New York Ready for Kerry Challenge

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Irish Voice Sport

New York Ready for Kerry Challenge

March 19, 2008

By Eugene Kyne

2:30 p.m.: New York vs. Feale Rangers (Kerry champions 2007) THE second day of the Easter GAA weekend brings the Kerry county champions Feale Rangers to town on Easter Sunday for a 2:30 p.m. match at Gaelic Park.

On a three city tour of the U.S., the visitors were scheduled to play Boston on Thursday evening before they head for the Big Apple for the weekend. The New York team has been documented in the Army previews, but what of their challengers?

Feale Rangers are a combination side from North Kerry. What that means is they are a conglomeration of three intermediate sides and two junior sides, a divisional squad by definition.

Other divisional sides in the Kingdom would be South Kerry, Mid Kerry and then, of course, the individual clubs sides like Austin Stacks, Na Gaeltaght, and Dr. Crokes.

The pros and cons of the divisional system are many, with former Kerry star Eamonn Fitzmaurice, who is traveling with Feale as the starting number six, telling the Irish Voice in an interview of some of the advantages and disadvantages.

He stated that Feale were “in the doldrums for a couple of years as we had one game and were finished. You never had continuity. Last season changed when we came in the back door and got a head of steam.”

The fact that players were all with their own clubs training was also a factor. It does, however, give the intermediate players an opportunity to pull of a shock win every now and then, and this is in fact what came about in 2007 with Feale Rangers annexing their third county title in their history.

Their first two came in 1978 and ‘80 with the four in a row Kerry team of ‘81 captained by Jimmy Deenihan as the Kerry county team captaincy goes to the winning club. This year Paul Galvin has the honor. He starred for Feale on the 40 last season.

The run to the title was not an easy one for the champions. They had to defeat St Kieran’s, Ardfert, and the might of An Gaeltaght, who were in an All-Ireland club final in recent years, before they took home the county cup with a 1-4 to 0-6 win over South Kerry.

With John Mulvihill, Jerry Stack and Christy Killeen pulling the strings from the sideline, and Brendan Quincy, Maurice Corridan, Enda Galvin, Paul Galvin and Fitzmaurice playing starring roles, title number three was achieved.

Kieran Quirke has gotten a call up to the senior squad on the strength of his displays. Galvin has been a constant for Kerry but is injured at the moment and his availability for Sunday is still in question.

Aside from two college players, the squad that took home the honors will be all stateside this week which will give New York a tremendous battle after the Army games of the previous evening.

It is not Fitzmaurice’s first visit to Gaelic Park, however. Alongside Mike Frank Russell, he lined out for Longford in 1998 versus Stamford.

The changing times alas have dictated that both of those New York clubs are gone from the schedule this year. “I also played with Dan Doona when he was on the Kerry panel, but other than that I don’t know the New York team. We are looking forward to the game and the new surface at Gaelic Park. It is a great opportunity for our panel to tour both Boston and New York,” he said.

Looking back at his own career, Fitzie spoke about two of the greatest players in the history of the game that he got a chance to play with.

“Maurice Fitzgerald and Seamus Moynihan had unbelievable talent. They would certainly rank with the best of all time,” he said.

“Dara O’Shea and Colm Cooper are others that come to mind. The Gooch may go down as one of the greatest. Paudie O’Shea who won eight All-Irelands and managed Kerry. He gave me a chance and he was a big influence on my career.

“The team that is going for a three in a row is also an excellent outfit. However you need your big guns to be fit for that and you always need a little bit of luck.”

It will be the third game of the year so far for New York, three more than they have had at this point in previous years. A tremendous help to Paddy Kearney and his team regardless of the results on Sunday.

Senior Teams 2008 Draft

Leitrim: 1 Alan Foley (Astoria), 2 John Walsh (Roscommon), 3 Danny O’Sullivan (Roscommon), 4 Pa Ryan (Astoria), 5 Kieran Keaveney (Roscommon), 6 Michael Travers (Roscommon), 7 Conor Skeffington (Tyrone), 8 Mike Creegan (St. Ray’s).

Kerry: 1 Anthony Glacken (Kerry), 2 Shane Carty (Dublin), 3 Sean Kelly (Armagh), 4 Vinnie Gavin (Offaly), 5 Kieran Bergin (Offaly), 6 Collie Fearon (Armagh), 7 Eoin O’Mahoney (Kerry).

Donegal: (All Donegal except noted) 1 C.J. Molloy, 2 Sean Twomey (Rangers), 3 Mark Duggan, 4 Justin Friel, 5 Anton Diver, 6 Damien Ward (Astoria), 7 Kevin O’Connor (Astoria), 8 Shane O’Connor.

St. Barnabas: (All Barnabas except noted) 1 Andrew Donaghue, 2 Ciaran Moyles, 3 Terrence Flynn, 4 Thomas McGovern, 5 Kyle Hannon, 6 Sean Roche (Rockland), 7 Mike Bishop (Rangers), 8 Brendan Moran (Offaly).

Derry: 1 Leon Dunican (Offaly), 2 John McGinley (Offaly), 3 Shane Smith (Cavan), 4 John Kelly (Armagh), 5 Lee Kelly (Armagh), 6 Chris Clarke (Rockland), 7 Sean Carney (Roscommon).

Down: 1 Sean Munnelly (Astoria), 2 Sean Kelly (Astoria), 3 Barry Annette (FDNY), 4 Dermot Hayes (FDNY), 5 Barry McElduff (Tyrone), 6 Michael Coyle (Down), 7 Gary Cornyn (Down), 8 Ross Connolly (Monaghan).

Cavan: 1 Brian Dennehy (Cavan), 2 Justin O’Halloran (Armagh), 3 Kevin McGeeney (Armagh), 4 Shane Lyons (Armagh), 5 Declan Fitzpatrick (Cavan), 6 Michael Smyth (Cavan), 7 Conor Brady (Cavan), 8 Eoghan McPartland (Cavan).

Cork: 1 John Fitzpatrick (Offaly), 2 Shea Furlong (St. Ray’s), 3 Thomas Walsh (FDNY), 4 Shane Langan (Kerry), 5 David Colleran (Mayo), 6 Tommy Quaid (Kerry), 7 Derek Courtney (Rangers), 8 Derek McKenna (Armagh).

Sligo: 1 James Huvane (St. Ray’s), 2 Paddy Brennan (Kerry), 3 Nester Allen (Astoria), 4 Thomas Maher (Rangers), 5 Tony McTigue (Roscommon), 6 Bernie Madden (FDNY), 7 Kevin Caffrey (Kerry), 8 Dave Daly (FDNY).

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