause him much unease. “I didn’t have huge expectations of this league with a shake-up of Jack’s backroom team. I think what Kerry supporters hoped for was finding two or three new faces.

“The bonus of it is Diarmuid O’Connor has emerged in his mid-20s like Darragh Ó Sé as a fella you can depend on now, even though he has picked up an injury. I thought Damien Bourke had his moments in the league and the new rules seem to suit Dylan Geaney who is a good kicker off his left and right and can make heroes out of the lads inside.

“I wouldn’t think it’s the end of the world if they go down but it probably has been a thing of Jack’s to be competitive in all of the games. We have probably tried to be too competitive to the detriment of developing players. The league is the best competition to expose these players until the All-Ireland stages.”