Memories

[john4]

I was behind the goal in Thurles for Maurice's sideline.

It took about 7 minutes 😂 from when it left his boot to landing on the ground. It was like watching slow-motion.

Place went nuts

[onlykerry]

It always amazes me the way some people can pull up memories of particular moments in a game going back over the years - for me the games were and remain a blur but the memories that stay with me are generally associated with the day of a game and events that happened going to or coming from the matches - train journeys, early morning mass, weather ... strange how memories work differently.

[dc84]

Games (wins) that stand out to me are 1996 vs cork
2000 vs armagh and galway
2001 vs dublin
2006 vs armagh
2007 vs dublin and cork 😁
2009 vs dublin
2014 vs mayo
2022 vs dublin

Most memorable moments
96 killian burns point
00 maurice goal vs armagh
01 maurice point v dublin
06 darren goal armagh
07 dec sull goal v dublin
09 gooch goal v dublin
14 jonathan lynes 2 pts in extra time vs mayo
22 seanies free the best of the lot so far !

[Ballyfireside]

Sept 30, 2022 16:08:40 GMT onlykerry said:

It always amazes me the way some people can pull up memories of particular moments in a game going back over the years - for me the games were and remain a blur but the memories that stay with me are generally associated with the day of a game and events that happened going to or coming from the matches - train journeys, early morning mass, weather ... strange how memories work differently.

I think the long term memory gets better with age but the short term doesn't, though it isn't as simple as that - i.e. I think you sum it up there, we remember what stood out for us, that's why we remember it!

You'd often walk a mile and couldn't remember a thing, because nothing note worthy happened. Ah let's leave the psychology to, well the psychologists.

[sullyschoice]

My God. So many great memories being discussed here. How lucky are we to have so much of our brains congested by such matters.

Imagine being from a county with very few.

[Mickmack]

This victory against the odds in Parnell Park against Antrim in 2015 was a brilliant buzz.

Hurling is the number one game in Antrim.

Antrim were 8 points ahead at half time. The second half was as good as it gets.

Kerry reeled Antrim in and the last few minutes were fought tooth and nail and the teams were level 3 or 4 times.

John Egan had been injured but he entered the fray towards the end and got on the last ball turned his man twice and split the posts to give Kerry promotion.

It was a fantastic win in the circumstances. Antrim were stunned.

www.the42.ie/kerry-antrim-hurling-john-egan-2042843-Apr2015/

[onlykerry]

A few older memories for the mix
Mikey Sheehy's goal and the stunned look of Paddy Cullen - probably remember it because of the re-showing of it over the years.
Super sub Seanie Walsh goaling against Cork on the day Pairc Ui Chaoimh re-opened (first time round)
Banner on the canal end in 1975 when we were no hopers!! - '55 we took a dive, 75 we're still alive (we beat Dublin in both years)

[thehermit]

I love reading all this stuff, there's people on here who have been going to Kerry matches when even my father was barely out of puberty!

So I'd like to take the thread in a slightly different direction: What are your memories of your first ever Kerry game?

I'll start, it was the 1991 Munster Final, Kerry v Limerick in Killarney.

I was only 6 so there's just fragments of memory but I recall a few things. First it was a close and very high scoring game because I have the distinct recollection of my Dad and my Godfather being very animated throughout and at the final whistle (final score was 3-12 to 0-23).

Second the one player out there I can remember very clearly was Limerick's Timme Cummins - he was a doctor if I remember correctly and he certainly stood out with this his big flowing grey hair. I also think there was a picture of him in action on the cover of the match programme. I also remember my Dad telling me to watch him as he was a real danger man.

Whatever about the game, I was actually far more interested in getting to sit on the actual pitch with the other kids I saw in there, especially when my cousins from Lixnaw spotted me and started jeering at me that they got to go and sit on the field while I had to make due with the stand.

