Leitrim seniors would hardly live with this Kerry Junior team

THERE are, as we know, eight senior football clubs in Kerry. You’ll probably be surprised to learn that there are 12 senior clubs in Leitrim. Given that the Kerry Junior team manager cannot select players from the county’s senior clubs, and his counterpart in Leitrim can assemble a panel of players drawn from their dozen senior clubs, you’d almost be forgiven that the dice are heavily loaded against the Kingdom going into Saturday’s All-Ireland JFC semi-final.

Then you consider that Kerry have 58 clubs currently competing across the five divisions of the county senior league, while Leitrim is a county with 24 football clubs and the odds shift back the other way condierably. And that’s before you start to consider the general quality of player involved in either county.

It doesn’t take a genius to realise the only thing Gaelic football in Kerry and Leitrim has in common is the colours in their inter-county jersey. A splash of green and gold is about the only thing that links the counties with respect to their standing in the Gaelic football world. Thirty-seven All-Ireland SFC titles and 79 Munster titles compared to no All-Ireland title and just two provincial crowns are the stark numbers that underline the gulf between the counties. Already this year, between Munster and All-Ireland titles won at inter-county, club and schools level, Kerry have more silverware gathered in 2017 than Leitrim GAA has in all those grades in its entire 130-odd year existence.

Interestingly, it’s in the Junior Football grade that the county has enjoyed most success: this year’s Connacht title was Leitrim’s sixth such honour, but only their second since 1962, having last been provincial champions in 2004. The county’s sole All-Ireland title was delivered in 1990 when they won the now defunct Senior ‘B’ Football Championship.

Suffice to say Leitrim won’t be beating Kerry in the Gaelic Grounds on Saturday. That’s not putting extra pressure on Jimmy Keane or his players. It’s just a fact as certain as the sun coming up the following morning or Donald Trump sending out a nonsensical tweet on Sunday. It’s gonna happen, folks!

Even had the Leitrim team that beat Mayo for Connacht honours in May not been shorn of about half its players because they subsequently played with the county’s senior team, we’d say the same thing. That’s no disrespect to Leitrim either, mind, and having lived and worked in the county for two years, believe me, they won’t take any offence either.

There was, I’m sure, a genuine belief that they could annex a provincial title at this grade, and to take down Galway and then Mayo – whatever the strength or otherwise of those teams – is a brilliant achievement for the county with the smallest population in the country.

But look at this Kerry Junior squad. Almost all of them have worn the county jersey at minor, U-21 or senior level. Pa Kilkenny, James Walsh, Brendan O’Sullivan, Philip O’Connor and Conor Cox have National League experience. Others have All-Ireland minor and club medals to their credit. Plenty on this team should have realisitic ambitions of playing senior Championship football for Kerry, as Kilkenny has already done.

Not alone would at least half of this Kerry Junior team walk onto the Leitrim senior team, this Kerry Junior team would give the Leitrim senior team a serious game and could, in all probability, beat them. That’s not a poor reflection on how they do things in Leitrim football circles, no more than it’s an unfair elevation of this Kerry junior team. It’s just the fact of the matter.

This Kerry team beat Limerick in their Munster semi-final by 20 points. Without knowing much about either county’s second tier of football, it wouldn’t be unreasonable to assume the Limerick juniors would be just as good (or bad) as Leitrim’s.

Would it, therefore, be unreasonable to suggest a Kerry victory in Limerick on Saturday also in the region of 20 points? We think that could be about right. And that’ll be Kerry in generous mood.

Conor Cox, in action in the Munster JFC Final win over Cork, is one of several players who have played senior inter-county football with Kerry, and who will be expected to see off the challenge of Leitrim in Saturday’s All-Ireland JFC semi-final in...