The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
Stalwart presence gets day in the sun
Timmy Sheehan Kevin Gorman has been an almost ever-present at Kilcummin’s midfield for over a decade
HE one of those guys who seems to have been around forever. A Kilcummin team without him – let alone a Kilcummin midfield – is kind of hard to wrap your head around.
Kilcummin were there before him and Kilcummin will be there after him, of course it will, but the two just kind of go together in our mind’s eye. Kilcummin and Kevin Gorman. More specifically Kilcummin’s midfield and Kevin Gorman. Two sides of the same coin.
He’s one of those stalwart guys who keeps a club ticking over, through the good days and the bad, never wavering. From relegation to promotion, Gorman will be there for you as he always has been.
“2017 was a bad year for us,” he explains.
“[We were] almost relegated out of Division 2, only a last minute win below against Spa. Going out of the Championship definitely hurt, a huge disappointment inside in the dressing room after that game.
“It was like a funeral, twenty years playing senior, we felt that we left an awful lot of the guys down, all these guys that had given years and years playing senior football, got to county finals, unlucky, county semi-finals and we felt that we left the club down.”
In hindsight that relegation was probably the best thing to ever happen the club. From the pits of despair to probably the most joyous twelve months the club have ever experienced. Swings and roundabouts. When God closes a door he opens a window.
“I suppose in many ways it probably resurrected the club a little bit,” he says.
“Thankfully we were able to get back a few lads, who had stopped playing for one reason or another for a couple of years. We got a good squad together and it turned out to be a good old year now, thanks be to God.
“We were able to regroup over the winter, we put in a few right hard training sessions in January and February, it kind of rolled from one game to another. The Glenbeigh game – we were very lucky to come out of that game by a point, very easily could have gone another way, our season could have gone another way.”
Of course it went the right way and the club rode it all the way back to senior championship football. The quickest return to the senior grade for a relegated club in living memory. It speaks to the character of these Kilcummin lads.
“That [spirit / character] goes
back to getting players back this year, it created a good group,” Gorman says.
“The big thing we had this year was when you have big numbers, you have a lot of numbers for training and everybody is putting in the hard work together. That creates the spirit, the camaraderie between the players, there’s a team mate always on your shoulder, just to give you a hand up, give you a pat on the back and keep things moving.
“When it came to the games and you are down a couple of guys, Kevin [McCarthy] was out injured, Kieran Murphy was out injured, we had guys to step up. A good group of guys, honest, hard-working, we have guys that have done it at a seriously high level, to step up whenever we need it, but we have leaders throughout all of the pitch, fellows that have been around the block for so many years, it’s just good guys that have their head screwed on.”
Ever since the victory in the Gaelic Grounds thoughts have turned to Antrim, to Belfast and to Naomh Éanna.
“To be honest [I know] very little at the moment,” Gorman admits.
“This week in training it’s been a recovery week, it was a savage hard battle, both physically and mentally against Two Mile House last weekend, so this has been just trying to get the bodies right, getting ready to go for this week’s training.
“I know the boys [management team] are doing their background work, all right, they are doing their homework, so they will be drip feeding us the information in the next few weeks.
“I suppose, in some ways it’s good not to know too much about teams before you play them, you might get too fixated on this guy or that guy or the next guy, but yeah the boys will do their homework and brief us whenever we need to know it.”
The trip to Croke Park remains, of course, the ultimate.
“It’s is every Kerry fellas dream to play in Croke Park,” Gorman says.
“It’s great for us, but I suppose it’s great for the parish as well. Obviously there’s a good few of the lads who have played there, so it’s going to be a brilliant experience. A great build-up to it. These are the days that the youngsters will remember in ten, fifteen years time, your first time going to an All Ireland final and your first time going to Croke Park.
“The first thing I remember, it wasn’t Croke Park, but it was going to Thurles in ‘92 when Niall Mangan captained The Sem to win the Hogan Cup final. I remember being in Croke Park in ‘92 when the Crokes won the All Ireland.
“You remember Paul McCarthy bringing the Intermediate trophy to the national school and those are the days when you are young you remember. When you grow up, hopefully, you look forward to more of those days and I just hope this kind of a run will give the youth a boost as well and see what comes off that.
“And hopefully in fifteen years time they will get their chance to run out in Croke Park as well.”