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From: SeamusMoynihan

Date: 09-Oct-2009

While the celebrations have now come to an end in Kerry & Kilkenny, it is now down to brass tax for the players as they now have to throw their shoulder to the wheel to aid the cause of their clubs.

Tralee punished by All Ireland celebrations

Here in Kerry, there is a major backlog in games with the County Championship only at quarter final stage. Kerins O’ Rahilly's club in Tralee received little sympathy from the county board the week after the All Ireland as they were pitted against Laune Rangers the following Sunday.

This was hugely unfair considering Rahillys had 4 players involved in the county panel – the 2 Walsh’s, David Moran & Mike Quirke – 3 of which finished on the foeld for the Kingdom the week before against Cork.

Throw in a few days of celebrations followed with the touring of Sam to schools and towns – well let's say these 4 lads were in no fit state to play the Laune, who at this present time have no player involved on the county team since the departure of MF Russell.

County Board to blame for 'gross' unfairness

The county board should have given all players involved with Kerry a week's grace from games, one more weekend won’t make a huge difference come year end. Why not play a round of the county league which would not have been a life or death scenario?.

Rahillys like Rathmore must be cursing their luck and now find themselves out of the most prestigious competition in Kerry. As stated this is grossly unfair to clubs who gave their players to the county and in return are punished for having such quality players.

Mid Kerry clashes interesting

This weekend there are some very interesting clashes, the plum tie being Mid Kerry vs Feale Rangers.

There is an abundance of inter county players spread amongst both teams with Feale Rangers  really holding the aces – Gally& Tadgh Kennelly will no doubt bring their fantastic form to date into this divisional team and along with Anhony Maher, Kieran Quirke, Maurice Corridan, Eamon Fitz and Noel Kennelly they will be a hard team to stop.

However Mid Kerry are the current champs and won't go down without a fight. They have great pace in their forward division, Darren Sullivan, Sean O’ Sullivan & Donnacha Walsh will pin back the Feale defence while Aidan O’ Shea will no doubt be out to prove himself once again to try and win a Kerry jersey in 2010.

Crokes should have enough in the tank for St. Brendans, Stacks & Laune Rangers, hesitant vote to the Laune, South Kerry will have too much for their departed neighbours St Michaels Foilmore.

County style seeping through to county level

So onto more national news, during the week I was watching the highlights of the Down, Derry, Donegal county final and the Galway County final. It is so interesting to see how the style of play which we have watched all year on the tv from the county scene have been adopted by all clubs on view.

The defence on all teams were not willing to kick the ball, opting to handpass to a team mate who in some cases were in a worse position.

Club teams are trying to replicate county teams but in most cases make a hash of it. I always feel at club level things should be kept simple and defenders especially should keep things very simple.

Getting the ball out the danger zone is key priority but teams seem to take on this slow build up out of defence instead of kicking the ball 30 or 40 yards out away from the danger zone.

Who will emerge from Crosmaglen's shadow this year?

However the standard of football was still quiet good and levels of fitness seemed very high. It was great to see Brendan Devanney and Jimmy McGuinness still strutting their stuff up in Donegal, 2 great lads with Devanney still throwing the ball over the bar for fun. Ulster will be very interesting this year as the Kingpins Crossmaglen are out of the equation so it will be interesting to see who will emerge from their shadow.

Will Kernan realise Galway dreams?

Joe Bergin was the saviour up in the Galway county final for his club with his inspirational long range point to level the match. Joe must be a happy man as Galway have now have got one of the best managers in the country in Joe Kernan to show them the way to the promised land. Joe Kernan is a top class manager who has a great way with players, has been there, seen that, done that. 

Kernan no doubt has a lot of work to do with this sleeping giant but I can guarantee you the players will now for once start using the fantastic facilities the Galway County Board have established which up to now have been left idle.

Down in rebel side, life goes on after their disappointing day out in Croker.

Clonakilty

Clonakilty are the new champions after defeating the Barrs by a point. This is a great achievement for this west Cork club as they have no player on the present Cork panel.

Clon’s last win was in 1996 when they defeated a highly fancied UCC team that I was part of and were only supposed to turn up and collect the cup. Football however is not that simple and Clon won by 3 or 4 points and were worthy winners. 

Clon will now face the eventual winners in Kerry.

Kerry are different to other counties in the sense the Kerry representatives will come from either the Club or County Championship i.e. we discussed the teams remaining in the Kerry county championship above which consists of club teams (Stacks, Laune Rangers, Crokes and St Michaels Foilmore) and divisional teams ( divisional teams are a combination of two or more clubs like Feale Rangers which consists of Finuge, Listowel, St. Senans, Moyvane and Duagh).

If a club team wins the county championship they will automatically represent Kerry in the Munster campaign.

However if a Divisional team wins the county championship the eventual winners of the club championship (competition for all senior club teams) will represent Kerry in Munster.

Kerins O’ Rahilly’s and Ardfert are the 2 teams in the club final so they will be hoping for a divisional team to win out the County. Sure we do nothing straight forward down this side of the country. Correct me if am wrong but as far as I know Kerry & Cork are the only 2 counties that have divisional teams in their county championship??

So a quick reply to a few blog heads.

Replies to Ireland.com readers - you're right Diarmuid Murphy

Tomdin – Diarmuid Murphy was inspirational this year, looking at my blog I gave the poor man no mention after the final. This year was magic for the big man and he is a automatic all star.

He made some wonderful saves during the year and if he does decide to throw in the towel he will leave a huge vacuum to fill. Murph is a very astute man and will know himself if there is another year in him. It is hard to know how 2010 – 2020 will go for Kerry, all I know is that we will always be in the shake up come August/September.

Footiefan – yes this is an amazing achievement for Kerry, six finals in a row, 8 finals out of the last 10, super consistency. The 2 Ks are very strong in either code but I feel Kerry have more counties to bother them than Kilkenny in the hurling. Tyrone, Cork, Galway, Dublin, Derry, Donegal, Kildare all on their day would feel they have a chance of capturing Sam so Kerry can never leave their guard down.

Suzie – Retirement – possibly quiet a few could go from the Kingdom, re the O’ Se’s, sure Marc is only a Babog, Tomas is playing the best football in his life and Darragh is such a rogue he might have an incorrect certificate and he might only  be 30. Lets hope they all do the right thing for themselves, either way the O’ Se family owe nothing to Kerry but Kerry owe them so much.

Talk next week and blog in to see my All Star team for 2009-10-09

All the best

The Pony