Kerry Hurlers thread

[mossie]

Nov 22, 2020 17:29:53 GMT Sam kerry said:

Well done to the Kerry hurlers, great game to watch. The future looks bright for Kerry hurling . Some lovely hurlers in the south , the likes of Donal O'Sullivan, Daniel Casey , Liam Twomey , Dan McCarthy, Michael Linehan would be be great prospects but football will beckon for some. Kerry hurlers did us proud on Saturday and deserve their day in Croke Park .

Great prospects there, John Mark Foley Kilgarvan well able to hurl too, has had a lot of injuries though

Tralee Parnells have a few too

[veteran]

Is Brendan Cummins still part of the Kerry hurling management team? If so , why was he collecting the shilling from RTÉ on Saturday rather than being in Tralee. Surely , a man who has done it all would be invaluable on the sideline on match day.

I like Brendan but if he is part of the management team I wish it would not be on a semi-detached basis . Could somebody here clarify his role.

[hurlingman]

Nov 23, 2020 11:01:03 GMT veteran said:

Is Brendan Cummins still part of the Kerry hurling management team? If so , why was he collecting the shilling from RTÉ on Saturday rather than being in Tralee. Surely , a man who has done it all would be invaluable on the sideline on match day.

I like Brendan but if he is part of the management team I wish it would not be on a semi-detached basis . Could somebody here clarify his role.

You'd wonder what hes role actualy is when that's the case. He' been coming and going for a few seasons now, had been changing between Kerry and Laois. I think at first he was there to coach the keepers but nt sure if that's still the case now.

[Mickmack]

Final 7 mins here and I am sure the late great Dolores O'Riordan wont mind.

[Mickmack]

By Conor Neville



'There Was A Stigma Attached To Losing That Game' - The Biggest Shock In Modern Hurling History




"Even afterwards in pubs in Waterford. I certainly didn't go into bars for a while. There was a stigma attached to losing that match."





Listening to the Sky deal debate, an outsider could be forgiven for assuming that the right to watch championship matches on free to air television had at one point been enshrined in the constitution.

However, the modern RTE practice of screening at least one game live a week is a historically recent phenomenon. The GAA was long wary of televised games, believing it would adversely affect attendances. Even now, this occasional hostility re-surfaces. The GAA reduced the number of televised games for the 2012 season out of fear that attendances were being harmed.




There were no RTE cameras around to capture the biggest shock in the history of the hurling championship in 1993. There wasn't even a highlights game on the Sunday Game evening show. If such a thing happened now, Des Cahill would be reading out irate text messages for a week.

At the time, you had Sports Stadium on the Saturday, and the Sunday Game was on the Sunday. That was kind of it. I don't think there was a camera at it. I've never seen footage of it. I'd say it was one of those games where RTE probably said 'there's a Connacht football match on and we'll go to that and sure Waterford will beat Kerry and sure whatever. It didn't cause any great national... people were shocked and that but if the equivalent thing happened next Sunday, social media and the press, you'd never get away from it. You'd be remembered for it for life.



'THE WARNING SIGNS WERE THERE. NOBODY TOOK ANY NOTICE OF THEM'

The early 90s was the worst of times for Kerry football. But the Kerry hurlers were flowering into a competitive outfit. They hadn't won a Munster championship match in aeons but their margins of defeat were getting narrower. The scoreboard was becoming easier to look at. It was only recently they had even begun to line up at the starter's block in the Munster championship.



During the 1970s and 80s, up to 1986, they operated in the All-Ireland B championship, a kind of proto-Christy Ring event. The prize for winning was a hammering against Galway in a match which was called the All-Ireland quarter-final. The GAA was less worried about giving weaker counties a day out in Croke Park back then and so the match was played in some unglamorous location like Birr or Athenry. Galway would get no thanks for winning it off their people and would dispose of the B champs without much thought.



In 1990, they lost respectably against Cork in Tralee. There were only nine points in at the end. Cork would murder Waterford in Thurles in the Munster semi-final, though not by enough to convince Babs Keating that they weren't donkeys. Their dressing room wall duly padded out with upsetting material, Cork went on to win the All-Ireland.

In '91, Waterford were only six points better than them in Tralee.

Christy Walsh flitted between midfield and the half-forward line during the 80s and 90s. A Kerry hurler from 1982 to 2000, today he operates as, among other things, the Kilkenny football manager.

A casual observer might term him a kind of GAA 'Patron Saint of Lost Causes' (or the 'Patron Saint of Difficult Challenges' as St. Jude's 21st century PR guru might be inclined to rebrand it).

His primary managerial role currently is at Bennettsbridge (he lives in Kilkenny) whom he has guided to successive All-Ireland club hurling titles, at junior in 2014 and at intermediate in 2015.

Around that time we were competitive, that’s the word. We played Cork in 1990 and we played very well, played Limerick in ’89 in Killarney.

We were reasonably competitive, like, we weren’t getting hammered out the gate. In Kerry, that’s where you start from, ‘are you going to get hammered out the gate?’ and then it gets better from that.

At the time, being honest, we wouldn’t have seen ourselves as too far behind Waterford anyway. Waterford weren’t exactly, compared with the Waterford of the last fifteen years, they weren’t hectic.



Maurice Leahy, only recently retired as an inter-county player, had been manager for the 1990 campaign. In his autobiography, Paul Galvin described Leahy as 'Mr Kerry Hurling'.

A Kerry player until the age of 38, Leahy has been manager, on and off, for a rough total of 15 years out of the last 30. His earliest stints as manager came while he was still doubling as a full-back. He won two All-Ireland B championships with Kerry in 1983 and 1986. He was the default guy, the man usually persuaded to take the job when no one else wanted to know.

'When they were finding it hard to get managers, I was always the fallback guy. I could never say no to that job.'

He stepped aside following the 1990 season but returned as a selector with John Meyler in 1992. Kerry had reached the quarter-final of the League in 92/93, partly thanks to the generous qualification criteria, which allocated two spots to the leading Division 2 teams. They were beaten by an imperious Tipperary team in a low scoring quarter-final.



They had a nucleus of experienced players who'd been together a long time. Asked to instance the standouts, Leahy plumps for Walsh, midfielders Mike O'Shea and Brendan O'Sullivan, his brother DJ, the converted centre-back/corner forward, and the corner-back, the late Seamus McIntyre.



