Noel Kennelly has doubts about club before county
Tadhg likely to return to college after losing Swans job
NOEL Kennelly is not convinced that the decision to restart GAA activity through the clubs will actually lead to more matches for club players.
While further easing of Covid-19 restrictions has added two extra weekends to the planned roadmap where club games can now re-commence playing games from July 17, the Listowel Emmets stalwart, who retired last year after 25 years of senior service, has mixed emotions looking ahead.
“I thought that they would bring back the inter-county action first, and the clubs could run away with their County League programme during that time. And then run your championships towards the back end of the year,” he told The Kerryman.that
“You might have got more football for the club player doing it like that. Now, it might well pan out that way anyway. The clubs are going to get the county players, but are they going to get them for the whole lot of it?
“Can Kerry finish their county championship and club championships in that 11 or 12 week window? If not, it’s going to go back until Kerry finish the All-Ireland series.
“There are a lot of ifs and buts with the announcement of things being brought forward, and the club scene might benefit hugely from it, but, realistically, if you play three games here in Kerry in the club championship, you might only get four or five games by the end of the year. Whereas, if you ran your County League in conjunction with the inter-county campaign... might still happen of course. It’s all still very much up in the air. But, once there’s football this year, that’s the main thing really.”
The 40-year-old revealed that brother Tadhg is likely to go back to college as he decides where next to take his Australian Rules career after he lost his role as assistant coach of the Sydney Swans due to cutbacks caused by the worldwide coronavirus pandemic.
“From speaking to him, he feels like this is going to be a reset button for the AFL. The 45-player rotas are going to be cut to 35. With that, you are going to have losses with doctors, physios, coaching staff.
“Unfortunately, Tadhg’s contract was up at the end of the year. And I suppose he was one of the guys in the Swans that were let go when the Covid kicked in, and weren’t brought back. He’s a bit disappointed over it, because the Swans were his club.
“He’s out there at the moment looking at what’s going to be his next step. He has a few things in the pipeline. A couple of clubs are looking at him, but I think he’s actually going to go back to college. That could be his next step, to do a Masters.
“He’s in no rush to make a decision, and it could be the back end of the year. But he’s fine, he’s kind of come around, nobody likes to lose their job. It was a shock at the time and he was disappointed. But, like that, he would be very much like myself. The glass would always be half full. What’s for you will come for you,” stressed Kennelly.