Young: I think the County League is dead in the water
After 14 years as a Kerry senior footballer, Killian Young had big plans to spend at least one season after intercounty retirement playing full-time with his club Renard. Now the Coronavirus is putting those plans in jeopardy. Con Dennehy spoke to the All
Apenny for his thoughts in the current Coronavirus lock-down and the on-going absence of a football being kicked anywhere the length and breadth of the country?
“Ride the current storm and be patient. Life will go on again but at the moment sport, and in particular Gaelic games, should not be a priority in our life. Our focus needs to be on saving lives and ensuring the safety of our family, our friends and our community.”
These are the heartfelt sentiments of former Kerry GAA legend Killian Young, described by former Kerry football manager Éamonn Fitzmaurice, following Young’s retirement from inter-county football in October 2019, as Mister Dependable.
“We are currently faced with the unknown. We have never travelled this road before and as such it is impossible to forecast when players get back to competitive action. It will most certainly be at least July, if not longer. The reality is that this decision is not in the hands of the GAA, but rather at the expert discretion of the HSE officials who will be cognisant of the overriding issues at stake such as the welfare of players, officials and the general public. At the end of the day, sport is at the bottom of the major concerns surrounding Covid-19. Public health is the priority,” Young told The Kerryman this week.
Now retired from the mayhem of inter-county football, Young views life through a different prism. He is philosophical and practical about the ongoing debate about whether or not the GAA season needs to be rebooted and fixtures played, either behind closed doors or with limited attendance due to Covid-19 restrictions. He believes playing games, including the All-Ireland Championship, behind closed doors is not the answer.
“This would be a detrimental move by the GAA. There would still be thirty players on the field at any one time grappling with each other, spitting and sweating. Players’ lives could be compromised. This is a dangerous situation. All the players have family and parents at home, they need to think of them and the dangers posed by playing competitive sport too soon. Let’s all be patient for everyone’s sake,” he implores.
The last game of football Young played was
the opening round of the County League in mid-March when Renard lost to Skellig Rangers in their Division 4 derby match. “I was back playing club football and getting ready for our remaining games against teams such as Castlegregory, Finuge and Waterville. With such a backlog of competitions I think the County League is dead in the water. If and when we return to football action the focus and priority will be on the Club Championships, the County Championships and the All-Ireland Series. In many ways the GAA are fortunate that the County League was only just starting and none of the Kerry competitions were at an advanced stage where players had trained hard and had high expectations.”
The South Kerry native believes that players need to know when the current restrictions will be lifted and when they can commence training again. “Training hard on your own at the moment is possibly not the best option, it’s difficult and can become tiresome,” he says. “A little moderate training is good for a player’s overall well-being and general health, but unless a player has a set date to aim for, heavy training is futile. They need to be patient and when the call comes then it’s time for serious training. In the meantime there are some great drills on the internet but keep away from virtual training. Make the most of this enforced break with family and come back to the playing field refreshed, in good health and grateful that you have the ability, passion and motivation to be part of your club and parish team, the team that includes your school friends and the people you grew up with.”
ONE of the most popular members of the Kerry team in decades, Killian Young is an ultra modest and unassuming sportsman who brought joy to Kerry fans with his dynamic brand of football that was rewarded with four senior All-Ireland medals in a glittering 14-year period with Kerry.
Google the name Killian Young and what pops up in Wikipedia is pretty basic. We are told he was born on January
4, 1987 and plays Gaelic football with his local club, Renard GAA, contests the County Championship with divisional side South Kerry, and was a member of the Kerry senior inter-county team from 2006 to 2019. The internet fails to inform us that the quiet spoken Renard native is a total gentleman, modest, unassuming, very passionate about his club, a modern day hero to the juvenile players right across South Kerry, a loyal friend and a loving husband and son. These are all qualities that have made Killian Young one of the all time sporting greats in Kerry.
Young’s natural talents as a footballer were recognised early when he was called for Kerry minor trials in 2003 as a 16-yearold. However, he had to wait until 2004 to make the minor team and was selected again in 2005. Remarkably, he was called up to the senior squad the following year by Jack O’Connor and was actually selected for his senior debut in a Championship match ahead of making his National League debut in 2007 under manager Pat O’Shea.
Young enjoyed unprecedented success early in his sporting journey, winning All-Ireland medals in three of his first four years as a senior footballer. In 2008 he’d also the honour of captaining Kerry to a memorable All-Ireland U-21 title, the county’s most recent at that age grade.