Christy Walsh was always a fantastic hurler, Seamus McIntyre, God rest him, from Kenmare, he was full back, he was a great hurler and footballer, Mike O'Shea and DJ Leahy, my brother, Brendan O'Sullivan from Ballyheigue... and many more

Their championship outing was scheduled for 23 May in Walsh Park.

There was very little about the game. Everyone expected we’d just succumb like we always did but the warning signs were there. Nobody took any notice of them.

'WATERFORD CRYSTAL GAVE EVERYONE A MCGEE SUIT. SO WE ALL GOT MEASURED UP FOR THAT'

Waterford hurling had been busting a gut to keep the wolf of irrelevance from the door for around a decade at that point.

They remained enough of a speed bump for Cork and Tipperary to retain their designation as a hurling county.



In 1989, they reached the Munster Final after beating Cork in a replay. In ’92, they beat Clare, another team paddling in shallow waters, also after a replay. The drawn game that year is solely remembered for providing an anecdote for Anthony Daly’s All-Ireland winning speech three years later. After lobbing over the equalising score, Kieran Delahunty advised Daly and Clare to ‘stick to the traditional music’.

In 1992-93, things appeared to be looking up. Waterford won their first, and to date only, All-Ireland U21 final. In a bumper year of Waterford's hurling youngsters, they also reached the All-Ireland minor final, losing to Galway.



Paul Flynn played for both teams, coming on as a sub in the U21 Munster Final before breaking into the starting team for the All-Ireland final(s).

At the age of 18, he made his senior championship debut in 1993. In terms of bequeathing riches to subsequent senior teams, the triumphant Waterford class of '92 were more in the mould of the Limerick three-in-a-row side of the 1990s or the numerous victorious Galway underage teams.

The funny thing about the '92 U21 Waterford team, less than half of them went on to play any significant role at senior level... That Offaly team that we beat in the final in Nowlan Park. That's the amazing thing about it. I would be surprised if there wasn't eleven of that team that played in the All-Ireland final in '94 against Limerick and won a senior medal. And in '94 then, we beat Clare in Fermoy in the Munster U21 Final and seven of that Clare went on to win a senior medal the following year. So (laughs) if you wanna win an All-Ireland, let Waterford beat you in U21, that was the way it was in the early 90s.



The captain of the All-Ireland winning 1992 team - Mr. Tony Browne - had already graduated to the senior side where he would remain for roughly another thousand years. He played in the 1992 championship but was away for the Kerry match in '93.

He wasn't away in America for the summer, trying to find himself on some building site. No, he just on a fortnight's holiday. He'd be back for the Tipperary game.

Tony (Browne) didn't play. Tony went on holidays. He came on in '92. He went on holidays in May 93 and he would be back for the Tipperary game. He was in Spain or somewhere.

One of the embarrassing tidbits that everyone remembers is the Waterford players posing in their new McGee suits out on the pitch before the game.



Sponsors had been plastered across jerseys for the first time in 1991. Cork were sponsored by 'Barry's', Galway had 'Supermacs', and Tipperary had 'Tipperary Water' in those days. Waterford weren't big time enough to attract a sponsor initially. But the 1992 U21 win convinced Waterford Crystal to get involved. They provided new suits for the championship panel.



In his book on Waterford hurling, 'The Ecstasy and the Agony', Damien Tiernan records that the Kerry players were filtering into Walsh Park before the game while the suited up Waterford players were grinning for the cameras.

Inevitably, it is remembered that John Meyler used this in the dressing room. 'Complacent' Waterford were deserving of a smack, etc, etc. Although, Flynn says that the players were at best ambivalent about posing in their suits. The county board insisted on it.

While they had been eaten alive by Cork in the League quarter-final (5-16 to 1-6. Not a promising sight), Flynn contends that the team were doing fine in the pre-championship challenge matches.

Waterford got together three weeks before that match, played one or two matches against Limerick and Kilkenny. And were going quite well, actually. And then, because of the U21 All-Ireland in '92, we got sponsored and Waterford Crystal gave everyone a McGee suit. So we all got measured up for that. And the match was in Waterford. And it was supposed to be a procession. And the winners play Tipperary and everyone thought Waterford would have a cut off Tipperary on the 6th of June. And Kerry came down and put an end to that.

'DID THIS JUST HAPPEN? ARE WE GOING TO WAKE UP IN A FEW MINUTES?

They got goals every time. They'd go two or three points up, we'd pull it back level, they'd go two or three points... As the game wore on, there was desperation among the crowd, desperation among us.



Match reports are fairly dull. However, the absence of any footage means that they, along with the sketchy personal testimony of those who were there, are all we have to go on.

As an indicator of the level of media interest in the game, the Irish Independent and the Irish Press carried the exact same match report from Tom Young.

In one sense, Paul Flynn had a wonderful start to his senior inter-county career. He had two goals inside twenty minutes as Waterford looked to shake off Kerry. However, as soon as Waterford stretched five points in front, Kerry banged in two goals through Brendan O'Sullivan and the massively influential DJ Leahy.

At half-time, the situation was already alarming. Waterford trailed by a point despite being backed by a stiff breeze.

They settled matters early in the second half, hitting 1-4 without reply. Flynn completed his hat-trick, the least satisfying debut hat-trick in the history of sport, amateur or professional

Kerry refused to take this flurry as their cue to go down honourably. The one thing everyone remembers from the game is DJ Leahy scoring a point from a ridiculous angle out near the sideline, the kind of point that causes pre-match favourites to look in panic at one another and think to themselves 'what the hell is going on?'



There used to be a real old concrete toilet in the bottom of Walsh Park. Horrible. Just a real old GAA toilet. Just a chicane of walls in and around each other. Looked like he was standing there when he hit it. Left-handed against the line and everything. I'd say if you put DJ Carey there, never mind DJ Leahy, he wouldn't put it over. But it went over and that's the kind of day it was.



Kerry full forward Joe Walsh booted in a goal and Christy Walsh levelled the game. With four minutes left, DJ Leahy, in majestic form all day, stood over a free thirty yards out. A point would send Kerry into the lead.

However, he mis-hit the free badly, landing it into the forest of bodies protecting the square. It ricocheted off a Waterford hurl and nestled in the net.