I think I drove my Dad demented because while he was consumed with the match, I was constantly tugging his sleeve and asking him could he ask someone to let me sit down there

The highlights are actually one youtube:

That team had loads of the Golden Years era still out there, Jacko, Spillane, Ambrose, Charlie etc

[tpo]

1st that I have any recollection was 1961 Munster final in Cork, I remember the journey more than the game

[hurlingman]

Oct 2, 2022 9:53:52 GMT Mickmack said:

This victory against the odds in Parnell Park against Antrim in 2015 was a brilliant buzz.

Hurling is the number one game in Antrim.

Antrim were 8 points ahead at half time. The second half was as good as it gets.

Kerry reeled Antrim in and the last few minutes were fought tooth and nail and the teams were level 3 or 4 times.

John Egan had been injured but he entered the fray towards the end and got on the last ball turned his man twice and split the posts to give Kerry promotion.

It was a fantastic win in the circumstances. Antrim were stunned.

www.the42.ie/kerry-antrim-hurling-john-egan-2042843-Apr2015/

I think this was the best win for the hurling in recent times, even ahead of the Christy Ring wins.

Everything was set up for Antrim and against Kerry. Antrim hadn't won a league game for two seasons and had a brake before it while Kerry had to play the week after winning the league.

Beating Offaly and staying in Div 1B the following season is up therr as well.

[sullyschoice]

I remember being able to go into the dressing rooms to get autographs in the 1970s and early 80s.

Kerry played a Rest of Ireland selection in Newbridge around 1978/9 and there was an over 40s match on the same day.

I also remember Seamus Aldridge coming up my father at a league match in Newbridge and having the craic with him. I never knew before that, that Dad worked with him in the P&T. Couldn't believe he never told me he knew him after he reffed the 1978 final. Aldridge was legend purely because the Dubs hated him back in those days. He was like their Seamus Darby

[kerryexile]

The first game I can remember being brought to was a league game against Meath in Austin Stacks Park in the late '60s. I can remember being behind the goals at the Horan's end. I watched the action and listened to the crowd with a sense of awe but was too young to get get engrossed in it. For me the biggest thing about the day was of a biblical nature, the Gods that I had so often heard my father and his friends talk about around the fire were there in human form, playing football in front of me. I don't know who won.

The first championship game I was brought to was a Munster Final in Killarney. The excitement started on Friday. We arrived for the dinner (in the middle of the day!). My mother had got the Kerryman, it came out Friday morning that time. It was taken apart so that everyone could read about the game, no waiting. My father saw a notice giving a timetable for a train for the game that would meander through North Kerry on Sunday morning and back again on Sunday evening. It was decided we would go. The train journey was an unexpected bonus. The occasion proved to be even more exciting and memorable than my boyish dreams had expected. I don't remember much about the game but I do remember looking out for one player, Mick O'Connell.

[horsebox77]

Reading through all the recollections and memories, there is one constant, or recurring factor, the majority of us recall games, early games as kids of being brought to this game by our fathers, I’m no different and now the same cycle exists with my own crew. I think it’s brilliant, this constant circles of gaa or football life that outlives television, radio, play-stations and switches. An unbreakable chain.

[Mickmack]

Oct 3, 2022 10:00:03 GMT horsebox77 said:

Reading through all the recollections and memories, there is one constant, or recurring factor, the majority of us recall games, early games as kids of being brought to this game by our fathers,

My earliest memory on that is the 1970 Munster final in Killarney. A traffic jam from Farranfore meant not arriving till half time in the minor match. More and more giants started cramming into the terrace so he had to put me on his shoulders for the rest of the afternoon. A lot of famous names on display that day: Mick oDwyer, Mick oConnell, Johnny Culloty and Ger Power etc in the minors.

[homerj]

those imagines of Killarney back in the day, packed, absolutely rammed.

earlied memory for me as a child is 95 - felt like 40 degrees that day and people being lifted out after fainting.

45,000 at those games, better stadium now and capacity reduced to 32,000.

mad how dangerous it was back then.

