The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
‘We need a small bit of forward thinking’
WITH a proposal currently being discussed to bring Feale Rangers and Shannon Rangers together at minor and under-21 level this year, Feale Rangers Chairman Christy Walsh is fully behind the project.
“I debated this thing in my head for a good bit and I definitely came down to the side that we should definitely trial it in the minors and under-21s,” he said.
“In my opinion, we still have five senior teams and a junior team in Feale Rangers, while Shannon Rangers would have six senior teams.
“But definitely, when it comes to minors, with the draw of your hurling and your schools, your Leaving Certs and the whole lot, young fellas going away on J1s in the summer, we don’t have players at minor level in Feale Rangers and Shannon Rangers to justify two teams.
“I don’t care what they would say about eleven teams together because you have to bring that down to where they are playing in the County Leagues, mostly in the bottom two or three divisions. Are they amalgamated? Yes. Are all of them playing 15-a-side football? No.
“And then the strength of our schools teams in North Kerry is not where it should be, and that’s through no fault of the people working in St Michael’s, St Joseph’s, the football side of Causeway, or Tarbert.
“There was a stat there a few years ago that St Kierans got to a county minor final and they would have two teams from North Kerry in Brosna and Knocknagoshel. They had about 60 players to call on, and they came up against an East Kerry team that had 250-something players that they could draw from. You’re just not looking at like with like and that’s the problem.”
Feale Rangers got to the county under-21 decider in 2019, but Walsh says there were mitigating reasons for that situation to unfold, and that, just like Shannon Rangers, the summer scheduling of the competition really hinders their possibilities to make an impression.
“Our biggest problem, since they set the date for the Under-21s in the middle of August, is that we can’t prepare any of our teams because, in Feale Rangers, the three strong teams at Under-21 level at the moment would be Listowel Emmets, Finuge and St Senans, and most of the Finuge and St Senans players would be dual players.
“At that time, Lixnaw and Crotta would be playing in the county senior hurling championship. And you will not get them for a match on a Tuesday night when they are after playing in a hurling championship match on the Sunday, and they might have a county hurling semi-final the following week. You just will not get them. Then, all of a sudden, you are picking from maybe two and a half teams.
“We got to the final last year but we got a bye, we got a walkover, and we won the semi-final by a point. Then we got to the final and we were missing four fellas from the semi out of a panel of 22. You just couldn’t cope. The Lixnaw fellas joined us then but we had no training session with them. They were just able to turn up for the final, and that was it,” stressed the Listowel clubman.
It’s not all doom and gloom in North Kerry football, or in Feale Rangers for that matter, after the Under-14 team became county champions in 2019 after reaching the final the previous season.
“John Dillon has done ferocious work there with the development squads, and the whole lot. We did hit on a purple patch, not just for one year, but two years,” explained Walsh.
“I would compliment the County Bord na nOg as well for having the foresight to look at their county competition structures. So they have county under-14 and under-16 championships, where you have the likes of Tralee District, Killarney District and Eoghan Ruadh etc. It’s a different bracket to the county senior championship.
“We were looking at North Kerry and maybe should we come together. And the County Bord na nOg had the figures on how strong teams were at under-12 and under-14 levels and they said that, instead of North Kerry coming together, what we are proposing is a cup and a shield.
“At under-14 level, for two years, we were in the cup. We were beaten in the final the first year, winning it last year. Then, at under-16 level, we won the shield final the first year. That under-14 team, if we can keep them together, should have two more years now at under-16s, and we’ll see how they get on at that.
“Will we be as strong this year at under-14? Definitely not. Shannon Rangers are probably stronger at under-14 level, but that could change again in two years time. That was a good initiative by the County Bord na nOg.”
At senior level, the Feale Rangers chairman admits that it’s difficult to see the 2007 county champions now having to undergo a preliminary round match before they even take part in the 2020 championship proper.
“On the divisional side of things, there were nine teams for eight places, so somebody has to lose out. It goes on your past record, so you can’t complain. Unfortunately, since we have been in this structure, we’ve only had sporadic wins. Every second year, we might have a win or two. We’ve been competitive enough, but we haven’t been as competitive as we want.”
Walsh also believes that the County Board can do more to help the North Kerry district out in these difficult times for football in the region.
“Maybe, rather than sitting at the top table and tarring everybody with the one brush stroke, and just saying that we’re at a low ebb, maybe we need a small bit of help and a bit of forward thinking.
“We’ve had issues when it comes to matches when we’ve been really struggling to field teams and, at times, we’re met with deaf ears when we’ve gone to the County Board, making enquiries about just maybe putting a game off for 24 hours, or changing it for one reason or another.
“Then you could be playing county championship minor football, and they are playing county minor hurling league the night before. And most of them are probably playing senior hurling with their club at the weekend. Where’s the forward planning or forward thinking there?”