Fleming relishing feast after the famine

THERE are two ways of looking at it if you’re Kilcummin’s Kieran Fleming. He can look at it as a player would – he is after all a member of the squad – and he can look at it as selector would – he is after all a member of Willie Maher’s back-room team.

The overriding way Fleming looks at things is quite obvious – as a proud Kilcummin man. The past twelve months have been quite special for the club on the out-skirts of Killarney.

They took relegation from the senior championship on the chin and rode it all the way to an All Ireland intermediate club championship final. Fairytale stuff in a lot of ways, the type of story these championships were designed to tell.

For a veteran, a man who’s soldiered for many years with little by way of silverware, it’s been a thrilling ride. Win or lose on Saturday afternoon, Kilcummin have had a year for the ages.

“Yes, I suppose it [the All Ireland series] is a bonus, in a way,” he says.

“At the start of the year we set out our stall, all we pencilled in was the Glenbeigh game. After getting a win, then we got two more wins in the group stage and it just kind of rolled on from that.

“When the Intermediate was out of the way, we had a decent enough start in the County League, which ran during the summer, we got results in that, we aimed to get back up to Division 1, because it’s fine getting back up to senior, but you need to be playing Division 1 football as well.

“To be playing competitive football at all stages it helps.”

As selector Fleming was involved in the planning for this season of success.

“It was reasonably straight forward at the start of the year,” he explains.

“We had a block of training done and you were into the Intermediate and that was done then. Probably, it was very difficult back there in September, October when we were training towards the Munster Championship we had a good few fellas involved with East Kerry.

“We only then had the East Kerry fellas back for maybe two, three weeks leading into the game in Kilrush and that was probably one of the tougher games in the Munster campaign, so, we were probably nervous enough about that, when we didn’t have our full panel of players together.

“But, look, once we got over the line there it all kind of blended together again.”

Something Fleming as player or selector or the club as a whole has never had to deal with before is a season tripping over from one year to the next. It’s a challenge for sure, but precisely the kind of challenge clubs plan for and dream of.

“We had the Christmas period to work towards the semi-final and it has all worked out well that we have got this far. We have had good numbers training all year, which is very good, every fellow kind of stepped up to the plate when Kevin [McCarthy] was missing.

“We got Kevin back for the Munster final, having him was phenomenal, his hand wasn’t right, he broke it again during the game, he came off towards the end all right, he was slow enough about coming off.

“Kevin is still, we are not sure with Kevin to be honest, it’s another two, three weeks to see will it heal better. He will probably be still taking a chance playing, his hand isn’t one hundred percent, so other than that we will more or less have a full strength squad to pick from all right.”

Naomh Éanna loom large in Fleming’s thinking this week and have done in the previous couple of weeks.

“We have seen their semi final from last week, it was on

TG4,” he says.

“We were able to watch that back, other than that we don’t know a whole pile about them. They are from

Belfast, they are probably going to be tough. Spiddal were probably favourites going into the semi they turned over Spiddal, so you would expect them to be favourites going into the final.

“Any Northern opposition are going to be tough. You saw last year when An Ghaeltacht went up against Northern opposition in the semi-final they were turned over. Finuge and Spa over the years also lost to Northern opposition, so it’s going to be tough.” Kilcummin are favourites for the game. “There’s no control over that,” Fleming notes. “That’s just part of being Kerry, the tradition that’s in Kerry, you are going to have that, you are going to be expected to go places because you are coming out of Kerry. So, all we can do is try and keep the players as grounded as possible, and not let that get to them.

“It’s a huge year for the club, I have been involved in this club, playing for the last twelve, fourteen years, I have seen a good few bad days, losing finals, so it’s nice to be getting to finals and winning them just getting over the line and it’s huge then for the players.

“We have always had in this club one or two players representing Kerry at different levels nearly every year, maybe one or two, but this year we had an exceptional year. We have had Kevin [McCarthy] with the seniors, Kieran [Murphy] with the juniors and Gary [O’Leary] was also involved.

“Keith [O’Leary] and Paul [O’Shea] with the minors and they all won and brought trophies back to the club, which was huge, captaining Kerry. It’s a great honour to captain your club, fellas you have grown up with, but, to captain the county then, especially, with a county with the tradition of Kerry, it’s huge. Kieran Murphy and Paul O’Shea have had that honour, so it’s massive for them.”