In the final seconds, Paul Flynn stood over a 25 metre. A fourth goal would get them a replay and avert (total) humiliation. However, it was repelled by the phalanx of bodies on the line. Terence Murray blew the final whistle and Waterford's season was over. Tony Browne would have no game to come back to when he came home.

'THERE WAS A STIGMA ATTACHED TO LOSING THAT GAME'

When the final whistle blew, we couldn't believe it. We were looking for holes to throw ourselves in. Waterford used to find it hard to beat the weaker teams but this was total embarrasment. I didn't want to talk to anyone.



RTE Radio reporter Johnny O'Connor, seemingly one of the few national media figures to attend the game, was almost dragged into the showers by the Kerry players after the game.

Sean Kelly justifiably proclaimed it the greatest day in the history of Kerry hurling. It was over sixty years since their last significant win in the Munster championship.

The vice-chairman of the Kerry county board Liam Cotter sang 'The Rose of Tralee'. Tiernan writes that John Meyler personally thanked every one of the twenty-five Kerry people who travelled to support the team.

Italian football teams have had to duck out of the way of rotten fruit at airports when arriving back from unsuccessful tournaments. Giovanni Trapattoni was a member of the 1966 team which was greeted in this fashion after they disgraced the nation by losing to North Korea. The Waterford players had cans and stones thrown at them as they made their way down the tunnel in '93. They were protected by the netting which covered the narrow tunnel at Walsh Park.

Paul Flynn remembers a couple of players coming in for serious abuse, though he stresses that this was just a segment of the Waterford support.

Nights out in Waterford were curbed for a while, but not for the usual modern reasons.



I don't mean to be disrespectful to the Kerry team that won the match, they deserved to win the match, but the jeering that went on after the match from the Waterford crowd, some of the Waterford crowd, towards the management and maybe a few select players. It was hard to believe that these lads would be on your side two weeks later.

There were two players in particular that did get a bit of abuse from fans behind the goal. Even afterwards in pubs in Waterford. I certainly didn't go into bars for a while. There was a stigma attached to losing that match.

Flynn has little to say about the Waterford dressing room afterwards, simply because he didn't spend too much time in it. There were no valedictory speeches or rallying cries and promises to be better next year. Or even angry managerial rants. What would be the point? Just get in, get out and get away from Walsh Park.

It was kinda like get in, get out, have your shower at home. That was kinda the atmosphere. There wasn't a blame game going on, it was just... not embarrassing, but it was a mood of 'did this just happen, are we going to wake up in a few minutes'.

It was thought inevitable that Georgie Leahy, the Waterford manager who'd stayed on from 1992, would have to get the door. He simply sighed to the local press that it had been a 'once off'.

Oddly enough, he remained in place.

Christy Walsh can empathise with the Waterford players.



I’d say they got abuse from their own supporters, but sure don’t we all like. You always get abuse from lads who never played.



Tipp were excellent that year. Actually, Tipp should have won the All-Ireland that year. They hammered us. They beat us 4-24 to 2-12 or something like that. But they hammered Clare in the Munster Final something similar.

Look, everyone knew that that was end of it. We’d do our best against Tipp. But we were never going to be beating Tipp.



Tipperary ended Kerry's season and then demolished Clare in the Munster Final, in what must have been considered at the time one of the handiest Munster titles ever won. They won their two matches by a combined tally of 36 points.

For Maurice Leahy, this was of a piece with Tipperary's general approach to one-sided games. Tipp were not a chivalrous bunch in these situations.

They didn’t have much mercy for us. I never forget playing against them one year and they were twenty something points up in the last minute and they got a 21 metre free and Declan Ryan went for a goal.

Tipp were ruthless. Whereas Cork were different. They’d have had more respect. If they went far ahead they’d just start taking their points. But Tipp always wanted to pull the trigger. There’d be more respect for Cork hurling down in Kerry than for Tipp.




Waterford went into virtual hibernation until the late 1990s. While the hurling revolution raged, Waterford, for all their underage promise, remained in slumber. In 1995, the year when Clare turned the world upside down, Waterford were hammered by a Tipperary team who weren't exactly pulling up trees elsewhere. Their next significant win came against Tipp in the 1998 Munster semi-final.

We got a very bad beating in '95. In '96 Tipperary beat us by four points, '97 Limerick beat us. It was only with Gerald McCarthy's arrival and the change of attitude, that we started competing a bit. I'd have to say it did set Waterford back. At the time, did it feel it set us back, probably not. But looking back at it now, it did, it did, for sure.

Kerry won no more games in the Munster championship for the remainder of the decade. They were occasionally competitive in the League, reaching Division 1 in 1995-96.

After a violent dip in the early 2000s when hope seemed to have been extinguished, Kerry once more have a team to rival the side of the early 1990s. The Christy Ring champions of 2015, they find themselves once more in Division 1 of the League and competing in the Leinster championship.



Paul Flynn's memories of the '93 game are probably more vivid than anyone's. He says it is still occasionally liable to be brought up. Primarily by journalists. Now, he just happy to wish Kerry well and he hopes they remain in the top Division for a long while yet.

They've got some lovely players. They're like no other. They just love their hurling, I assume. Because they're such a successful football county, it doesn't get the kind of support or exposure that the North Kerry lads would wish for. The League run they did this year was phenomenal. I hope they stay in Division B for a good few years and even build stronger.

Maurice Leahy is inevitably involved. He remains Games Development Administrator, a job he has held for a mere 27 years. Now 65, he steps down from the role at the end of the season.

The big difference between then and now is that we’ve no players from South Kerry now. Back then, we'd have had players from Killarney, Tralee, Kilgarvan...

The gap wasn’t as big then (in the early 90s). We played all the big teams in the League. But now the approach is so professional from the big teams and they have the resources to pull away.

We have only eight clubs. And they're really rural clubs. They're the kind of places you'd miss if you drove by them. We have no town.

But hurling will always survive in those eight clubs because, there’s a massive passion for the game there and it’ll never die.

[homerj]

the final v antrim is televised i assume?

[gaelicden]

Dec 6, 2020 14:24:35 GMT homerj said:

the final v antrim is televised i assume?

The sky EPG for next Sunday says the Joe mcdonagh cup final will be on RTÉ before the all Ireland final.

