Dr Crokes ’keeper Courtney replaces Fitzgibbon on panel

ALL-IRELAND JFC SEMI-FINAL Kerry v Leitrim Saturday, July 22 Gaelic Grounds, Limerick at 3pm Referee: Barry Tiernan (Dublin)

IT’S a fixture that doesn’t happen too often at inter-county level, you have to go back to the 1977 at U-21 level for the last time the counties actually played competitively against each other but Kerry will play Leitrim in the All-Ireland Junior semi-final on Saturday bidding to make the All-Ireland Final at Junior level for the fourth consecutive year. They enter off the back of a pulsating extra-time victory over Cork in the Munster Final, one they had to really dig deep in as they look forward to a trip to the Gaelic Grounds on Saturday.

There is one noticeable change in the panel with double All-Ireland Minor goalkeeper Billy Courtney of Dr Crokes called into the panel in place of Kieran Fitzgibbon who has opted out of the set-up.

Renard’s Brian Sugrue, Dromid Pearses’ Graham O’Sullivan and An Ghaeltacht’s Dara Ó Sé have been called into the extended panel, meanwhile, as there are a number of small injury concerns including Daniel O’Brien, Roibeard Ó Sé and Pa Kilkenny.

After the rigours of the extra-time contest in Pairc Uí Rinn, Junior manager Jimmy Keane is pleased to have learned more about his side in the heat of battle.

“We felt we didn’t learn too much against Limerick because we weren’t really under pressure the first day. We were very happy with what we saw from the lads when the chips were down against Cork and we have looked at a few issues from the game particularly in terms of our defending.

“Preparation wise we have done very little, this week is the only time we will manage to get two sessions in and it’s more about making sure the players get enough recovery after the amount of games they have had at club level since the Cork game,” the Brosna native said.

From a travelling standpoint, the Gaelic Grounds as a venue is a huge boost for the county although Keane admits that their knowledge of Leitrim is limited.

“Other than trying to read up on a few reports of their games we have very little so far although when you see their U-21s give Galway a good run for their money in the Connacht Final then you have to respect the challenge.

“We know that we will go in as favourites but anything can happen in a two-horse race and we know from the experience of playing Limerick in our first game in 2016 not to take anything for granted. We’re fully focussed on what we have to do and another appearance in an All-Ireland Final is a great incentive for the players to have,” he said.

Leitrim did come through the western province by beating Galway and Mayo but the fact the competition was played in May means that they will enter somewhat cold as opposed to Kerry having played twice in the last five weeks. 1927 was the only senior meeting between the counties which Kerry won by a lowly score of 0-4 to 0-2. Returning to the present and with all due respect to the Ridge County you feel that the greatest danger to the Juniors here is complacency. A win will be expected by many but it has to be earned no matter how the opposition are viewed in advance.

Phillip O’Connor, Liam Carey and Tomas Ó Sé have caught the eye in the forward line thus far as the Kerry defence will certain want to shore up on the 3-20 they conceded against the Rebels.

Whether the game serves as a good warm-up before the senior meeting of Cork and Mayo is hard to predict in advance however.

VERDICT: Kerry