The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
‘Sigerson Cup is dying on its feet’ - Brosnan
“THE Sigerson [Cup] is dying on its feet” according to Liam Brosnan, the manager of the IT Tralee senior football team who host a very strong University of Ulster Jordanstown team in the first round of the famous Third-Level Colleges championship next Sunday.
By agreement with new Kerry senior team manager Peter Keane - and Dr Crokes boss Pat O’Shea - Brosnan will have first call on Gavin Crowley, Darragh Moynihan, Michael Potts, Mark O’Shea and Brian Fitzgerald - for the IT Tralee team at the weekend, even though Crowley and Potts are currently part of Keane’s training squad that is preparing for the visit of Tyrone on the NFL on Sunday week, while Potts, O’Shea and Fitzgerald are readying themselves for an All-Ireland Club semi-final with Dr Crokes next month. Significantly, Brosnan won’t have the services of one of the most talented forwards in the country as David Clifford continues to rehab from a shoulder injury, and it was the Fossa man who was at the centre of a college versus county struggle this time last year that led to Brosnan questioning the sense of then Kerry manager Eamonn Fitzmaurice playing Clifford in two League games so close to two Sigerson Cup games. After making his senior Kerry debut against Donegal in the League in late January last year, Clifford played a big part in helping ITT beat Queens in Belfast three days later. With another Sigerson game coming up a week later Brosnan felt Clifford should have been left out of Kerry’s trip to Castlebar to play Mayo that Saturday night, but he played and came off injured after 17 minutes, and subsequently missed the quarter-final loss to DIT in Austin Stack Park. While Brosnan is satisfied with the arrangement this year, on a broader level the Currow native feels the Sigerson Cup is losing its appeal because of its scheduling alongside the National Football League and the conclusing stages of the All-Ireland Club competitions.
“The Sigerson is dying on its feet. They’ll have to change it because it’s the handful of fellas who are losing out all the time, the county players,” he says. “They’re being pulled and dragged by everyone and at the end of the day they want to play with their county. That’s their first choice.
“I reckon they will have to bring the start of the Sigerson to before Christmas. Play the early rounds in the last week of November and the first two weeks of December and then play the semi-finals and final in January. Then you’re talking two weekends in January for the semi-finals and final and it’s over before the National League starts.
“If you take Gavin Crowley as an example. He will play with us on Sunday, if we lose he’s out again on Wednesday or Thursday with us, and then he’s likely to play some part with Kerry against Tyrone the next Sunday. That’s three competitive games in the space of seven days. And then they talk about player burn-out and player welfare and all that,” Brosnan, who has been appointed the new Brosna senior team manager, said.
A year ago that win over Queens was IT Tralee’s first Sigerson Cup win in 11 years, but while Brosnan feels this year’s team is a better one, he believes Sunday’s opposition, UUJ, are a much stronger team too than their Ulster counterpart was last year.
He lists off a few names to make his point, such as Tyrone’s Michael McKernan and Lee Brennan and Paddy Durkan from Mayo, but after a couple of McKenna Cup matches in the last month Brosnan is expecting a well-drilled and cohesive UUJ to pitch up at John Mitchels on Sunday afternoon.
From Tralee’s point of view it will be very much a Kerry-tinted team with probably 14 of the starting team from the county. Only Conor Byrne from Wexford and Dan O’Keeffe from Dromtariffe in north Cork look like breaking into the starting 15. Liam Kearney from Spa and Austin Stacks’ Greg Horan will most likely form the midfield partnership, with Gavin Crowley (Templenoe) likely to anchor the defence at centre-back although he might be tasked with a man-marking job on Tyrone’s Lee Brennan closer to goal.
Elsewhere the ITT defence will have Jack Morgan from Austin Stacks, Dr Crokes duo of Potts and Fitzgerald, DJ Murphy from Gneeveguilla and either Aaron McCarthy from Listry or Cillian Ferris from Limerick.
The attack will be spearheaded by Jack Savage (O’Rahillys) at centre-forward and Conor Keane (Legion), with Mark O’Shea (Crokes), James Duggan (Mitchels), Darragh Moynihan (Spa) and either Conor Byrne or Aaron McCarthy to complete the starting attacking unit.
This year’s Sigerson Cup sees a ‘back door’ element so if IT Tralee lose on Sunday they will play the loser of the Garda v Sligo IT game the following Wednesday or Thursday, and if they pull off an upset and beat UUJ they will advance to the quarter-finals on February 6 against one of the qualifiers.