Kerry haves meet Munster have nots
THIS was the year, probably more so than any other, when the yawning gap between club football here in the Kingdom and with our Munster neighbours came sharply into view.
Out of eight provincial club championship games in senior, intermediate and junior (some of which were played in October and one of which was played in December) the Kerry clubs won by a cumulative 112 points, an average of fourteen points.
It made for quite dull viewing a lot of the time. Sure enough you could marvel at the quality of the Kerry clubs and the football they produced, but you do get the strongest sense that without meaningful competition these competitions have become devalued.
In the senior championship Dr Crokes won their games by an average of eleven points. In the intermediate championship Kenmare Shamrocks won their games by an average of a whopping nineteen points.
In the junior championship Glenbeigh / Glencar won by a relatively modest eleven points (although we shudder to think what it would have been had Waterford had its house in order and provided them with a game in Glenbeigh instead of a walk over).
In previous years Kerry clubs have been challenged just not this year. Dr Crokes positively cruised to a Munster crown, following up their win over Kilmurry / Ibrickane with a six point win over Loughmore / Castleiney (1-12 and 0-9) and a crushing victory over a dire The Nire (forgive us the pun, we couldn’t help ourselves) in the Munster final. Crokes put eighteen points on them in that final – 3-15 to 0-6 – and while clubs from other counties have challenged and won the title before the 2016 competition was sadly lacking. In junior and intermediate Kerry clubs have been this dominant all along. Glenbeigh / Glencar made their long awaited Munster bow with a ten point victory over west Limerick side Gerald Griffins, 1-13 to 0-6. In their Munster semi-final Kenmare Shamrocks downed Clare kingpins Kilfenora 3-11 to 0-7 to set up a final against Limerick side Adare, a game that proved their most competitive but only marginally so – they still ran out twelve point winners, 1-20 to 1-8.