[gaelicden]

Dec 6, 2020 14:36:46 GMT gaelicden said:

Dec 6, 2020 14:24:35 GMT homerj said:

the final v antrim is televised i assume?

The sky EPG for next Sunday says the Joe mcdonagh cup final will be on RTÉ before the all Ireland final.

Just saw the promo for next Sunday after the FAI Cup Final, Kerry v Antrim on RTÉ 2, coverage begins at 12:30pm

[Mickmack]

Kerry Sports Hub

S

KERRY HURLING

O’Connor must shuffle the cards due to injuriesby


Donal Barry7th December 2020
O’Connor must shuffle the cards due to injuries

Fintan O’Connor will probably make his most important team selection ever ahead of the 2020 Joe McDonagh Cup final in which he faces some big calls with at least two if not three players missing out due to injury.

With confirmation that Martin Stackpoole and John Buckley are both ruled out due to injury, O’Connor could well see his captain Bryan Murphy joining the Lixnaw pair on the line as he races to be fit from a hand injury that ruled him out of Kerry’s last round win over Carlow.


Joe McDonagh Cup Final Coverage brought to you in Association with Cartwright.ie
Stackpoole is out after he suffered from a wrist injury, which sees him in plaster with both Darren Delaney and John B O’Halloran in contention for the spot. Delaney played in the opening Joe McDonagh Cup game against Meath, While O’Halloran replaced Stackpoole in the Carlow outing.

Buckley is out due to a hamstring injury that the Lixnaw man picked up towards the end of the Carlow win and was a vital cog in the full back line during the campaign with Eric Leen and Bryan Murphy.

Murphy missed out on the Carlow game having picked up a hand injury against Antrim but Tomas O’Connor fitted in well to the number 3 position but O’Connor will be hoping that Murphy can get back as having to make three changes in his first four named players against a team as strong as Antrim could leave the backdoor open for the Saffrons who certainly have been well capable of scoring goals along the way.

Antrim have remained undefeated this season from clashes with Kerry but there has been little enough between in most of those outings with Kerry certainly more than competitive with the Ulster side.

However, the Saffrons have held the upper hand on the scoring front throughout the campaign averaging 33 points per game compared to Kerry’s 24 points per game.

They have also ran up tallies of 2-20 (League), 2-23 (League Final) and 3-18 (Joe McDonagh Round game) against Kerry in their 3 outings this year but apart from the worry of their big scores, it is that they have set the tempo in all their games running up big leads of 0-12 to 0-6 in Tralee and 3-6 to 0-5 last month in Corrigan Park. Leads that Kerry fought back to reduce but never gained parity.

In short, Kerry will have to set the tempo next Sunday and see what Antrim are like chasing down a lead. They have shown that they are well capable of this too having overhauled Offaly in the league (a win that gave Kerry a place in the final) and against Carlow to snatch a late draw but Kerry look to be in better shape than either of those Leinster sides.

Kerry will go into Sunday’s game as outsiders with some bookies offering 7/4 for a Kerry win with the more adventurous maybe tempted by 9/2 odds for a 1-3 point Kerry win.

However, Antrim are the favourites at 8/15 and probably on form and recent results good value for it.

Still the Kerry hurlers in Croke Park as the last team standing in 2020 would have that romantic feel about it if they were to pull it off. They will find it hard but they are more than capable of it. In a year where they had their battles with Mumps and Covid, Long trips and lock downs it would certainly be the perfect ending.

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[Mickmack]

Pat Spillane had a pop at Tipp hurling fans for not showing up to watch Tipp football league games.

I wonder has Pat gone to see the Kerry hurlers many times?

[Mickmack]

BackThe42

THEJOURNAL


FINTAN O'TOOLE




Next Sunday is a landmark day for Kerry hurling.


3 hours ago

IN SEPTEMBER 1992, watching on from his home in North Kerry, the achievement of a team clad in green and gold made quite an impression on my grandfather.

Maybe it was the colours of the Donegal jersey that Patie O’Sullivan warmed to or their historic breakthrough in winning Sam Maguire for the first time.

Either way he figured there was only one place to head to the following week.

A retired farmer at the age of 74, and a man with no reluctance to embark on journeys alone, he headed off from Banemore, about five miles north of the village of Ardfert. Got dropped into Tralee, boarded a bus to Limerick and then jumped on another to Galway.

There was no real plan nailed down on where to stay that first night but a man with the capacity to strike up a conversation with anyone was not going to be caught out. The bus driver had a link to a B&B in Connemara, Patie stayed there and the following morning he was back on a bus to his destination of Donegal Town.

In a county engulfed in giddy celebrations after a landmark win, he found himself at ease. The pubs were full, the people were warm and inviting, and a traveller from Kerry was always going to be welcomed.

An enquiry was made at one stage as to whether Patie, who had lived his whole life in a county which has dominated the sport, had ever played a bit of Gaelic football himself.

“Ah I did, I played minor for Kerry.”

When he was later told the story, my father pointed out the central flaw that county recognition had eluded Patie O’Sullivan.



“But sure how was anybody in Donegal going to know that I didn’t?”, came the quite reasonable reply to justify this bending of the truth in a time far removed from fact-checking.

I have never tired of hearing the retelling of that story and imagining how enjoyable that 1992 trip must have been for him. He had put down a few hard years. His daughter, my mother, passed away in 1988. His wife, my grandmother, passed away in 1991.

If those times were tough, I remember him up until he died in 1999 at the age of 81, as a man of great spirit, a strong manner for expressing his views, a deep passion for sport and a devout faith to his county of Kerry.

This week, building up to the All-Ireland hurling final in December, he would have been in his element.

Sunday in Croke Park is about Limerick and Waterford and the Liam MacCarthy Cup.

But it is also about Kerry and Antrim and the Joe McDonagh Cup, a moment for the other side of hurling to perform under the same spotlight.

Kerry booked their place in the decider a few weeks ago. They trailed by two heading down the stretch in Tralee but overhauled Carlow to win by two. The platform for the Kerry win was constructed by the pair of first-half goals struck by Daniel Collins, his home is the neighbouring farm in Banemore to that where Patie O’Sullivan spent his life.