[Jo90]

Sept 30, 2022 12:44:29 GMT Mickmack said:

Sept 30, 2022 9:37:30 GMT southward said:

1991 v Cork. A year on from a 15-point hammering and with Cork dominant for several years, Kerry were given no chance. And though we were still in the game, even going ahead with John cronin's goal, I remember waiting for Cork to step up a gear and put us away. Then suddenly looking at the watch and realising, sh*t, there's only a couple of minutes left, we've a chance here! Heart jumping as Cork launch a late 45 with Kerry a point in front. Kerry hands (Morgan Nix?) grab it. Booted downfield. Free to Kerry. Maurice from way out - blackspot! All eyes on Paddy Russell at the kickout. Seeing his hands spread wide. Ecstasy!

That said, nothing beats 2014 in Limerick for sheer unrelenting excitement.

Great recall southward.

It was Pat Spillane that booted that long ball out of defense and i am nearly sure it was on top of Jacko who won the free.

1991 v Cork was massive alright but it was a bit of a false dawn. It would be another 5 years before Cork were put down.

Was it 1991 or 1992 that Tompkins couldnt play due to sunburn? I think 1992. Cork were better that era from 1988 to 1995.... even if we snuck one or two victories

That sunburn story was a smokescreen I've been led to believe.
Tompkins had a small rash on his leg a week or so before the game and one of the medical team gave him some cream to put on it, of the home remedy variety. This caused the rash to flare up 10 times worse and for anyone else but Larry Tompkins it would have ruled them out of the game, but he managed to make an appearance off the bench. To save face for the medic, they released the story that it was sunburn. Does Larry mention it in his autobiography I wonder?

[horsebox77]

I remember the 'sideline' a section of about ten or twelve rows of seating infront of the terrace, that area is where I watched the majority of my first Fitzgerald Stadium games from.

[Mickmack]

Oct 4, 2022 14:29:56 GMT Jo90 said:

Sept 30, 2022 12:44:29 GMT Mickmack said:

Great recall southward.

It was Pat Spillane that booted that long ball out of defense and i am nearly sure it was on top of Jacko who won the free.

1991 v Cork was massive alright but it was a bit of a false dawn. It would be another 5 years before Cork were put down.

Was it 1991 or 1992 that Tompkins couldnt play due to sunburn? I think 1992. Cork were better that era from 1988 to 1995.... even if we snuck one or two victories

That sunburn story was a smokescreen I've been led to believe.
Tompkins had a small rash on his leg a week or so before the game and one of the medical team gave him some cream to put on it, of the home remedy variety. This caused the rash to flare up 10 times worse and for anyone else but Larry Tompkins it would have ruled them out of the game, but he managed to make an appearance off the bench. To save face for the medic, they released the story that it was sunburn. Does Larry mention it in his autobiography I wonder?

Interesting. It never made sense to me that someone as driven as Larry would be so careless as to get sunburned so badly.

[veteran]

The history of Kerry football is a storied one but it is chastening to think that it encapsulates some painful memories as well.

I am old enough to recall consecutive defeats to Down and Galway. Then of course we had the arrival of Tyrone and , more recently, Dublin. One consolation , if it can be construed as a consolation , all those defeats had was they were inflicted by superb teams. The 2001 Meath annihilation belongs to a darker world.

Was that Meath team a superb outfit? No matter how generously you approach that question you could not answer in the affirmative. They won an an uninspiring All-Ireland in 1999 and subsequent to them eviscerating us in the 2001 semifinal they were similarly toasted, perhaps to not the same extent, by Galway in the final. This was a Galway team we had beaten in the 2000 final and a Galway team we would maul in 2002.

How then does one explain our capitulation against Meath? I don’t have an answer. It is like asking who killed JFK. Likely to remain forever a mystery. One of the great disappointments in the Kerry football story and perhaps the most inexplicable.

The glories of 2022 make it bearable to relive a day which bordered on the macabre.

