BEST FOOT FORWARD
Dual legend Kerins: If Tribe footballers get injured players back they have a chance of an All-ireland but hurlers have Limerick-sized mountain to climb
FORMER Galway dual star Alan Kerins believes the county’s footballers are closer to an All-ireland than the hurlers.
Kerins, though from a hurling background in Clarinbridge, broke into the football panel in 2001 and played in both All-ireland finals that year, losing the hurling before winning a football medal.
He tried to combine both codes for a couple of seasons afterwards before concentrating on hurling only.
While the footballers haven’t won an Allireland since, they were in the final as recently as 2022 and Kerins (inset) sees them as stronger contenders for Sam Maguire than Henry Shefflin’s charges are for the Liam Maccarthy Cup.
“They’re both very, very close,” he said. “I think the footballers, if they get their injuries together, they still beat Tyrone without their four best players probably, [Damien] Comer, [Shane] Walsh, Cillian Mcdaid and also Sean Kelly came on.
“If they have a full panel and they proved two or three years ago, probably should have beaten Kerry.
“There’s a closer bunch in football in terms of a certain number of teams at that level so I think the footballers, if they get the injuries [back] and get on a run and momentum going, I think they could have a great shot.
“I would say the hurlers are very close as well but I just think Limerick are just so good and Galway need to find a few players as well to add to the older lads that are there as well and the older lads are the key guys that are 30, 31, 32 now as well.
“They have a few years to get one over the line as well and get a second medal, which they deserve. I’d love to see them win a second medal, those guys, the Daithi Burkes and the Cathal and Padraic Mannions and Joseph Cooneys and Gearoid Mcinerney, they’re 32, 33, 34, 31, so what’s coming behind them to replace those is a question as well, those leaders.”
Kerins features on Laochra Gael on TG4 tomorrow night (9.30pm), which focuses on his club and inter-county career as well as his charitable work, which has seen millions of euro raised for poverty-stricken communities in Africa.
Naturally, there is a particular focus on his bid in 2001 to become just the second player in GAA history, after the late Teddy Mccarthy in 1990, to win All-ireland medals in both codes in the same year.
Having lost the hurling final to Tipperary by three points, Kerins was dropped from the starting team for the football decider, though he was introduced off the bench as Galway romped victory over Meath.
He admits now that football boss John O’mahony made the right decision in leaving him out.
“The energy was going. I’d say I wasn’t as effective in the semi-final. How they broke it to me was that you’re exhausted, your energy has dropped, and we can see that in your performances,” he said.
“Psychologically, the hurling was the big one and that’s gone. The aftermath of that… the decision probably proved right in the end. I was dealing with a lot of stuff in the summer because Galway weren’t used to doing it [accommodating dual players]. There was a lot of emotion.
“I was in every paper and I was doing all the interviews and I probably got sucked into doing that and the profile I suppose.”