The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
Kilcummin offer future blueprint
Damian Stack takes a look back an an outstanding championship and reflects on the role played in it by very worthy winners Kilcummin
WITH Sliabh Mis in its spring bloom as the backdrop, the evergreen man made his mark, quite literally.
Backs ever so slightly to the wall, Glenflesk pushing hard for scores and having just edged back to within two courtesy of a beauty by Daniel O’Brien, Kilcummin needed something and somebody to steady the ship.
Rising highest into the azure blue sky Shane McSweeney did what he’s done so many times before, he plucked the ball from above the head of his rivals and set a move in train.
As he passed off the ball he passed the baton from one generation to the next. He’d helped get Kilcummin to this point, now it was the young buck’s turn to finish the job, which of course Seán O’Leary did with a rasper of a finish to the back of Roy Kelliher’s net.
O’Leary took the man of the match award – and rightly so – but we mustn’t forget about Shane McSweeney. A warrior for Kilcummin if ever there was one. He won two marks over the hour (and won another two kick-outs through breaks).
His experience – and that of colleagues like Kevin Gorman and Brendan Kealy – was arguably the difference between these two sides. The experience of men who’d spent their careers playing senior football was invaluable as the game reached its crunch moments.
A clear head allowed McSweeney to focus on the job at hand – to win Kealy’s kick-out – and once he’d done so he did the right thing at the right time in passing off to the on-rushing O’Leary.
In time Glenflesk will get to that level, as a matter of fact they weren’t that far off it at all despite their relative lack of experience. Their time will come sooner rather than later.
Kilcummin’s win does, however, provide something of a warning to them and to other up-and-coming teams in this championship. The championship restructure means that it’s increasingly likely that relegated senior teams will be in the hunt for promotion straight away.
With just eight senior teams and a team to be relegated from that championship every year an additional quality team is going to be added to the mix every single year, teams with the capacity – proven in some cases – to win this championship.
What Kilcummin have done in bouncing back to the senior grade straight away hasn’t been done in quite some time. Our suspicion would be that it’s going to become a lot more common in the years ahead.
Next year either Kenmare Shamrocks (champions in 2016) or An Ghaeltacht (champions last year) will be in the intermediate championship. At the very least they’ll be amongst the favourites to win the thing, if not the outright favourites.
Remember that the team relegated from senior is seeded in the following year’s intermediate championship – along with the three semi-finalists from the previous year – making it a little less likely that they’ll be knocked out at an early stage by another contender.
None of this means that a bolter can’t escape the pack – Glenflesk proved that this year – just that it’s going to be incredibly difficult to get the job done in such a competitive environment.
Of course, you’ve got to remember too that Kilcummin were pushed hard in a lot of their games. Glenbeigh / Glencar only lost to them by a point in the first round and they’ll will take great heart from that, while Templenoe will see their semi-final defeat as an opportunity missed.
It’s all well and good saying Templenoe’s time will come – and it probably will – but there’s no guarantee. Glenflesk will be pushing hard for a title. Whoever is relegated will want to get back senior as soon as possible. St Marys aren’t going away.
Beaufort coming up from Premier Junior will be in the mix. Castleisland Desmonds will fancy their chances over the next couple of seasons. There’s a hell of a lot of quality at this level and time waits for no man or no club.
Kilcummin though will have to wait. It’s six months until their next championship fixture – against the Clare champions in Clare on November 3 – and it’s uncharted territory for all concerned.
Normally the issue for clubs is too little time to prepare for their Munster campaign. Willie Maher and his management team have been handed precisely the opposite problem: how do they keep the momentum from this win going to the winter months?
“It’ll be hard to deal with really,” Maher admits.
“I suppose the one thing is we’ve the county league, we’ve a big game next weekend against Ardfert and we’ve county league every fortnight after that so that’ll take care of the summer and you’ve senior county championship then and Kilcummin will be part of that with East Kerry.
“It’s not going to be easy so I suppose we’ll have to look at it and come up with something for the club. I was telling people in Cork last week that we were in an intermediate final this Sunday and they just couldn’t put their head around it, they just couldn’t understand it.”
Thoughts of that are for another day. For now Kilcummin deserve to luxuriate in this brilliant success. At the end of a remarkable game they stood as most worthy winners. At the end of a really good championship they stand as most worthy champions.
They had in their ranks the player of the championship: Kevin McCarthy. McCarthy has pushed on to another level this year and stands poised to make a big impact for Kerry this summer.
With the capacity to bend games to his will – as he did again on Sunday delivering a remarkable 1-4 – the sky’s the limit for McCarthy, for Kilcummin and, who knows, maybe for Kerry too.
McCarthy has pushed on to another level this year and stands poised to make a big impact this summer