The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
‘Those stats are facts, but believe you me we’ve been beaten enough by Kilmoyley’
THERE’S always that temptation to view things through the prism of what went before.
A lot of the time it’s perfectly understandable. It’s right even that you do so. The past informs the present and the present the future. Still though there’s a difference between that and seeking to impose a narrative – sometimes stuff just happens, a coincidence is just a coincidence.
With Lixnaw back in a county final for the second year in a row – their third in less than twelve months including the replay – it’d be easy to think of this year’s title bid as an outcrop of last year’s campaign. It’d be easy to think of this year as some sort a of redemption arc for missing out less than a year ago.
When we were speaking with Lixnaw boss Fergus Fitzmaurice ahead of Sunday’s final we indulged in a little of that thinking ourselves, wondering whether there’s was a bit of unfinished business for him and his team.
“Ballyduff were the better team last year, they scored more than us,” Fitzmaurice says straight up.
“They got four goals. You can’t really win a final if you’re going to concede four goals. They were the better team, they won. It’s not necessarily unfinished business. The lads were very disappointed and us as a management were very disappointed and not necessarily have we been using that at all this year.
“We’re just trying to get back into another final and, you know, hopefully now as we said try to get a performance for Sunday.”
All the same it says something about the bond forged last year between management team and players that they’re back together again for another bite of the cherry.
“Enda Galvin came in [as selector],” the Lixnaw boss explains.
“Trevor McKenna had to step away because of work commitments and Enda came in as replacement for Trevor, so it’s basically been the same set up and the same group of players, we’ve a few injuries and a few fellas away in America. We have some players back in, Michael Quilter came back in. It’s more or less the same.”
That sort of continuity obviously had a positive impact when their season threatened briefly to come off the rails with a heavy defeat in the second round at the hands of a Causeway side on the up.
“The Causeway game, the first game, we were a shambles,” Fitzmaurice admits readily.
“We were very, very disappointed with our performance. If you lose a game you can accept that, but if you don’t bring any work-rate or commitment to the table you can’t accept that.
“We were worried and there was a lot of people in the village obviously and around the club worried, but the beauty about it is that we had another opportunity and three weeks to work on things.
“It gave us a bit of a kick up the backside to tweak things and try fellas in difference positions and guys came in the last day against Ardfert and that’s a good sign as well there’s a bit of competition in the panel at the moment for places.
“We were a little worried, but we weren’t overly worried either we knew we’d another chance.”
It’s interesting really ahead of this final how much Kilmoyley’s season mirrors Lixnaw’s. Neither were overly impressive in the opening two rounds – on one hand Kilmoyley didn’t suffer the type of defeat Lixnaw did, on the other Lixnaw did beat Kilmoyley – both, however, have improved massively since then.
“Certainly with Kilmoyley that’s the way it’s appeared,” the Lixnaw man says.
“They put in a very good performance against Ballyduff playing against the wind in the second half and I don’t know were they down a point at half-time, but they played very well in the second half and they controlled the game very well.
“Didn’t panic even though they went behind with a couple of minutes to go and ground out a result. Both teams are on the same kind of curve at the minute, so it’s a hard one to call. It’s a fifty / fifty game.”
As for the idea that Lixnaw are some sort of bogey team for Kilmoyley – Lixnaw won the last two finals between the sides in 2007 and 2014 – Fitzmaurice gives it short shrift.
“Those stats are facts, but believe you me we’ve been beaten enough by Kilmoyley where we’re not going to be taking them light hearted or anything like that. I just think – and I suppose Kilmoyley will feel the same – that it’s a fifty / fifty game.
“There was a point in it the last time we played and in years gone by when they beat us in 2002/2003 there wasn’t much in it. When we beat them in the years after that in ‘07 and ‘14 there was very little in it, so I don’t think there’s going to be much in it.
“If you look at Kilmoyley the last day they had a fairly comprehensive scoring spread. Jordan Brick got a few scores, Daniel Collins obviously got a few scores, [Joe] McElligott in the corner, Seán Maunsell – five of their six starting forwards so that’s where they have us trumped, so our backs will have a big job on their hands Sunday week.”
And that is how a lot of people see this game going – as a game of forwards and backs on a grander scale. Lixnaw obviously have a certain amount of fire-power outside of Shane Conway, but Kilmoyley look at the moment to have a better spread of scorers.
On the flip side Lixnaw have arguably the meanest set of backs in the competition now that they’ve hit their strike in the aftermath of the Causeway defeat, not that Kilmoyley are in anyway slouches in that department themselves.
It’s a finely poised proposition we have on our hands and nobody knows that better than the man on the line. Whether it’s redemption or unfinished business or however else you want to view it, you get the sense that this is a man and a team on a mission.
Kilmoyley watch out.