[sullyschoice]

My planning of family holidays to dovetail with Championship games is usually forensic and sometimes machiavellian, but I was never as happy to have made a hames of the 2001 schedule. I watched it in Spain and was sick to my stomach.

[homerj]

The bad days, make the great ones even better.

[mossie]

Sept 30, 2022 9:37:30 GMT southward said:

1991 v Cork. A year on from a 15-point hammering and with Cork dominant for several years, Kerry were given no chance. And though we were still in the game, even going ahead with John cronin's goal, I remember waiting for Cork to step up a gear and put us away. Then suddenly looking at the watch and realising, sh*t, there's only a couple of minutes left, we've a chance here! Heart jumping as Cork launch a late 45 with Kerry a point in front. Kerry hands (Morgan Nix?) grab it. Booted downfield. Free to Kerry. Maurice from way out - blackspot! All eyes on Paddy Russell at the kickout. Seeing his hands spread wide. Ecstasy!

That said, nothing beats 2014 in Limerick for sheer unrelenting excitement.

1991 was special, the stadium was electric that day

Cronin's goal shook the foundations of the place

kerry such underdogs but looking back Cork were ripe for the taking, tired team after reaching 4 all irelands, 5 if you include the replay and then all of the celebrating that went with winning the hurling\football double in 1990

[Mickmack]

Sept 30, 2022 9:37:30 GMT southward said:

That said, nothing beats 2014 in Limerick for sheer unrelenting excitement.

True.

Excitement and mayhem

[givehimaball]

Oct 4, 2022 15:24:58 GMT veteran said:

The history of Kerry football is a storied one but it is chastening to think that it encapsulates some painful memories as well.

I am old enough to recall consecutive defeats to Down and Galway. Then of course we had the arrival of Tyrone and , more recently, Dublin. One consolation , if it can be construed as a consolation , all those defeats had was they were inflicted by superb teams. The 2001 Meath annihilation belongs to a darker world.

Was that Meath team a superb outfit? No matter how generously you approach that question you could not answer in the affirmative. They won an an uninspiring All-Ireland in 1999 and subsequent to them eviscerating us in the 2001 semifinal they were similarly toasted, perhaps to not the same extent, by Galway in the final. This was a Galway team we had beaten in the 2000 final and a Galway team we would maul in 2002.

How then does one explain our capitulation against Meath? I don’t have an answer. It is like asking who killed JFK. Likely to remain forever a mystery. One of the great disappointments in the Kerry football story and perhaps the most inexplicable.

The glories of 2022 make it bearable to relive a day which bordered on the macabre.

One positive of the Meath nightmare is that I think it drove on a lot of players and helped fuel the subsequent All-Ireland wins.

If you look at the the younger players who played that day and the minors who lost to Dublin in the match before there was a lot of guys present that day who drove standards in the noughties. A fair few player over the years have mentioned it being a key game for them and how it drove them on.

This thread is about memories and in a way the Meath game is one of my most vivid Kerry memories - just the sheer blindsided shock of what happened, not that Kerry were beaten but just the absolute non-performance of the team.

[glengael]

The match programme v Cork in 1991 had a team photo of Cork, with the heading All Ireland Champions 1991. An error I'm sure but it was nice to reflect on after the event. Hubris might be the word.

[thehermit]

Will I ever forget 2001, going to Dublin was still a novelty as would only be starting Uni up there in the years to follow. My parents and brother and myself making the trip with my Dad splashing out on a new Kerry jersey for me for the occasion, the blue Munster version that I still wear when I'm pounding the roads on a run.

We had missed out on getting any tickets for the two AI games the year before, so this was mine and my brothers first chance to see the Kingdom strut its stuff in the new Croke Park.

Such excitement such hope and almost instantly such despair! We were staying with my sister so we had no worries about beating the traffic or a long trek home. Because of that, I reckon we were the only four Kerry supporters left in Croker when the final whistle sounded.

