Talent pool teeming with youth ready to be fished
Paul Brennan reflects on a county championship that has thrown up a plethora of young talent, some of which must surely get called into training with the Kerry senior panel
LAST Sunday’s county football final ticked a lot of positive boxes. Great county champions defended their title against a divisional team that laid down a challenge to Dr Crokes worthy of a county final. Collectively both teams showed admirable collegiality, while there was an abundance of brilliant individual performances that left the destination of the man of the match award in some doubt right up to the final whistle. While Gavin White got the official gong, his team mates Shane Murphy, John Payne, Micheal Burns, Daithi Casey and Kieran O’Leary were certainly in the running, while Bryan Sheehan and especially Brendan O’Sullivan were genuine contenders on the losing team.
Whatever about South Kerry’s general wastefulness with their scoring chances, there was still an abundance of scores brilliantly executed by both teams, a couple of first-class saves made by each goalkeeper, plenty of robust but legal tackling, and all round intelligent play - all moved along by authoritative and sensible refereeing from Brendan Griffin.
With the TG4 cameras there to transmit it all (deferred coverage), this was a county final that showcased the best of club football in Kerry, all played out on the pristine pitch of Austin Stack Park. If there was one quibble it would be that the crowd seemed a little on the lean side. Divisional teams in Kerry aren’t known for their big support, and even though the Tralee venue lends itself to a better atmosphere than Fitzgerald Stadium for days like this, there was something of a muted atmosphere last Sunday.
Perhaps the staging of the relegation play-off as the curtainwas the wrong decision in hindsight: not only did it seem a little unfair on the teams, especially O’Rahillys who lost a county semi-final by a point, but it’s reasonable to think that an Intermediate, Junior or Minor final would have made for a more attractive double-header and possibly drawn a bigger attendance.
Naturally enough Eamonn Fitzmaurice - days after getting a two-year extension to manage the Kerry seniors until 2020 - was an interested spectator, and one can only wonder he took away from Tralee on Sunday evening in terms of players he might want to call in to the county squad. As one would expect from a county final, there was plenty of inter-county personnel in action, be they current seniors, players who’ve already had their day in the green and gold or some who’ve played at other inter-county grades (minor, under-21 and junior) and who may or may not be considered for the step-up to the top grade.
One could easily select a team drawn from both Crokes and South Kerry players who have worn the green and gold, but all eyes will be on the Kerry management over the next couple of months to see what new faces will be called up for inter-county training. If youth is to be the future for Kerry football then Fitzmaurice and his selectors might do worse than issue an invitation to Shane Murphy, Gavin White, Micheal Burns, Tony Brosnan, Brian Sugrue, Robert Wharton and Daniel Daly - some of whom are already on the fringes of last year’s newly formed development squad. Needless to say, strong performances across an elongated and fragmented county championship campaign doesn’t mean a player will automatically transition to the rigours of senior inter-county football to the same effect, but as the old phrase goes ‘you’ll never know til you have a go’.
Looking across the entire span of the county championship, and endeavouring to pick a Team of the Championship from that, a couple of things are noteworthy. With a couple of exceptions the established ‘county man’ was fairly inconspicuous throughout the competition, while the age profile of the 15 we’ve selected (see panel) leans quite heavily to the younger side of the 20s.
Given the fractured nature of the championship, and then the top heavy scheduling after Kerry’s