Dara Ó Cinnéide: 'Players want to play for West Kerry again'

WANT TO PLAY: West Kerry haven't won a game since 2019 and looking to change that this weekend. Pic: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

Sometimes you have to reach the very bottom before you start the climb back to the top.

West Kerry haven’t won a game in the Kerry county senior football championship since they pipped Kenmare District by a point in Templenoe back in 2019. However, that isn’t the lowest point for a proud district team.

You only have to go back two years for what was probably the nadir. On September 30, 2023, having lost their opening two outings in the competition, West Kerry did not fulfil their final group fixture. A walkover was given to South Kerry.

Fast forward to today at JP O’Sullivan Park in Killorglin (4pm) when, ironically, both sides do battle in the opening match in the race for the Bishop Moynihan Cup, and there is a feel-good factor floating around West Kerry football circles.

An Ghaeltacht lowered Fossa’s colours at Austin Stack Park last Sunday afternoon to lift the county intermediate title, sending a surge of energy through the area. However, as Dara Ó Cinnéide explains, the ground work had already been done with the divisional side.

“The Annascaul lads, the Lispole lads, the Castlegregory lads, were training the minute they were knocked out of their championships, which isn’t that long ago. They did have good preparation, as good as you can have as a divisional team in the split season,” he said.

“There was a bit of a structure put around it this year. I won’t say there’s a buzz, but there’s a good positive environment. Players want to play for West Kerry again. The An Ghaeltacht win the last day has just added to something that was already there.

“We’re not the strongest divisional team, we have just four clubs, and none of them are senior clubs, but there’s a willingness to play for the West Kerry jersey again this year. We’ll see now how it will translate. I’m sure the South Kerry boys could say the same thing.” 

The 2004 All-Ireland-winning Kingdom captain is a current selector, and chairman, of An Ghaeltacht, while he has also joined the West Kerry management team, led by Gabriel Ó Cathasaigh, and also featuring Tomás Ó Flatharta, Seán Ó Dorgáin, Jerry Lyne and Patrick O’Donnell.

“It was just disappointment with the way things were going, and disillusionment (that got me involved), and just the hurt that West Kerry hadn’t won a game of football in five years. We’re better than that. I played with West Kerry from 1992 until we went senior in 1999, and I always enjoyed it.

“Some of the lads playing at the moment, some of their fathers would have played with me, and a regret I have is that we didn’t win a county championship. In 1996, we lost to a great Laune Rangers team, and I think there was just a collective disappointment at the stagnation that was there.

“There were a few rock bottoms hit, we didn’t field a team in 2023 in a particular game. I just think that West Kerry is a proud football area. Lispole are a proud football club. Annascaul are a proud football club. Castlegregory are a proud football club, as are we.” 

On Tuesday evening in Lispole, a 35-man squad were present for a West Kerry training session, including every single An Ghaeltacht player that is a member of the district panel. Kerry senior star Brian Ó Beaglaoich has led the way, and his club-mates have followed.

“They celebrated long and hard Sunday and Monday, and bits of Tuesday, some of them, but I just think the leadership being shown by Brian Ó Beaglaoich is phenomenal. I hope it doesn’t come against him with Kerry next year.

“He’s been such a positive influence on the group, not just with An Ghaeltacht, but in the West Kerry set-up as well. He’s really coming into his own as a senior footballer, and he’s dragging lads with him. He’s starting to show huge, huge leadership, on the field and off the field.

“We want to take part in the senior county championship. It’s still the premier competition in the county, despite all the buzz around intermediate, and senior club, and premier junior, and junior. The Bishop Moynihan is where it’s at.” 

Of course, with An Ghaeltacht moving back up to senior level in 2026, there is uncertainty over what next year holds for West Kerry. Therefore, there is a determination to try and strike while the iron is hot, starting this afternoon.

“We’re very much in with West Kerry. We’re very much on board for this year. It is the last dance – for now. We only spent a year senior the last time we went up from intermediate. We don’t know how it will pan out.

“This is the football that’s being played at the highest level in Kerry for the months of September and October, and we want to go into October. We want to be part of it. We want to beat South Kerry. I’m sure South Kerry have the same ambition,” stressed Ó Cinnéide.