The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
Kerry champions are between Rock and a hard place in bid for All-Ireland
GLENBEIGH/GLENCAR go into Sunday’s All-Ireland Club JFC final in Croke Park looking to become the eighth Kerry club to bring that title back to the Kingdom. No pressure then. The thing is, having toiled long and hard to win the county junior title, is would be easy to say the Mid Kerry club is in bonus territory. Not so.
Rest assured, the newest county champions are determined to becomes the latest club after Templenoe, Brosna, St Marys, Castlegregory, Skellig Rangers, Ardfert and Finuge to call themselves All-Ireland champions. All that stands in their way is a like-minded Tyrone club called Rock St Patricks.
It’s been a long and winding road for Glenbeigh/Glencar but now they stand on the cusp of national glory, the ultimate goal and dream of every club in the country. Kerry, as always, has been the toughest part of the journey. County champions have generally tended to skip through the Munster campaign without too many problems and Glenbeigh/Glencar were no different.
A walkover to the non-existent Waterford champions meant their maiden provincial match was the 1-13 to 0-6 semi-final win over Limerick’s Gerald Griffins. Provincial honours were secured with a slightly tougher 2-16 to 2-10 win over Cork champions Gabriel Rangers in Mallow before Christmas. That brought the Kerry club to Ennis a couple of weeks ago to face Mayo and Connacht representatives Louisburgh. A slow start saw the Kerry men go seven points behind is the first ten minutes but, crucially, there was no sense of panic. Why would there be? Mid Kerry championships and the grind and disappointment of recent county JFC campaigns has the Glenbeigh/ Glencar men battle hardened yet confident in their ability.
Once Darran O’Sullivan started to get his motor running Louisburgh eventually found out to their cost what Kerry clubs are so successful in getting to these All-Ireland finals.
Now, on Sunday at 2pm, there’s one final hurdle to cross. “We’ve obviously been trying to gather as much information on them as we can, playing Brosna so recently is of benefit but when you consider they have been in Croke Park before and have won three county and three Ulster titles won in the time it’s taken us to come out of Kerry it gives you a good indication of what we are up against in the final,” team manager Aidan O’Shea said of Sunday’s opponents. Rock St Patrick’s are a small rural club situated close to Cookstown and Dungannon in east Tyrone. After coming through their county and Ulster campaigns Rock qualified for their second All-Ireland Junior final with a convincing 1-18 to 2-6 win against Scottish outfit Dunedin Connollys.
They lost to Cork side Canovee in the 2008 All-Ireland Final but will be bidding to become the second Tyrone club to lift this title after St Patrick’s Greencastle beat Duagh in the 2007 decider. Aidan McGarrity, Conor McGreesh, Eamon and Peter Ward and Diarmuid Carroll are key players for them.
Glenbeigh/Glencar captain Colin McGuillycuddy agrees with his manager that it could be helpful to know a little of Rock’s pedigree from their 2015 meeting with Brosna.
Referring to that 2008 All-Ireland final defeat McGuillycuddy says: “Any team that loses a big final will throw everything at it when they get a chance again to win it. We certainly have to match that from them on Sunday if we want to come out on top. There’s a big 60 minutes ahead of us in Croke Park before we can think about else that might happen on the day up
there.”
Glenbeigh/Glencar are looking to be the latest Kerry club after Templenoe, Brosna, St Marys, Castlegregory, Skellig Rangers, Ardfert and Finuge to call themselves All-Ireland Junior Club champions