The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
LEAGUE IN BRIEF
LEINSTER LADS Win, Draw and Loss for Kerry Trio Managing Away From Home
KERRY’S trio of managers in Leinster offered up the full suite of results between them on the League’s opening weekend, with Jack O’Connor, Micheal Quirke and Paul Galvin enjoying varying degrees of fortune. O’Connor got off on a winning note with Kildare with a 2-12 to 0-14 victory over Fermanagh in Newbridge in Division 2. In the same division former Kerins O’Rahillys boss Quirke saw his Laois team escape from Dr Hyde Park with a 2-14 apiece draw against host Roscommon. Two goals in injury-time saw the O’Moore County stun the Rossies who had led 1-7 to 0-9 at half time. Meanwhile, Galvin started life in the Model County with a defeat as the Wexford footballers went down to Antrim by b3-10 to 0-13 in Belfast. Next weekend O’Connor takes Kildare to Ennis to face Clare, while Quirke’s Laois host Armagh in Portlaoise on Saturday. On the same night Wexford host Carlow in a south-east derby in Wexford Park.
BLOOD SUBS Bugler Makes Three Cameos as Temporary Substitute
SATURDAY evening proved a particularly busy one for Dublin’s no.17 Sean Bugler who had the - perhaps unprecedented - distinction of being brought on four times in the game against Kerry. The St Oliver Plunketts Eoghan Ruadh man was pressed into action in the very first minute after Niall Scully clashed heads with Sean O’Shea at the throw-in and had to go off for treatment to a cut on his head. In the tenth minute Bugler was sent on again, this time for James McCarthy who had to come off to change his blood-spattered jersey, and in the 28th minute Bugler was back on again temporarily for Scully, who needed further cleaning up to that head wound. In the 53rd minute the Dublin man was sent on as a regulation substitute for Kevin McManamon, but surprisingly he didn’t see out the game from there; instead he was called ashore in the 78th minute and replaced by Dan O’Brien, just after Dean Rock had put Dublin into a 1-19 to 1-18 lead.
GUARD OF HONOUR Kerry Don’t Stand on Ceremony for All-Ireland Champions
THERE is nothing in the official GAA Clár to say it has to happen and we can’t say when it started or became an accepted practice - but last Saturday evening the Kerry footballers appeared to break with recent custom of giving the newly crowned All-Ireland champions a guard of honour on to the playing pitch for their first National League game the following spring. Certainly the last time Kerry’s first League game saw them go up against the All-Ireland champions - January 2016 after Dublin lifted Sam in 2015 - they gave the Dubs a guard of honour onto Croke Park. And on February 1, 2015 Mayo applauded Kerry, the 2014 All-Ireland champions, on to Fitzgerald Stadium in Round One of the League. Interestingly, when Kerry visited Omagh in early April 2015 for their Round 7 match of the League, Tyrone gave the All-Ireland champions a guard of honour on to Healy Park.
NEW YEAR OLD GEAR Referee Hurson Kits Himself Out in 2019 All-Ireland Final Attire
YOU may or may not have noticed it if you were a spectator in Croke Park on Saturday evening - we certainly didn’t from the media level in the upper deck of the Hogan Stand - but we did spot on a television re-watch that referee Sean Hurson was wearing his 2019 All-Ireland SFC Final jersey for this game. Hurson was the Sideline Official in last year’s drawn All-Ireland Final between Kerry and Dublin, and obviously didn’t get his new 2020 gear or forgot to bring it with him from his home in Tyrone.