Kerry clubs in Irish Junior Cup action

THE Irish Junior Cup gets underway in West Munster this coming weekend at Killorglin and Ballybunion’s Cashen course to begin the quest for qualification to this year’s Munster semi-finals at Thurles in mid-August.

Let’s begin at Killorglin where the host club take on Killarney in Saturday’s opener at 8.30am.

This is followed by Dooks versus Waterville at 9.10am, Newcastlewest versus Glengarriff at 9.50am and Kenmare versus Berehaven at 10.30am.

Looking into my crystal ball, I see wins for Killarney, Dooks, Newcastlewest and Kenmare, with Killarney beating Dooks and Newcastlewest beating Kenmare in the afternoon while I fancy Killarney to beat Newcastlewest in Sunday’s final to qualify for the area final.

At Ballybunion, Castlegregory play Ceann Sibéal in the opener at 8am followed by reigning All-Ireland champions Ballybunion versus Ballyheigue at 8.40am.

The next match is not until 12 - noon where Castleisland play Tralee, followed by Kanturk versus Doneraile at 12.40pm.

It’s hard to look beyond Ballybunion as the qualifier here as they have most of last year’s All-Ireland winning side with the exception of one player, but my crystal ball tells me that there might be an upset or two along the way here so I’m going for Ceann Sibeal to beat Castlegregory, Ballybunion to beat Ballyheigue, Castleisland to beat Tralee and Kanturk to beat Doneraile.

In the next round on Sunday, I see wins for Ballybunion over Ceann Sibéal and Castleisland over Kanturk with Ballybunion beating Castleisland in the afternoon final to qualify.