As the eldest grandchild and the only one living in Ireland at the time, I spent plenty younger days in that part of the world in Kerry when despatched on summer holidays, school breaks and the odd weekend. There was no shortage of family members to be looked after by, Patie had seven children with my aunt Catherine and uncle Patrick doing most of the heavy lifting when I was down there.

Yet I feel Patie took it upon himself to impart sporting wisdom. He was immensely proud of the Kerry hurling heritage. When my father, a man of Tipperary persuasion, first visited Patie’s farm, it was quickly pointed out to him that this was no hurling backwater. For all the football tradition built up, it was in hurling that Kerry’s first All-Ireland senior win had come in 1891.

There are other sporting memories. The hurling breakthroughs of Clare and Wexford. Watching Euro ‘96 with him and learning why German efficiency is a key ingredient in soccer. Realising that he didn’t take kindly to his young grandson pointing out Cork were enjoying a rare spell of Munster football supremacy.

“Yerra ye’d have won nothing, only ye went up to Kildare and took their two best players,” was the reply as he again won a debate against a protesting eight-year-old.


In the farmhouse there was a long table with a bench against the wall where I would sit and he would be at the end next to the fire in his rocking chair. The TV was at the opposite end of the table. There couldn’t have been only sport, news and weather forecasts to watch but it certainly felt like it.

The Sunday ritual of looking at a GAA match was established. There were the mid-summer nights watching athletics meetings from continental European cities. The achievements of Sonia O’Sullivan provided common ground, we could all agree on the greatness of one Cork sportsperson.

Patie died in June 1999. The end of his life had been a lean period for the local Kilmoyley hurlers. Their last Kerry senior hurling title was in 1971 and there had been just a couple of final appearances in the interim, 1983 and 1988. I remember the stories of the 90s revolving around Ballyheigue and Ballyduff successes.

And then in 2001, Kilmoyley got back to the final. I was brought to it by my aunt and uncle on a day of biblical rains in Austin Stack Park. Kilmoyley were down by seven at half-time but recovered to win by one. Recalling the wild delirium as supporters tore around the pitch after their 30 years in the hurling wilderness had ended, I’ve often regarded the joy on show that day as the barometer by which I judge post-match celebrations.

Kilmoyley have grown accustomed to it. A further eight titles have followed since, the most recent in September this year.

The extended O’Sullivan family are a bunch scattered around the world now in Glasgow, Kidderminster, London, Brussels after a relocation from Stockholm, and Boston. Similar to most in 2020, the Whats App activity has increased and bound us together. The discussions are relatable in this strangest of years – news of the different stages of lockdown in countries, Netflix recommendations and the search for fresh questions for Zoom quizzes.

But on the third Sunday of September, the focus was on Austin Stack Park. There was a typical GAA family interest in ways – my cousins Richard and Liam part of the Kilmoyley squad, their mother Catherine chief supplier of post-training meals in recent years, her husband Mike the team sponsor with his hardware shop in Lerrig.

Yet the increased interest from foreign shores was different and the capacity for them to live-stream the game as they followed Kilmoyley clinching a one-point win after an absorbing game. Daniel Collins top scored with 0-8, himself and his brother Robert flew the Banemore flag. John Meyler was at the helm as manager, like he had been for that 2001 breakthrough.

Next Sunday Daniel will be involved in Croke Park, just as his sister Laura was last year when Kerry won the Premier Junior camogie title. There are other Kilmoyley playing representatives in the goalkeeper John B. O’Halloran and the O’Connor brothers, Paudie and Maurice while Sean Maunsell is a selector.


Kerry have sampled recent Croke Park hurling days, packing in Christy Ring Cup final appearances between 2010 and 2015. But for their squad this is a priceless chance to play and share the hurling centre stage. Shane Conway of Lixnaw is their star turn and trail-blazer, just like Shane Brick of Kilmoyley was in the 2000s.

“Nine parishes in the north of the county faithfully turned out nine senior hurling teams,” wrote Denis Walsh in his seminal book ‘Hurling – The Revolution Years’, in a chapter about Kerry’s fortunes.

“Pockets of hurling blossomed elsewhere from time to time, but those flowers were growing wild and sometimes the soil turned against them.

“The hurling area of North Kerry was the walled garden.”

It may be enclosed but their passion for the game has never been diluted. You get a sense of that spending time down there or if you were exposed to sporting influences like Patie O’Sullivan.

I wonder how he would be this week, thinking of next Sunday with a Kerry team playing in Croke Park on All-Ireland hurling final day, the sporting eyes of the nation locked on the venue and a player from the farm next door in Banemore central to the local hopes of success?

I think it would be a day Patie O’Sullivan would very much be looking forward to.

And it would have been a great story for him to tell the next time he headed up to his friends in Donegal.

[Mickmack]

Nov 14, 2020 23:27:14 GMT mossie said:

Kerry look to be just a little shy of the standard being set by Antrim in the league and Joe McDonagh cup

Antrim really set out to run at Kerry against the breeze and got in for the goals a bit too handy in the 1st half when they ran at us, in terms of physical conditioning they seem to be that bit ahead of us and fill the jerseys better

Shane Conway, Mikey Boyle and Paudie Connor were our best players

cant fault kerry for effort, Antrim just that bit sharper hurling wise and physically stronger. hopefully no injuries for next week, already down Mackessy. This is effectively an all ireland semi final v carlow, win and kerry will be playing on all ireland senior hurling final day

There is little doubt that Antrim were a bit ahead of Kerry in the Div 2 final and the Joe McDonagh game. Only 3 points between them in the league final but 7 between them in the Joe McDonagh game. The latter was a home game for Antrim though.


My hopes are that Kerry dont concede a couple of early goals. Antrim had 2 goals in the first 5 mins in the most recent game. I think if Kerry get to the waterbreak unscathed then they have a great chance. Antrim have a lethal full forward line and also like to run at a defense so i imagine Kerry will man the barricades early on.

Kerry have all the fundamentals needed. A half forward line that are good in the air, a goal threat and tenacious defenders. Plenty of height too. And its clear that there is tactical acumen on the sideline.

I hope Kerry dont overthink this and perform to their potential.

If Antrim are better then so be it.

[Mickmack]

Kerry gold: A closer look at Kingdom's modest magician Shane Conway


FRI, 11 DEC, 2020 - 17:00
EOGHAN CORMICAN


The Zoom call with Shane Kingston is 11 minutes old.

