Griffin more than happy to row in with South Kerry after sole effort with club
IT feels strange to be talking to Mark Griffin about playing senior football with South Kerry being a relatively new experience for him, but when the Kerry full back was emerging from the juvenile ranks to establish himself in the adult grade his club St Michaels/ Foilmore were beating their own path in the county championship.
St Michaels/Foilmore lost their senior status the day before South Kerry won their last county title back in November 2015, and while now happy to be involved with the divisional team, Griffin takes a lot of pride in his club dining at the top table for seven years.
“We held our own well but the core of our team moved on and it’s like any cycle in that it becomes hard to keep going. When it went to eight senior clubs we were always going to struggle to stay there but having played Minor and U-21 for South Kerry it was easy for the club to come back in and I’m delighted to be involved personally,” Griffin said of joining the senior ranks with the district.
The first year back ended poorly with a loss to Dingle in the quarter-finals in Tralee but a win for the district’s U-21’s in their grade last year did create a sense of optimism about 2017 initially.
“We didn’t play to our potential last year against Dingle but the U-21 win was encouraging particularly for some of the players it brought through especially the likes of Brian Sugrue and Robert Wharton,” he said.
When St Michaels/Foilmore were at the peak of their powers they regularly faced some of the county’s best clubs in Division One of the County League and Griffin says the fact South Kerry have faced mostly club sides in recent County Championship campaigns does help them play like a club team themselves.
“Club teams are that bit more fluid at senior level because they play together all the time and have great experience from County League matches. Considering South Kerry is probably the closest thing that you will find to a club team amongst the districts it does benefit you when you beat them. Even when you do win you rarely dominate club teams because they have that togetherness to keep them going in all games,” he of the challenge of facing the best clubs in the county.
The path to Sunday starting in Tralee itself back in May across in Strand Road and while South Kerry were not happy to lose to Kerins O’Rahillys the first day, Griffin did say it was a result that offered a chance for more self-examination.
“While I personally couldn’t compare it to other years I know the feeling in general was that the performance itself was one of the worst ever by a South Kerry side. The one thing about it though was that it allowed us to have a good look at ourselves and improve to the extent we have in reaching the county final. I don’t think the semi-final (with O’Rahillys) was specifically about avenging that defeat, it was solely about reaching the Final and while we would be happy with the performance in general we do think we must be a bit more clinical in our finishing and tidy up on some of our chances,” Griffin feels.
Training alongside some of the Dr Crokes players in the Kerry ranks, Griffin has knowledge of what the Killarney side are capable of and feels they are as strong as ever after the All-Ireland Club title success of last March.
“I think everyone in the county was delighted for Crokes that they won the All-Ireland. I know from Kerry level what it meant to those players to win and they will be a difficult challenge as ever but you don’t expect it to be any other way when you reach county final level. I don’t think the venue will be a factor in proceedings, Crokes are hard to beat no matter where you play them even if the game was on here down here in Cahersiveen.”
After the two sides facing each other in Fitzgerald Stadium, Killorglin, Cahersiveen and Waterville over the course of their rivalry this Millennium, it will be interesting to see what sort of a dynamic Austin Stack Park will bring to the story between the sides come Sunday evening.
BEING an injured captain can be a frustrating experience at the best of times but Denis Daly is happy to be a part of the South Kerry set-up at the moment despite being restricted to a sideline role. “Obviously you want to be out there playing when you are Captain but Conor (O’Shea) is doing a good job in the circumstances. It’s actually nice to come back into a set-up like this after you are finished with Kerry for the year because there is a freshness about everything. The players you are joining have been preparing quietly for the County Championship and are driven about trying to succeed,” the St Marys player said. Daly praises South Kerry manager William Harmon for making the high standards within the district even higher. “Definitely you see it with the professionalism in training that he sets out. He has a great relationship as well with the clubs and you see it in the Dromid Pearses situation where someone like Declan O’Sullivan can come into the set-up like he did for the Rathmore game and command serious respect in any dressing room because of everything Declan has given for South Kerry. Even though Dromid have a Junior Final, Declan still wants to see South Kerry do well no matter what,” Daly said of the management structure. On the challenge at hand Sunday, Daly acknowledges Dr Crokes’ prominence in advance. “As a club they have a winning mentality that has been built up over the years and isn’t easily turned on and off. Knowing the inter-county players they will have the right attitude going into this and while people might talk about the venue I don’t think it matters or is remembered where you won a County Final once you win it.”