It doesn't go down well in Cork, but stars from the Kingdom have long been integral to UCC, writes SEAN MORAN

EARLIER THIS year the 100th anniversary of the Sigerson Cup was marked by the selection of a team of the century. Although UCD had the largest representation with six, UCC was next with four and notably all of the laureates were from Kerry.

The connection between the county and UCC shouldn’t really be that surprising – any more than the more recent hurling link between Waterford IT and Kilkenny – but it manages to excite a great deal of comment. Kerry is the most successful county in football and UCC has been its nearest third-level institution for most of a century and remains a popular destination despite the inroads made into north Kerry by the University of Limerick.

Tomorrow the latest heirs to this tradition travel to Killarney to face local club Dr Crokes in this year’s AIB Munster club football final. It’s almost as handy a venue for the college, as half of the team are from Kerry and lining out for Crokes will be two other players, Johnny Buckley and Daithí Casey, who helped UCC take home the Sigerson Cup last March and more recently the Cork county championship but who have opted to play with their home club in the provincial championship.

Another alumnus Eoin Brosnan, after a terrific comeback season with Kerry, will also be facing the college’s famous skull and crossbones jerseys. By one calculation, as many as 24 of the 30 footballers on the pitch in a provincial final could be from the one county.

The role of the universities within the GAA is often an uncomfortable one. Whereas the third-level competitions are among the most established of any in Gaelic games, they are seen as elite affairs and of little interest to the public at large.

But when colleges enter county championships the level of ill-will rises – generally in proportion to the success achieved. Their advantage in being able to field teams of almost representative quality causes resentment and their bona fides as ‘clubs’ within the accepted GAA meaning of community is questioned.

Advocates argue that you can hardly find tighter-knit communities than college clubs, run by students for students, and that their success rate is hardly intimidating but the hostility is still there.

In Cork the Kerry connection deepens the unhappiness. One delegate to last week’s county board meeting asked the top table what was being done about the county champions fielding a weakened team (ie minus Buckley and Casey) in the Munster championship.

It’s 12 years since UCC last reached this stage and back then there was an even greater Kerry presence, a dozen players including future Footballer of the Year Paul Galvin, at the time converted into a wing back, fellow All-Ireland winner Eamonn Fitzmaurice and Micheál Ó Sé who went on to win an All-Ireland club with Dublin’s St Vincent’s.

The figures are naturally skewed by the general tendency for Cork players to opt for their home clubs if senior in the county championship but only goalkeeper Alan Quirke and centre forward Micheál Ó Cróinín from Cork and Limerick’s Damien Reidy were from other counties.

Des Cullinane managed UCC in the 1999-2000 season, culminating in All-Ireland semi-final defeat to defending and eventual champions Crossmaglen – who are again All-Ireland champions and would again be their opponents in the semi-final should they win tomorrow.

“The Kerry connection goes back a long time,” he says. “It’s always been huge. It’s not that well known but Mick O’Connell played for a year in the college. I used to try and use the rivalry to shake up training sessions a bit by playing Cork fellas against Kerry but it never really worked. Now if you played commerce students against engineers that would be different!

“I was in charge of the Cork under-21s at the time and when we played Kerry you’d see room-mates thumping the heads off each other but there was none of that aggression between them at college.

“There has also been a connection off the field. John O’Dwyer (Mick O’Dwyer’s son) was a great player for us but also a huge administrative influence.”

O’Dwyer’s father and Páidí Ó Sé, All-Ireland winners as players and managers with Kerry, also made the trip to Cork to train Sigerson teams.

Tomorrow at lunch time in Killarney another of the legendary figures from the UCC-Kerry axis, Séamus Moynihan, will along with Cullinane attend a function to which school principals in the county have been invited. It’s simply a reminder of what UCC can offer academically and sportingly.

Not that there can be too many secrets about that in Kerry.

Paul Galvin: Four All-Irelands, three All Stars, 2009 Footballer of the Year and 1999 UCC Munster champion.

Séamus Moynihan: Four All-Irelands, three All Stars, 2000 Footballer of the Year and 1994 and 1995 Sigerson Cups, Sigerson Team of the Century – also won Sigersons with IT Tralee.

Maurice Fitzgerald: Two All-Irelands, two All Stars, 1997 Footballer of the Year and 1988 Sigerson Cup, Sigerson Team of the Century.

Moss Keane: Ireland rugby international and Lions Test player, 1969, 1970 (captain) and '72 Sigerson Cups, 1971 Munster champions and 1972 All-Ireland finalists.

Brendan Lynch: Three All-Irelands, 1969 and 1972 Sigerson Cups, Sigerson Team of the Century.

Jim Brosnan: Two All-Irelands, 1952 and 1953 Sigerson Cups, Sigerson Team of the Century.