It is the morning of June 9 and after all Covid-related bases have been covered with the Cork hurler, such as stepping off the inter-county hamster wheel during lockdown and return to play protocols, the conversation is energised by talk of Kingston’s UCC teammate, Shane Conway.

The pair were constants in a UCC team that achieved back-to-back Fitzgibbon Cup glory in 2020. Conway, as he nearly always does, top-scored on the February night of their Fitzgibbon final win over IT Carlow, seven frees and two points from play.

This haul brought the Lixnaw man’s tally for the five-game campaign to 0-38 (0-28 frees, 0-1 penalty). But it is not his dead-ball proficiency or the sizable tallies he regularly runs up that has Kingston speaking of Conway with such genuine respect. More the 22-year-old's voracious appetite for the unglamorous - and often unseen - toil.

“Conway is fabulous. I'd have him on my team any day of the week,” Kingston says of the Kerry hurler on whose shoulders so much expectation sits ahead of Sunday’s Joe McDonagh final.


“What epitomises him is that when we were struggling against IT Carlow in the Fitzgibbon final, he moved out the field, picked up a rake of dirty ball and turned the game.”

It is a point picked up and developed by UCC selector Ray Delaney, who keeps his College involvement to the Fitzgibbon Cup. You won’t find the long-serving selector on the line during the Cork county championship. Instead, you’ll spot him in the stand wherever UCC are playing, keeping an eye on the soon-to-be second years who’ll attempt to break into UCC’s Fitzgibbon panel once college resumes in autumn.

For the 2018 Cork SHC semi-final, Delaney was at Páirc Uí Chaoimh to take a look at this young lad from North Kerry who captained the UCC Freshers earlier in the year.

“It was the first time I saw him,” Delaney says. “I had heard all this talk about him and then you see him on the pitch, you see the size of him, and you think, 'Jaysus, he is going to get knocked around here’. But you put a hurley in his hand and he is just a magician.

“He is our free-taker the last two years and I would hazard a guess that 40-50% of the frees Shane stands over are for fouls on himself.”


In the aforementioned Fitzgibbon decider, UCC trailed by four with 14 minutes remaining when Mark Coleman sprayed a pass to Conway who was standing roughly 10 metres inside his own 65-metre line.

The feet were quickly adjusted, shoulders opened up, and there followed a monstrous post splitting effort. No question but it was a vital score in wresting momentum from DJ Carey’s side.

“There were times where you’d nearly be saying, would you stay in close to goal and we’ll get the ball in, but he’s not afraid of hard work.

He is a guy that can spot when his team is under pressure and if you see him going out the pitch, going back into his own half-back line, he knows it is time to go and help.

“I've been involved with UCC since approximately 2012. We have had forwards of the calibre of Seamie Harnedy, Conor Lehane, Dan McCormack, Pauric Mahony, and Shane Bourke. If Shane Conway was available in any of those years, he would have made any of those teams.”

John ‘Tweek’ Griffin was captain on the last occasion Kerry won hurling’s second-tier championship - then the Christy Ring Cup - in 2015.

His relationship with Conway began as that of coach and player. And a successful one it was too, a smattering of minor and U21 county championships collected in the middle of the last decade.

These days, the pair are teammates on the Lixnaw senior hurling team.

“He always stood out. In primary school, he was selected to play in Croke Park as part of the Mini Sevens in 2011. You knew he was going to be good, but we didn't know how good," says Griffin.

“His profile has really rocketed the last few years with UCC in the Fitzgibbon. Exposure to that level of hurling has really developed him, but he was always going to be a serious hurler because he is a good trainer, has a great attitude, and has got all the skills. The latter was no fluke. A hurley never left his hand growing up.”

Griffin often refers to Shane’s dad, Johnny, as Mr Lixnaw.

“Hurling is everything to him,” he says of Johnny, a passion shared by Shane’s mother, Margaret, and indeed the rest of the family.

“Hurling is just a way of life for them. It was never going to be any other way but Shane out the back of the house with a hurley in hand."

The two-time All-Ireland minor and U21B medal winner has hit 2-35 (0-23 frees, 0-1 ‘65) in Kerry’s four-game journey to the Joe McDonagh final.

That’s an average of roughly 0-10 per outing. His Fitzgibbon average from earlier this year was 0-8 per game, while his contribution in this summer’s Cork county championship - which included 0-14 (0-8 frees, 0-1 sideline) during UCC’s semi-final defeat to Blackrock - was 0-9 per game.

But the same as Kingston and Delaney before him, it is not Conway’s scoring ability that Griffin sees as his outstanding asset.

“If you train with him or watch him closely, he is one of the best tacklers you'll see. He's not the biggest of fellas, but he's a very, very strong tackler.

He's brilliant to get the hand in and turn a back over, and from there to take the man on and either pop over a score or win a free. You have to appreciate that side of his game also.

When the 2019 Fitzgibbon Cup winning UCC team landed into Lixnaw two days after their win, Kerry manager Fintan O’Connor said there was no doubt that at least one local boy would take inspiration from seeing a bus load of inter-county hurlers step onto an open truck at the top of the village.

“When that 11 or 12-year-old sees all these inter-county hurlers arriving in Lixnaw for Shane Conway, they might say to themselves, ‘I’d love to be on that team, I’d love to be Shane Conway’,” O’Connor told this newspaper last year.

Kerry goalkeeper Martin Stackpoole once described Shane as “one in a million”. Nobody spoken to for this piece strayed from that sentiment.

“Shane is a poster boy for Kerry hurling because of his attitude as much as his skill,” says Griffin. “He loves hurling, it is all about hurling for him. The top level, were Kerry to hopefully get there, would suit him.

“You see the impact Jack Fagan has had for Waterford. If you are good enough, if your attitude is right and if you are willing to put in the effort, geography doesn't matter.”

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[mossie]

big day nearly here for the hurlers

I hope the day goes well for them and the whole county and country can see that Kerry has huge hurling talent as well as football talent

Based on the 3 previous matches between the team. it is no surprise than Antrim are 1\2 favourites. however if Conway, Collins, Nolan, the Boyles click and start shooting scores and we can come with a plan to cope with the strong running of the Antrim forwards , a kerry win is possible

[greengreengrass]

Exciting day for the Kerry hurlers, would be fantastic for the county if they could do the business!
Am I right in saying a win gets them a place in the Leinster round robin next year? Would make for some great days out in Killarney/Tralee

[dart]

Good luck to the lads today.

