Rathmore set to take advantage of Legion’s long lay-off

THE conclusion of one of the most controversial stagings of East Kerry’s premier competition comes this Sunday with the 2017 staging likely to be remembered more for what happened off the pitch than on it.

The decision by both the Firies and Dr Crokes clubs respectively not to play the quarter-final and semi-final fixtures against Killarney Legion prior to a County Premier Junior Final and a Munster Senior Club Final led to the East Kerry Board CCC acting in awarding both games to Legion and sending the Direen side into the O’Donoghue Cup Final without a competitive game.

This in turn means that Legion have not played a competitive game since they claimed the Division 2 title in the County League on the first Sunday in September away to Glenflesk.

Their manager Alan O’Neill agrees that Legion are not entering Sunday in the best possible way.

“It’s not ideal getting to the final the way we have, but the decisions that were made (to award the aforementioned games to the club) are matters outside of our control and for the East Kerry Board to decide on.

“We’ve done the best we can with in house games and a few challenge matches but finding out the games are not going ahead at such a late stage is frustrating when you are trying to get players right the week of when the game is due to take place.”

Rathmore have had their own problems in the competition, it looked like they would get into the final of the competition themselves without kicking a ball in the semi-final when Gneeveguilla refused to play their semi-final on the original date only for a late offer from the club to play the game and not accept an awarding of it from the district CCC seeing it go ahead.

Their manager Derek Moynihan agrees that the game being played suited them better afterwards.

“It allowed us see a few issues with our performance which we weren’t happy with on the day despite winning. We were very disappointed with the loss against South Kerry in the County Championship but we were happy to see the hunger was still there from the players when we played Spa in our first O’Donoghue Cup game,” the Rathmore boss said.

Moynihan is not underestimating Legion despite what people might think of how they got to the final.

“I actually think all this will fire them up because they will have a point to prove about their ability as a team. They’ve five players who have been around the Kerry Senior set-up and they have some very promising young players.

“We’ve a memory of a county semi-final defeat in 2015 to know that if we aren’t clinical with our chances we will be punished at the other end with the forwards they have,” he said.

His Legion counterpart acknowledges that the thirteen week gap without a competitive game will be an issue for the Killarney side on Sunday.

“Hopefully we start well and get ourselves into the game early on but rustiness and game speed are something we are trying to work on knowing that they will become a factor in a game like this. Rathmore have a serious squad of players at the moment and are going well as a club so this is a difficult challenge even in the best of circumstances for us.”

Legion will have Padraig Lucey and Cian Gammell available to them since their last competitive outing as Paul Murphy and John Moynihan are out for Rathmore with Brian O’Leary and Mark Reen doubtful through injury although Brian Friel has now joined their senior ranks.

Two of Rathmore’s wins in their East Kerry three-in-a-row have come against Legion and in the best of circumstances this would be delicately poised as Legion look to end their own 41 year wait for an O’Donoghue Cup.

A draw and forcing another day out might be their best bet on Sunday at halting Rathmore winning for a fourth consecutive year especially with Legion’s lack of competitive action since the summer.