Can Glenbeigh / Glencar finally claim the crown?

COUNTY PREVIEW JFC FINAL Glenbeigh/Glencar v Na Gaeil Sunday, October 16 Fitzgerald Stadium, xpm

WHEN the recommendations of the sub-committee headed up by Tony O’Keeffe were approved, one thing it did do beyond county championship level was to give Kerry football two forms of junior championship for teams, just like in most other counties.

Premier Junior might have a grandiose ring to it, but the prize for the winner is the right to represent the county at junior club level both in Munster and possibly beyond.

No club has come closer in recent years in trying to achieve this feat that Glenbeigh / Glencar and seeing Brosna and Templenoe go to Croke Park and win the All-Ireland in the last two seasons can’t have made their heartache any easier.

2016 has gone pretty well for them thus far it must be said. Winning the delayed 2015 Mid Kerry Final in the middle of January was a decent start and they ensured a third consecutive year in Division 1 of the County League with a win at home to Dr Crokes probably the most noteworthy result in their campaign.

Championship was where they were always going to be judged, however, and they have mixed the spectacular (their quarter-final win over Dromid Pearses) with the hard work (the wins over St Pats and Ballydonoghue) in getting to their third final in four years.

Na Gaeil might have been three divisions below their opponents in the County League, but don’t let it make you think they are in any way inferior to their Division 1 opponents.

The Tralee side did contest the 2012 decider for the Con Brosnan Cup, giving Kenmare Shamrocks a right old scare as Jack Barry and Dara Carmody emerged as stand-outs from that campaign.

The club struggled to build on that showing in the immediate period but now four years later you sense Na Gaeil are ready to make a more concerted rise up the ladder. Andrew Barry has been one of the finds of the recent Kerry Minor resurgence and even though Diarmuid O’Connor is ineligible to play senior football at the present time, players such as Kieran, Eoin and Seamie O’Neill, David Culloty and Mike Griffin give Na Gaeil a pretty decent base to work with.

Their campaign has seen them put up some pretty high scores with twelve goals in their four matches giving them an average of three per game.

They put five past Cromane in the Preliminary round before having eleven points to spare over a since fellow promoted side from Division 4 in Ballymacelligott. The two subsequent wins were probably the most impressive in seeing off two teams who were both Intermediate last year.

They had four points to spare over Annascaul, but to start so well against Listowel Emmets in the semi-final and pretty much end the game as a contest on the three-quarter mark spoke volumes about the quality of this Na Gaeil side.

One advantage for the team coming into this is that they don’t possess the mental baggage associated with trying to win the Con Brosnan Cup like Glenbeigh / Glencar do.

Still amongst the Mid Kerry side’s ranks are players such as Fergal Griffin, Bernard Murphy, Colin McGuillicuddy, Kieran Courtney and their marquee name in Darran O’Sullivan.

These guys have experienced enough of defeat at this level and know that it really is ‘now or never’ for the club in going to the well of opportunity.

Caolim Teahan coming into the panel with an All-Ireland Minor medal is a boost to the side, but they will need both Jack Brosnan and Gavan O’Grady to be able to have an impact on proceedings if the club is to finally succeed where it has failed perhaps most pointedly since 2013 when they lost to Keel in the decider.

Brosna might not have been the Final in 2014, but for all intents and purposes it was the game that decided the course of what was to follow. Glenbeigh / Glencar never got going against Templenoe last year and that the first thing they have to address ahead of facing Na Gaeil this Sunday.

If they manage to address that successfully and shown enough mental strength to cope with a pretty uninhibited Tralee side, maybe it might just be their day after all. Verdict: Glenbeigh / Glencar