[thesquareball]

Best of luck to the hurlers today,try get ahead early and force antrim into chasing game.Tighten up at the back and deny antrim goal scoring chances.Injuries have made a tough task harder but a plus for kerry is Barry mahony could have a say in proceedings today

[Mickmack]

Kerry a point up at half time.

They were set up to stop Antrim goals and have managed that just about.

They must to go for it now in the second half.

They also need to take more scoring chances.

Some great defending by Kerry.

[Mickmack]

Congrats to Antrim.

Overall they deserved it.

Kerry gave it their all and the subs made a bit impact too.

The middle third of the pitch is where its at now and its all about turnovers there and Kerry were caught a few times which led to scores.

[taggert]

Better team won but great credit to Kerry for going right to the end.
Subs brought a lot to the game.

They will be kicking themselves for giving away some very needless frees - but thats pressure, fatigue and finals where discipline and decision making are key.

[veteran]

No doubt the better team won. We we were a little flattered to be so close at the end.

Nevertheless, we never threw in the towel when there were a few occasions when it looked as if Antrim were going to romp home. Credit for not conceding a goal and among those backs I thought Tomas O’Connor was colossal at number three. Shane Conway was flawless from frees and showed some exquisite touches in general play but we need to devise a system where he is involved more often.

We got a return from our subs and if they could could hijack Barry O’Mahkny and Donal O’Sullivan from the footballers the options would be heightened .

We shot a good few wides but a lot of these resulted from close Antrim attention. We conceded two points from wayward puckouts and one from an unnecessary 65.

One criticism I would have of our play today was we overdid the short passing at the expense of more direct striking, Young O’Connor at corner forward was a victim of this style , being taken off when scarcely a ball was struck his way.

Defiance and stubbornness were characteristics we displayed in abundance. They are invaluable foundation stones.

On the evidence of the three meetings between the sides this year we got more out of the game than I expected. Sincere congratulations to the lads for a supreme effort during the entire campaign.

[sullyschoice]

Our first touch was not as sharp as Antrim's.

A close game that was there until the final whistle. Justice was probably done alright.

[Mickmack]

SUN, 13 DEC, 2020 - 14:53
EOGHAN CORMICAN, CROKE PARK
McDonagh Cup final: Antrim 0-22 Kerry 1-17

Antrim will play in the Leinster SHC next year after overcoming Kerry in this afternoon’s Joe McDonagh Cup final.

Today’s decider was the fourth time Antrim and Kerry have met in 2020 - and it was the fourth time Antrim have come out on top.

The previous three clashes - Division 2 League round-robin, Division 2 League final, and Joe McDonagh round-robin - ended in six, seven, and three-point winning margins for Antrim, today’s game the closest of their encounters this year.

The two-point win represents Antrim’s first second-tier championship final win since 2006, the prize for which is a return to the top-tier after five years away and a place in next year’s six-team Leinster round-robin.

Antrim owned the third quarter, hitting six points without reply to turn a one-point interval deficit into a five-point lead on 49 minutes.

Ciarán Clarke (two frees and one from play) contributed half of this sextet, Niall McKenna landed a brace, while sub Neil McManus, in his first Joe McDonagh appearance of the campaign, also nailed the target. The Division 2 League champions could have pushed further ahead during this period of supremacy with Conor McCann dropping a shot short, while Conal Cunning and James McNaughton hit wides.


Kerry went the first 15 minutes of the second-half without adding to their tally, the underdogs trailing 0-16 to 1-8 at the second water break.

Four-in-a-row from Kerry’s Michael O’Leary, sub Brendan O’Leary, Shane Conway (free), and Daniel Collins between the 61st and 67th minute cut the Antrim lead to two, 0-19 to 1-14, but no closer could Kerry get.

Antrim’s Conal Cunning, who made a notable difference when introduced, and a pair from another sub, Neil McManus, pushed the Saffrons four clear in the third minute of second-half stoppages and while Kerry did twice more hit the target, they were unable to fashion a goal.


A Michael O’Leary point in the last play of the opening half had edged Kerry in front for the first time in proceedings and left the interval scoreline reading 1-7 to 0-9.

Having found themselves 0-6 to 0-2 in arrears at the water break, Kerry won the second quarter by 1-5 to 0-3, quite a notable turnaround given the northerners had enjoyed much the better of the opening exchanges.

The Kerry goal, on 20 minutes, was the first score after the water stoppage, a mistake by Antrim full-back Matthew Donnelly punished by Mikey Boyle.

Kerry will have been disappointed with the Boyle and Daniel Collins wides they tallied immediately after the green flag, although the Kingdom did finally get level when Shane Conway converted a 23rd minute free.

Antrim were finding scores easier to come by when they swept into the opposition half and a Michael Bradley minor, their first in seven minutes, nudged Darren Gleeson’s men back in front.

The sides were level at 0-8 to 1-5 when Antrim had their outstanding goal chance of the afternoon, an opportunity that garnered plenty of debate as the sliotar from Niall McKenna’s shot had not fully crossed the white paint when Kerry ‘keeper John B O’Halloran made a last-ditch clearance.


Antrim did mine a point from the play, but a pair from Shane Conway (free) and O’Leary had Kerry in front turning around for the second period. Kerry will look back with regret on eight first-half wides, their wastefulness far greater than Antrim.

Fintan O’Connor’s charges were also guilty of overplaying possession in the middle third in the opening half, numerous plays breaking down because Kerry attempted to play a percentage pass that simply wasn’t on or worth the risk.

In the end, Antrim were deserving of their win and can now look forward to a 2021 campaign which will be spent in Division 1 of the league and the Leinster SHC.


Scorers for Antrim: C Clarke (0-11, 0-8 frees); N McManus (0-4, 0-2 ‘65s, 0-1 free); N McKenna, C Gunning (0-2 each); J McNaughton, C McCann, M Bradley (0-1 each).

Scorers for Kerry: S Conway (0-9, 0-8 frees); M Boyle (1-0); M O’Leary, D Collins (0-2 each); P O’Connor, C Harty, P Boyle, B O’Leary (0-1 each).

