Gaelic Games

Real opportunity knocks for Kerry hurlers

Already assured of a preliminary All-Ireland quarter-final, victory over Antrim in the McDonagh Cup would clinch a high-profile Munster playoff against Tipperary

Barry O'Mahony scores a point despite the efforts of Westmeath's Cormac Boyle during last year's Joe McDonagh Cup final. Kerry face Antrim in this year's decider at Croke Park. Photograph: Brian Reilly-Troy/Inpho
Paul Keane
Thu Jun 02 2022 - 05:00

A couple of weeks after fearing that their season may shortly be over, a potential summer of fun now stretches out in front of the Kerry hurlers.

Regardless of what happens in Saturday’s Joe McDonagh Cup final at Croke Park, Stephen Molumphy’s side have a guaranteed All-Ireland SHC preliminary quarter-final tie against Cork or Wexford the following weekend.

An All-Ireland quarter-final on June 18th isn’t out of the question while, as Joe McDonagh Cup champions, there would also be a June 25th Munster SHC promotion/relegation play-off with Tipperary. Which is where things get particularly interesting.

Antrim will gain automatic promotion to the 2023 Leinster championship if they repeat their 2020 McDonagh Cup final win over Kerry though, for Kerry, success on Saturday would merely propel them through to a play-off.

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It’s a glaring inequity that Antrim’s Eoghan Campbell has described as “an absolute joke”, adding that “I’d nearly refuse to play Tipperary” if he found himself in such a situation.

For Campbell, the answer is blindingly obvious. Just drop Kerry into Munster and expand it to a six-team championship, mirroring what they’ve done in Leinster.

“If I was from Kerry and I won on Saturday, I’d probably . . . I’d nearly refuse to play Tipperary,” said Campbell. “It’s an absolute joke really that they would have to play Tipperary in a relegation battle when they could just go into it [Munster] to make up six and make it even with Leinster.

“That’s really the bottom line. I don’t see why they should have to do it. Obviously, they’re probably not going to refuse to play it, a big day against Tipperary, and Tipperary probably reeling from the performances they’ve had, they’re probably going to have a break while Kerry would be going in a bit sharper, but they shouldn’t have to play it really.”

Kerry defender Eric Leen, perhaps understandably given that they must win firstly on Saturday in order for the play-off to be required, wasn’t as militant.

“It’s another game for us,” he said of the potential play-off with Tipp. “We want to be playing those big games. Even having a qualifier there with either Wexford or Cork, seriously looking forward to that as well. If we do have to play Tipperary in what’s considered a relegation play-off, it would be another great day out and we’ll thrive on trying to beat them.”

But shouldn’t they just go to six in Munster, as it is in Leinster?

“Yeah, there would be nothing wrong with that,” nodded Leen.

Asked if Munster is actually the correct place for Kerry, given the punishment they could potentially take from teams like Limerick and Clare next season, Leen was succinct but emphatic. “Yeah,” he responded.

Rewind back a couple of weeks to mid-May when Kerry lost to Offaly in their McDonagh Cup group, a second loss in four outings, and it looked as if the GAA was off the hook for another year at least with the provincial play-off situation as Kerry were on the brink of exiting the competition.

They needed to beat Antrim in Round 5 and for Offaly to lose to Carlow to stand any chance of advancing to the final. And even then it would only be on scoring difference. In the end, the stars aligned and Kerry made it through.

“Going up to Antrim, we thought it could be our last game and that it would have been an early summer for Kerry,” said Leen. “Fellas might have been thinking about going back to the club. The club championship was meant to start in Kerry in two weeks’ time. It’s great to have more games with Kerry now, to try to push on the game a bit down there.”

Kerry are desperate for McDonagh Cup success at this stage following back-to-back final defeats, to Antrim in 2020 and Westmeath in 2021. Despite losses to Down and Offaly in this season’s group stage, Leen believes the Round 5 result in Antrim points to a real resilience within the squad this year.

“We’ve always been resilient but sometimes maybe lacked a bit of belief in ourselves,” said Leen. “I remember the last two years being in a dark place after losing those finals. We have experience now and we’re mentally tougher. A bit of belief as well is a big thing for us.

“The management would have talked about that. They drive home the importance of resilience and believing in yourself and they try to put a bit of confidence into us. We’ve obviously been there the last couple of years and we haven’t done it so hopefully this year it’s going to be a bit different.”