Juniors can take nothing for granted

MUNSTER JFC FINAL Cork v Kerry Tuesday, June 27 Pairc Ui Rinn, Cork at 7.30pm

IF we discount the Under-21 footballers for no other reason than that competition is played earlier in the year, then the record books show that Kerry have utterly dominated provincial football for the last three years. Since the summer of 2014 the Kingdom has swept up all three senior, minor and junior football titles in Munster, and it’s hard to argue against that dominance continuing for another summer.

With the seniors hosting one of the most fragile Cork teams in years in Killarney, and the minors set to welcome Clare for the curtain-raiser our guess it’s a short odds price for a Kerry double on July 2. That probably leaves the county’s Junior footballers under most pressure to keep the quadruple treble alive, and if the winning sequence is to come to an end it could and would start next Tuesday in Pairc Ui Rinn.

Kerry manager Jimmy Keane might be saying all the expected things in advance of bringing his team to Cork next week but the Brosna man is right to be wary of the task. As impressive as Kerry were in dismissing Limerick in their semi-final by 20 points (0-26 to 0-6), Cork’s win over Waterford was equally as emphatic at 21 points (3-21 to 0-9). Quite what either management will have learned about their own team or the opposition is unquantifiable, but both teams will be acutely aware of the need to step up the intensity of their game and to expect a wholly different examination.

Bidding for a fourth successive provincial title shouldn’t really bring any additional pressure to bear on Kerry other than the usual pressure playing in a final brings. A new management and a new team will want to stand on their own merits, and Keane can be satisfied that he and his selectors have assembled an impressive panel of players. From Tomás Mac an tSaoir in goal, through Pa Kilkenny and James Walshe in defence, Brendan O’Sullivan at midfield, and Philip O’Connor and Conor Cox in attack, the Kerry panel is speckled with men who have worn the jersey at senior level, not to mention those with minor, U-21 and previous Junior experience.

The Cork squad doesn’t have the same depth of inter-county experience but in Anthony Casey, Kieran Histon, Bart Daly, Micheal Ó Laoire, Eoghan Buckley and Ryan Harkin - among others - manager Paul McCarthy has a core of talented and experienced players around which he has built a team that shouldn’t fear Kerry coming to Pairc Ui Rinn.

Neither will or should Kerry fear going down there, but neither can they take anything for granted. The winning run has to end some time but the feeling is that this is too good a Kerry team to lose just yet. Unless the wheels come off Kerry should retain their title.

Tomas Ó Sé of Kerry in action against Mike O’Keefe of Limerick during the Munster Junior Football Championship semi-final between at Cusack Park, in Ennis, Co. Clare Photo by Sportsfile