Antrim: R Elliott; P Duffin, M Donnelly, S Rooney; G Walsh, P Burke, J Maskey; E Campbell, K Molloy; N McKenna, J McNaughton, M Bradley; D McCloskey, C McCann, C Clarke.

Subs: C Cunning for McCloskey (HT); N McManus for Molloy, D Nugent for McCann (both 45 mins); C Johnston for Bradley (64); A O’Brien for McKenna (70).

Kerry: JB O’Halloran; B Murphy, T O’Connor, E Leen; J Diggins, F Mackessy, M Leane; B Barrett, P O’Connor; S Conway, S Nolan, M O’Leary; D Collins, M Boyle, M O’Connor.

Subs: B O’Mahony for M O’Connor (42); P Boyle for P O’Connor (49); C Harty for M Boyle (55); B O’Leary for Barrett (60).

Referee: L Gordon (Galway).


MORE IN THIS SECTION

[mossie]

Kerry will have regrets after this defeat. Our touch was just not where it should have been in the 1st quarter, seemed nervy and we gifted Antrim a few points by losing possession or giving it away cheaply

Still as in the previous encounters , Antrim were just that bit better than Kerry and there is no getting away from that. Kerry have found a superb full back in Tomas Connor and Fionan Mackessy at 6 defended heroically as well. The Kerry backs did superbly to keep Antrim goalless. In previous encounters , Antrim really opened us for goals.

I felt Padraig Boyle could have been introduced earlier but you will always have great hindsight after a defeat. Barry Mahony had an impact on his introduction too it must be said and what a hurling prospect he is. All in all, great character and spirit shown by Kerry and they have the ability to bouncr back and win this in 2021.

Players like Barry O'Mahony, Donal O'Sullivan, John Mark Foley, Daniel Casey, Michael Lenihan are players that could strengthen Kerry's hand or at least worth a look at though some of the aforementioned could go a football direction. If Jack Goulding was to come back from London he would be a boost as well.

[Whosinmidfield]

The hurlers have a great chance of winning the Joe McDonagh next year with Antrim gone up and no team coming down. Hopefully the opportunity to be promoted to Leinster will still be there. What they really need to improve is their passing, a lot of easy passes were messed up today. After that they have a lot of strengths and it would be great for them to have an injury free Barry Mahony (he showed glimpses of a very good hurler when he came on) and Donal O’Sullivan (the full forward line is where an addition is needed most). Although both could be wanted by the football panel. I was impressed with Tomás O’Connor, Fionan Mackessy, Brandon Barrett, Paudie O’Connor and Michael O’Leary today. Conway wasn’t involved as much as he should have been at all, I think a roving corner forward role might help to get more out of his ability.

[wideball]

Disappointed for the hurlers today but can't fault their effort. They gave a great account of themselves. Especially Tomas O'Connor and Fionan Mackessy. If the footballers had a 3 & 6 like the hurlers I think we would all be very happy. Also liked the physicality and aggression in the tackle by all players.

[mossie]

Dec 13, 2020 22:41:51 GMT wideball said:

Disappointed for the hurlers today but can't fault their effort. They gave a great account of themselves. Especially Tomas O'Connor and Fionan Mackessy. If the footballers had a 3 & 6 like the hurlers I think we would all be very happy. Also liked the physicality and aggression in the tackle by all players.

The injury to Brian Murphy kind of meant Kerry found Tomas Connor as a full back almost by accident

He was going well in the half back line before that

[colinsworth1]

Dec 13, 2020 19:54:17 GMT mossie said:

Kerry will have regrets after this defeat. Our touch was just not where it should have been in the 1st quarter, seemed nervy and we gifted Antrim a few points by losing possession or giving it away cheaply

Still as in the previous encounters , Antrim were just that bit better than Kerry and there is no getting away from that. Kerry have found a superb full back in Tomas Connor and Fionan Mackessy at 6 defended heroically as well. The Kerry backs did superbly to keep Antrim goalless. In previous encounters , Antrim really opened us for goals.

I felt Padraig Boyle could have been introduced earlier but you will always have great hindsight after a defeat. Barry Mahony had an impact on his introduction too it must be said and what a hurling prospect he is. All in all, great character and spirit shown by Kerry and they have the ability to bouncr back and win this in 2021.

Players like Barry O'Mahony, Donal O'Sullivan, John Mark Foley, Daniel Casey, Michael Lenihan are players that could strengthen Kerry's hand or at least worth a look at though some of the aforementioned could go a football direction. If Jack Goulding was to come back from London he would be a boost as well.


the radio Kerry commentary really and truly emphasized how things would change dramatically when O Mahony came in and then said that we would see huge improvement with introduction of Padraig Boyle   They seemed to suggest that we did I not have the best 15 players on the pitch initially  that s what i was getting form the commentary which surprised me to say the least 
I’m asking if these players were such game changers then why did they come in so late ? Frustrating to watch us losing so much ball with the short lateral passing in midfield    

[Ballyfireside]

Hey hurlers, well done, ye fought like dogs 'till the final whistle, nothing less that I expected and ye have a great future. Ye hurled all day long and on at least 3 occasions towards the end I thought ye would do it as there wasn't that much in it - a bit of luck and we'd have an AI in NK for 2020.

As they say every cloud has a silver lining and while I have limited knowledge of the wider picture here, will ye improve more than Antrim as they will be out of their depth whereas you will will refine more as a team and get more fluent. Ye will have come on for that game and maybe a biteen of gym power will have ye on stage some day soon.

My only concern is that the ills that hamper amateur sports in the county will be a drag your noble efforts but sin scéal eile.

When Leitrim footballers won Connaught in was it '94, it was said that a few now retired stalwarts looked down over he bannisters - that thought was in my head towards the end yesterday, those who battled down the years would have been well pleased.

On ye boys ye, ye have lifted hearts and in a way shadowed the other final and which was but one sided towards the end.

[hurlingman]

More heartbreak for the hurlers. Antrim just a better side and kept the scoreboard ticking. Too many simple mistakes that you just can't get away with. That being said the game was still there for the taking right up until the very end.

With that experience on broad hopefully they can go a step more next year. One thing that was shown yesterday is if you ant to very be at the level of laois etc you have to be in Div 1B of the league