He picked up his first coveted Celtic Cross medal in 2006 as an unused sub having just made that debut appearance
against Tipperary in the Munster Championship. He added more senior medals to his trophy cabinet in 2007 - starring at left wing back for O’Shea’s side as
Kerry retained the All-Ireland for the first time since 1986 - and again in 2009 and 2014.
He remained ever present in the Kerry lineout for the next decade, but despite All-Ireland title success in 2009 and 2014, he was on losing Kerry teams in the All-Ireland finals of 2008, 2011 and 2015. Young’s final Championship game was in the victory over
Kildare in Killarney in the last weekend of Super 8s games in 2018, a match which, despite the result, brought the curtain down on Kerry’s season. Overall, his was a career laden with success and honours, but he had his share of injuries and setbacks too, including a broken leg and dislocated ankle in 2013.
“I honestly thought my football career was finished following this horrific injury,” Young recalls. “I spent the winter months on an extensive and demanding rehabilitation recovery programme, working on my own for six days each week. “While on crutches I would spend time on the gym bike and for the first time in my life I was training hard on my own. I learned so much about myself, my determination to get back playing football again and an inner willpower I never knew existed. All these factors resulted in my return to the Kerry team as a fitter and stronger person. While we struggle in the league in 2013/2014 we went on the win the 2014 All-Ireland title, one of my most precious sporting moments.”
In 2019 he was sidelined following another ankle injury sustained during the National League which forced him out of competitive action for the league cam- paign. His talents, as one of the most efficient and effective defenders in the modern game, was recognised in 2007 when he was awarded the highly prestigious Young Footballer of the Year. More honours followed, and in 2008 he was named Under-21 Player of the Year. Two of his career highlights was his selection on the Irish team for the International Rules Series in 2008, and captaining Kerry in 2010 (he got to captain the team to the McGrath Cup title early that year). There was also the joy of bringing the Sam Maguire Cup to Renard and South Kerry.
The Renard club man won two National League and nine Munster titles with
Kerry during his glittering career which saw him make 62 Championship appearances. He is also the holder of three Kerry Senior football championship medals with South Kerry in 2006, 2009 and 2015.
A relatively late starter to Gaelic games, Killian began his sporting journey with Renard when he was nine years of age.
“Football is important in South Kerry and growing up in this region we were all part of the Renard under age structure winning South Kerry championship medals at all grades from Under-12 to minor level thanks to the trojan work of some incredible trainers such as Patrick Curran, Maurice Musgrave, Brendan O’Donoghue, Noel Curran, Donal Dan O’Sullivan, Bartley Curran and many others that instilled in us a love of the game. Without their guidance, training and support I would never have achieved the success I have enjoyed with Kerry over the past fourteen years. They are the unsung heroes of the GAA and have contributed so much to the young people of this area over the decades,” he says.
On New Year’s Eve 2019 Killian married his fiancée, Catriona Galvin, from Lixnaw, who’s a sister of his former Kerry team mate, Paul.
“Despite training and my commitment to Kerry, Catriona was always there for me with her love, support and encouragement throughout the years and the sacrifices she made to help me in my career with Kerry. I really look forward to what the future holds for us and to all the adventures we will share in the future,” Young said in his retirement statement last October.
Juggling work and sport hasn’t always been easy for Young, who lives in Tralee and works as a bank official in Limerick. In reality he has been away from Renard for more than half his life, but the plan was - and still is, despite the Coronavirus crisis and lock-down - to invest as much time as he can to playing football with Renard and maybe still South Kerry.
“I have far more time to focus on playing with Renard, a club that encouraged and developed me as a player. I would love to be part of a team that wins the South Kerry final. I’m humbled that I’m part of a great tradition of football in South Kerry and each time I put on their jersey I think of those who went before me and the responsibility I have to uphold this special tradition. Players like John Egan, Maurice Fitzgerald, Jack O’Shea, Ger Lynch, Ger Driscoll, Mick O’Dwyer and Mick O’Connell have all brought honour to South Kerry and now I have that responsibility and hopefully share it with others in the future.” “Retirement from (Kerry and) the sport I loved and devoted my life to was something I did not think of overnight. It was not easy to walk away from playing with Kerry, especially when I was playing for so long, made incredible friends and was something I loved doing. It just came down to a couple of factors such as my age and a lot of miles in the legs. Retirement from the inter-county scene affords me the opportunity to move on to a new chapter in my life with Renard.”