There's always been those rumours about what supposedly happened in the dressing room before. How I'd love to know from a fly on the wall what actually went on that day. The performance was so inept, so shocking you almost feel there must have been some unique underlying cause.

The Meath supporters ole ole -ing and cheering every time Meath passed the ball to each other in those final, torturous minutes is an insult that lives long in the memory. So is the jeering we took as we walked in our downcast dejection up Jones Road. I've never liked Meath fans since - a feeling only reinforced by witnessing some of their carry on against us in the 09 semi-final and the 2019 Super 8 game in Navan.

I curse that infamous white jersey and yet in the 21 years since I always see someone, somewhere wearing it the day of a big game. Sure enough the morning of the final this year a young lady was draped in it having her breakfast in a cafe in Drumcondra. I bumped into the same woman on Monday night in Tralee still wearing it and unburdened my soul to her about how that jersey haunts me, mocks me to this day. Needless to say being from Sinagpore and having been brought by a friend to the game and being given her spare jersey, the significance of my confession was lost on her.

Still we raised a pint to Seanie and the 2022 Kerry team - always remember good times are coming, be they every so far away 

[greengold35]

Oct 4, 2022 15:24:58 GMT veteran said:

The history of Kerry football is a storied one but it is chastening to think that it encapsulates some painful memories as well.

I am old enough to recall consecutive defeats to Down and Galway. Then of course we had the arrival of Tyrone and , more recently, Dublin. One consolation , if it can be construed as a consolation , all those defeats had was they were inflicted by superb teams. The 2001 Meath annihilation belongs to a darker world.

Was that Meath team a superb outfit? No matter how generously you approach that question you could not answer in the affirmative. They won an an uninspiring All-Ireland in 1999 and subsequent to them eviscerating us in the 2001 semifinal they were similarly toasted, perhaps to not the same extent, by Galway in the final. This was a Galway team we had beaten in the 2000 final and a Galway team we would maul in 2002.

How then does one explain our capitulation against Meath? I don’t have an answer. It is like asking who killed JFK. Likely to remain forever a mystery. One of the great disappointments in the Kerry football story and perhaps the most inexplicable.

The glories of 2022 make it bearable to relive a day which bordered on the macabre.

The Meath debacle is something I raised with a couple of the players a few years later - independently they each said the same thing - overtraining. Both recounted doing endless laps of Fitzgerald Stadium with very little football being played - one said he had little or no energy the day of the game - maybe, maybe not.

[Corner Back]

2012 v Tyrone in Killarney was a special day also. A highly charged atmosphere.

[buck02]

A forgotten one is the 2010 replay against Cork in Pairc Ui Chaoimh. Was probably the height of that rivalry between two of the top three teams in the country during 2007-2011.

Gooch has equalised with a last minute free in Killarney the week before. The second day out Cork were on top early and were a good bit up. Donaghy feeding Gooch for a goal then in second half. Red card for Cork. Marc coming up from corner back to kick a brilliant equaliser in injury time. Galvin "fishhooking" controversy. Both benches emptied to the limit. Kerry holding out in extra time.

Probably forgotten about after the Down debacle few weeks later.

[greengold35]

The 1997 Munster U-21 final replay vs Cork was a sweet one!
The sides had finished level in Tralee & one week later met in Pairc Ui Rinn - again, virtually nothing between the sides with Kerry holding a 2 point lead in injury time - a Cork attack saw corner forward Phillip Clifford go to ground with the referee signalling a penalty - Cork crowd around me were delirious only for David Moloney to deny them with a great save - a very satisfying result!
A few days later, Kerry were forced to line out vs Meath in the AI semi final played in Nenagh & were cruelly robbed by some baffling refereeing decisions.
After the game a group of supporters gathered outside the referee’s dressing room, to voice their frustration with his performance- an age seemed to pass before he exited accompanied by Donie Sheahan who escorted him to his car - a potentially dangerous situation defused by common sense.