Retention rules
LIKE three of the other district Championships this year, the defending champions held on to their title in South Kerry last Sunday but for St Marys, a significance of over seven decades made their retention in Portmagee mean that much more. Yes they matched what Ballydonoghue did in North Kerry and Beaufort did in Mid Kerry in holding on to their local prize. They also replicated Rathmore’s four-in-a-row in East Kerry but not since 1944 had anyone held possession to South Kerry’s biggest prize, Jack Murphy, that long.
Three-in-a-rows have been annexed by Waterville (1965-67), Valentia (1981-83 and 86-88) and St Marys (2001-03 and 09-11) since then but no one could quite make it four! It finally came to pass after 73 years last Sunday and it was a success for St Marys that saw them end their first year without Maurice Fitzgerald’s guiding hand successfully. New managements can go either way with teams but despite not making an impact at county level this year, Kieran McCarthy can be satisfied to have kept St Marys at the top of the ladder in South Kerry. The Bryan Sheehan effect can be talked about but losing more available presences like Liam Sheehan and Aidan Walsh are tougher losses to deal with at times and into the breach for St Marys have stepped Conor O’Shea, Denis and Daniel Daly and their likes to get through the rough and tumble away from the spectre of Championship.
Keeping the hunger for local honours going is no easy thing with big prizes on offer elsewhere. However St Marys still had the desire to keep Jack Murphy despite the spotlight being off them like it was so intensely as 2015 entered into 2016 and Maurice’s decision to join the Kerry Senior set-up drawing everyone to last year’s decider for a farewell for now to a famous son of the club. Dromid had everyone’s attention going into this, a surprise Kerry Premier Junior success to those on the outside and a hard fought trek through Munster that saw them fall to Knocknagree but not before putting up a strong defence of the county’s 10 year record in the Junior Club Championship.
Credit has to be given to them for not feeling sorry for themselves in getting the win over Waterville in the previous weekend’s semi-final and the heroics of Shane O’Connor, Graham and Denis ‘Shine’ O’Sullivan, Thomas Curran, Chris Farley and Niall Ó Sé to name a few since the October Bank Holiday Weekend won’t be forgotten by the club’s supporters anytime soon.
Nor should Declan O’Sullivan’s guidance in leading the club out of a bit of a slump in bringing back to Division Two of the County League and also becoming the first club to contest the Munster Junior Club Football Final twice. Whether they can turn the disappointment of last Sunday into the drive for winning a second district title is arguably the big challenge for them in 2018 you sense.
Back to the boys from Barr Na Sráide though and title number 34 also brings with it the not too insignificant feat of a seventh South Kerry success in nine years. Only St Michaels/Foilmore have dethroned them in the meantime (2012 and 2013) and watching the Leinster Senior Club Final, a bitter-sweet day probably for Dromid’s Jack O’Connor when he learnt of the result in Portmagee, it’s hard not to think with Eanna and Cian O’Connor’s departure to Kildare after 2013 went with it operators sufficiently capable of getting a side over the line in a South Kerry Final as they did with Ballyfoilmore.
Waterville, Skellig Rangers (the last side outside of either St Marys or St Michaels/Foilmore to win the competition back in 2006) and indeed Dromid have given it their all to try and stop them since but Marys stay standing when the Cup bearing the man from Ballycarbery’s name is presented after