The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
Munster title in the bag for Templenoe as Na Gaeil go in search of theirs
WINNING a Munster title is always a good thing. No matter how the day goes one must be happy leaving with the spoils, and in the case of Templenoe last weekend, the Kerry side did just what they had to do to claim their second Munster in five years.
So, it would be reasonable for one to expect jubilant scenes from all involved at the final whistle in Mallow last Sunday after the Kerry champions saw off St Breckans of Clare – by a very comfortable looking nine points – however what we got was a more muted response to the final whistle with relief looking to take centre stage ahead of delight.
Templenoe manager John Rice articulated the day in five short words: “A win is a win.”
Said a relieved looking Rice on the full time whistle.
“It’s a provincial title. It was a hard battle and fair play to St Breckans, they came here determined.”
Templenoe didn’t fire on all cylinders for the majority of this game but still got the job done they had set out to do.
“It took us 20, 25 minutes to get to grips with them. There were different tactics on a different day and really we are just delighted to get through it.”
This game wasn’t exactly going to plan from the outset however there was no sense of panic at the break according to the manager and his team showed what they are about in the second period.
“We said it inside in the dressing room at half time that this one was going to be a fight. At half-time in other games we were probably a little more comfortable, but certainly inside in the dressing room they [Templenoe players] showed character, they stood up and said this is it.
“Adrian Spillane’s point [on the restart] set the tone really for us in the second half. I thought we got some good scores there. We obviously weren’t going to get too many goal chances so it was a case of kicking your points and being solid in what you did.
“Perhaps our attitude was a little off there at the start but look it is what it is really. We just needed to keep it solid and do our own job and things would be alright.”
St Breckans lost two players in the second period (one black and one red), but over the course of the game Rice didn’t feel that those two cards had any significant impact on the game.
“They [the sendings off] did of course [help us] at that stage of the game and it affected it towards the end a bit but they never threatened our goal at any stage so whether they had remained on the field or not might not have made any difference.”
Rice was at pains to point out that this year things are much more important than one win, one good performance. This year is about something else for the lads from the Kingdom.
“This club is on a journey. It has been tremendous so far. This is the pinnacle for our lads. The second Munster Final and the second Munster medal. It is fantastic.
“The next game is on the 12th of January against Oughterard [Galway] and we will worry about that next week. We will start preparing for that then. They [Oughterard] will be a formidable challenge, but we will deal with that later.”