The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
Dingle see off An Ghaeltacht in West
DINGLE selector Séamus Dowd said he continues to be impressed at how the team has responded to its dispiriting County Championship defeat to East Kerry – and he said Sunday’s performance also reflected, once again, how seriously the club takes its district championship.
It’s two months since Dingle fell to a humbling 12-point defeat against East Kerry in the quarter finals of the county’s premier competition, but the club has since responded with runaway victories against Lios Póil, Dr Crokes, and now An Ghaeltacht.
While Lios Póil are several tiers below Dingle, and Dr Crokes and An Ghaeltacht were far from full strength, Dowd is still taking a lot from Dingle’s response.
He is also delighted at the respect his charges continue to show the West Kerry championship.
“I think the measure of any man and of any player is how he reacts in adversity,” he said. “It’s easy when you’re winning and everyone’s high-fiving.
“We put a lot into the West Kerry Championship. I think, in the last ten years, we’ve only lost two games [in the competition].
“We would have ambitions of doing well in club championship and county leagues and county championships.
“But we always have fierce respect for the local championship, for our rivals”, he added.
Dingle had the extra motivation in knowing their season wouldn’t be over on Sunday.
The game also served as preparation for this Sunday’s County League game against Austin Stacks.
Dingle’s performance lulled noticeably in the second quarter of Sunday’s final, which is something that will have to be considered by the management team ahead of this weekend’s match in Connolly Park.
But, again, Dowd feels the team shook off that complacency very well and rose to the occasion. “We became a little bit lateral,” he said of the second-quarter display.
“We struggled to come out of defence for seven or eight minutes, we lost some breaks, and that gave them [An Ghaeltacht] a platform and oxygen to come back right into the game. “But we were cool and calm and collected at half time, we knew what we had to do, and we came out really guns blazing in the second half.
“They [Austin Stacks] will be looking for redemption for themselves.
“We beat them here in the county championship, and I suppose they’ll feel they let themselves down as well against Nemo,” he continued “There’s going to be very little in that game. At this time of year, it just depends on the hunger and the spirit of the time.”
While he said he is not looking beyond this weekend’s fixture – the winners will then play Rathmore – Dowd said that it’s more than 40 years since Dingle won a County League, and the prospect of ending that drought is one that provides plenty motivation at the tail-end of the season. “It’s not as if the medals are hanging out of our pockets,” he joked.