The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
Hurling returns: North Kerry SHC previewed
BOY how we’ve missed it and that’s just those of us looking on. For those in the thick of it, the longing to get back must have been nothing short of agonising. Perfect weather for hurling (well until recently enough). Pitches in perfect conditions for hurling and .... nothing. Not a single thing at all. Pucking a ball against a gable wall doesn’t quite cut it. Not even a puck around on Banna or Ballyheighue strands would have been enough to sate that desire.
Hurling isn’t just a set of skills or techniques – though it is that too – more so, much more so, it’s about the contest. The clash of the ash is the cliché, but there’s truth to it (that’s why it’s a cliché in the first place). That’s what players live for: the contest. The chance to test themselves against each other. The chance to put those skills into effect in a match day scenario. Under pressure with everything on the line.
It’s been five months since a ball was pucked in anger around these parts, too long, much too long for any exponents or even fans of the sweet science. Thankfully that enforced hiatus is drawing to a close. This Monday evening (July 20) will see the hurling clubs of north Kerry back in action for a dry run of sorts for this year’s County Senior Hurling Championship.
The North Kerry Hurling Championship will this year be played on a round robin basis with two groups of four teams playing each other once. The top two in each group go forward to contest the final. On paper it’s a pretty good way to prepare for a knock-out county championship in August. It gives teams a guaranteed three games each, which is nothing to be sniffed at.
Still though there are certain drawbacks. Having the games on Monday evenings is to facilitate football as much as hurling as far as we can tell. With the county club football championships getting underway the following weekend (July 25/26), the first round of games look like being the only round that won’t be effected by the big ball code
Pretty much all the clubs – except for Kilmoyley perhaps – have dual players. One club, Crotta O’Neills, has players from three football clubs hurling with them (St Senans, Ballymac and St Pats). That’s a lot of mouths to feed. The managers of the hurling sides won’t want to be in a position to have to flog players either. If say Ballyduff’s footballers are in action on Saturday evening will their manager, Garry O’Brien, want to play his dual players again so soon afterwards?
Probably not and that raises a question as to how competitive a proposition this North Kerry Championship will be. Competitive is probably not the right word either, whoever takes to the field will be fully committed and keen to get up to speed as soon as possible, no the question here is more one of representativeness. Will we be able to set that much store by it? Will it provide us with a form guide ahead of the Neilus Flynn that we can trust? Possibly not.
Indeed, we’ve no form other than what happened in last year’s championship and underage championships to go on ahead of this competition. There was a single round of the County Hurling League played before lockdown and that would have been played in the middle of the Kingdom’s Division 2A campaign. No we start from a blank slate this Friday evening.
The hurling clubs aren’t hugely satisfied with the way things have played out for them in this post-lockdown reboot of the domestic scene. They’re not happy with the straight knock-out format of the Senior County Championship and you can see where they’re coming from. Yes, the football championship will also be straight knock-out, but that comes after a significant (and expanded) club championship. It’s not comparing like with like at all.
Indeed, from our conversations with hurling people they feel they’ve not been given a fair crack of the whip this year. Yes, they’re getting this North Kerry competition to prepare, but as we’ve noted it’s got significant drawbacks from their point of view. When an extra weekend was found to give the club championships a quarter-final stage (which really does lower the stakes for the group phase), the least the hurlers should have got was another weekend or two to play their senior championship in its traditional form.
Our position would be that the backdoor in the race for the Neilus Flynn sometimes has the effect of making meaningless the first round, but when you’ve been without games for as long as we have there’s no harm to giving teams another game or two. Yes it’s a tight calendar, but space surely could have been found even if it means forcing players into a position of choosing which code.
THERE will be a change of format this year in order to provide competitive games for clubs in advance of the Co. Senior Championship. Following initial league stages, the top team in each group will qualify for the final.
Group 1: Lixnaw, Ballyduff, St. Brendans, Causeway
Group 2: Abbeydorney, Ballyheigue, Kilmoyley, Crotta O’Neills
All games at 7pm, first named at home
FRIDAY, JULY 17
Group 1 Round 1
Causeway v Lixnaw
SUNDAY, JULY 19
Group 1 Round 1
Ballyduff v St. Brendan’s
Group 2 Round 1
Kilmoyley v Ballyheigue
Crotta v Abbeydorney
MONDAY, AUGUST 3
Group 1 Round 2
Lixnaw v Ballyduff
St. Brendan’s v Causeway [Tuesday, 4 August]
Group 2 Round 2
Ballyheigue v Crotta Abbeydorney v Kilmoyley
MONDAY, AUGUST 24
Group 1 Round 3
Ballyduff v Causeway
Lixnaw v St. Brendan’s
Group 2 Round 3
Kilmoyley v Crotta Ballyheigue v Abbeydorney
Final on the weekend of 13 or 20 September