The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
Munster call for Stacks?
With Dr Crokes the only club left in the County SFC Paul Brennan writes that the biggest winner after this weekend’s semi-finals could be Austin Stacks
IF Legion, Dingle, St Kierans and Kenmare Shamrocks were the big losers at the weekend, perhaps the big winner on an action packed weekend of county championship football was a team and a club that didn’t even kick a ball. Austin Stacks - remember them - made as tame an exit from the championship as the Tralee club have done in many a year, losing first to Dingle before having their goose fully cooked by East Kerry as the bowed out of the competition after just two games. Well, the word is that the Rockies have re-assembled this week in Connolly Park, back in training as the possibility of a Munster Club Championship engagement on November 17 became more real after the weekend’s results.
After Legion, Dingle and Kenmare all met their Waterloo over the weekend, the reigning champions, Dr Crokes, are the one and only club team left in the race for the Bishop Moynihan Cup. And that means that if the other Black and Amber crowd don’t retain their title on November 10, then Austin Stacks will, as per rule, be sent forth as Kerry’s representative in the Munster Club Championship. With a 75% chance (statistically speaking in any event) of Crokes not winning the county championship, Austin Stacks, as Senior Club Championship winners, will be team to go forward into Munster should one of the three remaining divisional teams lift the Moynihan
Cup.
The semi-final draw paired Dr Crokes against their old nemesis, South Kerry, in the second of a Fitzgerald Stadium double-header on Sunday, with East Kerry taking on St Brendans in the first game. The champions, as we and they know, will get absolutely nothing soft from a hard-nosed South Kerry team, and they will need every day of the intervening fortnight until the county final should they get past the southern district’s challenge.
A well-fancied East kerry team a side that is noticeably improving with each passing game - have to be fancied to get the better of a St Brendans team that has done very well to reach this penultimate stage of the championship.
It shouldn’t be forgotten that St Brendans have already beaten East Kerry in this campaign: a 2-11 to 1-12 win in Tralee in the first round. Of course, it should be remembered, too, that East Kerry were without the suspended Clifford brothers, Paudie and David, for that match, and both have been playing sterling football for their
division since their return.
Even with the continuing absence of Kerry panellist, Darragh Moynihan, through injury, this is a formidable East Kerry team that, even allowing for the loss of the Kilcuimmin players (or maybe because of their absence?) look a better side than the one that imploded against Dingle in last year’s semi-final replay.
On the face of it, we’re probably looking at a Dr Crokes v East Kerry final, and there’d be very few writing off East Kerry’s chances in that county final scenario. It’s even a ‘if’ that Crokes will get past a star-studded South Kerry team on Sunday.
Either way, the Stacks players are back training this week.