Mercy Mounthawk

STILL to advance beyond the Quarter-Final stages in their short time at Corn Uí Mhuirí level (they entered back in 2014/15) Mercy Mounthawk look to have a tall order in making progress this campaign especially when one of their key players in former Kerry U-17 Fergal Barry (younger brother of Jack and Andrew) has been ruled out of the entire campaign with a cruciate injury. A lot will depend on Donagh McMahon, Michael O’Gara and Barry Walsh for Mounthawk as Adam Curran, Jack Sheehan and Damien Doherty will be others that they will hope can inspire them in a group featuring The Sem, Killorglin and Clonakilty Community College.

Team mentor Aidan O’Shea has targeted getting out of the Group as a more achieveable target than outright success as he feels the change in age would have created a peculiar situation had it been in effect last year. “David Clifford would have been eligible to play in the competition last year if he was still in School as he was U-19 but for ourselves there is no real gain to the change this year and I still feel it will be the other Kerry Schools that will have the best chance of winning the competition,” the All-Ireland Junior Club Championship winning manager with Glenbeigh/Glencar said.

Losing to Killorglin in their opening O’Sullivan Cup game will provide them with some motivation for their renewal with the Mid Kerry School but while Mounthawk have made it beyond Christmas in the past, 2016 and 2017, doing so this year would be as good an achievement as another with what they have to face this year.