The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
Dromid poised to see off neighbours
COUNTY PJFC SEMI-FINAL Dromid Pearses v Skellig Rangers Saturday, September 9 Con Keating Park, 5pm
ON the face of it this is a South Kerry derby that you could mistake for a Jack Murphy Cup encounter in Cahirsiveen.
Delve a bit deeper however and there is an interesting story to the two sides contesting the first of this year’s Premier Junior Semi-Finals. Both are former Munster Junior Club Champions in the last decade, Skellig in 2008, Dromid three years later and both contested intermediate championship semi-finals subsequently before falling back out of those ranks.
This is Skellig’s first year back and the Portmagee side have done well to reach the last four almost instantly winning tight encounters with St Pats and Listowel Emmets to make it here.
Those were both in Portmagee, however, and this will be a different test in Con Keating Park particularly with a Dromid Pearses side seemingly reinvigorated under Declan O’Sullivan’s management.
Like Skellig both of Dromid’s wins have come at home and both by margins of a single score, three points to spare over Renard in the First Round before a slender one point win over Fossa in the quarter-finals.
Both have had good years in the County League, Dromid promoted to Division 2, while a division below them, Skellig have a chance to take their place in Division 3 when they square off against Dr Crokes B in due course.
Niall Ó Sé’s return home has served as a good fillip for Dromid with their manager’s retirement from playing as he along with Dylan O’Donoghue and Chris Farley in the forward line offers their best threat, while Tomás Curran continues to be a strong presence at midfield and Graham O’Sullivan offers some All-Ireland minor winning experience from last season.
Skellig might not have the more stand-out names, but do have the benefit of a competitive game in defeating Tarbert last Sunday as Dromid sat out the weekend. Whether that proves relevant to this weekend or not is hard to say but with a derby encounter such as this all sorts of possibilities can arise.
Stephen and Martin O’Sullivan along with Diarmuid Keating and Ronan O’Shea have been some of the Portmagee side’s key performers this year and claiming the scalp of a Division 2 side like Emmets will give them no fear about the challenge of a local rival in a situation like this.
It’s been over four and-ahalf months since that success however and while they have kept the momentum going with their County League campaign, Dromid have played the higher standard of football in Division 3 and are assured of going higher next year.
The here and now is all that matters on Saturday however and while it is likely to be a tight and hard fought encounter it might just come down to whichever side shows the better composure on the day.
Like a lot of the other sides in the club championship preparations might have been geared for later in the month on the assumption of Kerry reaching the All-Ireland final, but that was all changed with matters in Croke Park a week and a half ago as one of the biggest games of both clubs year approaches quickly after.
Whether it changes the dynamic or not is hard to say in advance but expect this one to be tight given the nature of both sides’ games so far in the competition.
Dromid will be more favoured in advance on League position, but Skellig with their former All-Ireland success at this level in mind will not fear the challenge in the home of many great battles between South Kerry sides.
Verdict: Dromid Pearses