Spa riding wave of belief into Kerry semi-final

The Kerry SFC semi-final is new territory for Spa. For their opponents Dr Crokes, it's a different story

The return of defender Dan O'Donoghue from Australia has been a major boost to Spa. Pic: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile

Spa are the undoubted story of the 2026 Kerry county senior football championship. Stunning scalps of Dingle and East Kerry have seen the Killarney-based club advance to the semi-finals.

As they prepare for a blockbuster meeting with neighbours Dr Crokes in Sunday's last four clash at Fitzgerald Stadium (3.30pm), the self-belief gained during the club championship has been priceless.

William Harmon’s charges might have lost all three group matches – to Sunday’s opponents, eventual winners Rathmore, and the current All-Ireland champions – but they gained much more than that.

“It’s the furthest that we’ve ever progressed in this competition so, while it’s unknown territory, a lot of these fellas have been in this position before with East Kerry, so they know what this is about,” said club chairman Tadhg Hickey.

“For the club in general, it’s great excitement, and with having the full panel to pick from, it has put us in the position where there is a bit of belief that we deserve to be here.

“Even when the club championship draw was made earlier in the year, it was seen as a challenge more than an obstacle. There was progression every week. We lost by four points to Dr Crokes.

“In our second game against Rathmore, we lost by two points. Finally, we lost to Dingle by a point in a game where we felt that we probably should have seen it out.

“The belief that came from the three games against three of the top-ranking teams in Kerry probably gave us the belief that there was something more to be got out of the panel.” 

When they returned to the playing field after six weeks without a competitive fixture, they beat Dingle by six points. Just eight days later, Evan Cronin’s last-gasp two-point free knocked out East Kerry.

“We had momentum, and momentum drives a lot of things. At the end of the club championship, we had momentum gathered. We just want to keep riding that wave,” he added.

“It was a huge bonus to get Liam (Kearney) back (from America). We had expected Dan (O’Donoghue) to be coming back (from Australia) at some stage. Dan was a huge addition to us, and Dara Moynihan.

“Those three guys are fellas who have performed at the highest of levels. Up along underage, they won All-Irelands with Kerry. Dara Moynihan has won a Hogan Cup.

“They’re huge leaders among the squad and, with their age profile, there were a lot of younger fellas gaining confidence from having those lads around.

“We’ve still a small panel of players to pick from. The reality is that we couldn’t field a junior team for the East Kerry competition a couple of weeks ago.

“We had fellas tied up in this panel, so we’re very reliant on a very tight bunch of committed players, and that’s what we have.” 

Manager Harmon and his backroom team of Daniel Murphy, Patrick Crowe, Pa Murphy and Derek Comerford have done a tremendous job, as the club chairman explained.

“This is William and the management team’s third year with us. William has brought an incredible integrity to the set-up, and an honesty.

“That honesty is honesty in effort and commitment, to the club and the team. We talked about the lads driving standards.

“William has definitely driven a higher standard of everything around him, beyond the team, beyond the panel, just the behaviour and commitment required.

“He’s been further down this road than most of us have, at other teams in the past, so it’s a huge benefit to everybody knowing that he’s done it before.” 

While defeat this weekend would propel Spa into a senior championship relegation play-off final against Templenoe later in the year, such a scenario has never been mentioned during this glorious run.

It’s a game by game approach from Spa – Dingle first, then East Kerry, and now arguably the severest examination of all, against the 14-times kingpins Dr Crokes.

“Dr Crokes are the most successful club in Kerry at county championship level. They’ve been standard bearers in Kerry, and locally for us in East Kerry, forever. They’ll take all the beating.

“It (the play-off) hasn’t even come into the conversation. What William has been saying for the last three years is that we’re going again the next day. We’ve another game to look at. That’s the target.

“We’re in bonus territory, but we’re hoping to keep going, and hoping that there will be another great week ahead of us,” stressed Hickey.

“At the moment, there has been progress in the performances since the end of the county league. We just want to see how far that progress will take us.”