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Crokes hurlers close to upsetting natural order

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4 years ago

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David Carroll of Dr Crokes in action against Abbeydorney in the Kerry SHC.

Kerry SHC: Group 3

Dr Crokes v Crotta O’Neills

Friday at 7.30pm

Austin Stack Park

Dr Crokes came extremely close to causing an upset in their first ever Kerry Senior Hurling Championship fixture. Tonight, they’re hoping to go one step further.

Few gave the Crokes a chance against Abbeydorney last weekend but a spirited display saw the Lewis Road club give their more established black and amber counterparts a real scare. In the end, they fell just short by the narrowest of margins (0-17 to 0-16), but they will surely take heart and encouragement from the fact that they pushed O’Dorney, last year’s beaten semi-finalists, to the pin of their collar.

After David Carroll scored a historic first point at this level for the Crokes, O’Dorney settled and led 5-3 at the water break. Both sides doubled their tallies in the second quarter to leave the scores at 10-6 at half-time, and when the North Kerry club powered into a seven-point lead early in the second half, Crokes’ travelling support must have feared the worst.

But full credit to the debutants, they stuck to their task and a rip-roaring fightback, which included overs by Mark Heffernan, Tom Doyle, Carroll, Aaron Murphy, and goalkeeper Conor Bohane, narrowed the gap to just a single point in stoppage time.

Abbeydorney hung on for the win, and now Crokes will need some kind of result against Crotta O’Neills to have any chance of progressing to the next phase of the competition. Two teams from each of the three groups of three will advance, with the bottom side in each pool making an early exit.

Crotta are sure to provide a stern test. They have five Kerry seniors in their ranks, including the likes of Shane Nolan and Barry Mahony, although the unfortunate loss of Jordan Conway through injury has dampened their championship prospects somewhat.

The Kilflynn club have real pedigree in this tournament having gone all the way on new fewer than nine occasions. Their last triumph may have been many moons ago now (1968) but they are well used to the rough and tumble of the Kerry Senior Hurling Championship and they will certainly provide the Crokes with a very stern test.

Crokes manager John Lenihan will have his boys well psyched up for the challenge, however, and if they can show the grit and determination that brought them to within a point of O’Dorney, you never know where it might take them. Upsetting the natural order of things at the first time of asking is a tall order, but they showed last weekend that they’re not all that far away from doing just that.

Elsewhere in this weekend’s championship action, Ballyheigue take on Lixnaw on Saturday at 7.30pm. Ballyheigue fell to a heavy enough defeat to defending champions Kilmoyley (4-23 to 1-16) in their opening Group 2 fixture so it’s do or die for them this time out. Lixnaw, the 2018 champions, will be a tough challenge.

In Group 1, Ballyduff take on a Causeway outfit who had a big win over St Brendan’s last weekend (3-20 to 0-13). That match is on Sunday at 2pm and Causeway will fancy themselves to prevail and book a place in the quarter-finals.

All matches will be played in Austin Stack Park in Tralee.

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Numbers Game: How Kerry can reach league final – or get relegated for first time in 24 years

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2 days ago

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22 March 2025

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by Adam Moynihan

Men’s NFL Division 1

Galway v Kerry

Sunday 3.45pm

Salthill

Live on TG4 YouTube

Kerry travel to Galway on Sunday knowing that defeat could well consign them to relegation for the first time since 2001. Win and they could be Croker-bound. It’s that tight heading into the final day of Division 1 of the National Football League. Anything could happen.

Let’s get the lay of the land before we wade into the murky waters of permutations. We currently have a three-way tie at the top of the table with Galway, Dublin and Donegal all level on eight points. Next up are Mayo on seven, followed by Kerry on six, Armagh and Tyrone on five, and already-relegated Derry on one.

PWDLPDPts
1Galway6321178
2Dublin640288
3Donegal640248
4Mayo6312-37
5Kerry6303116
6Tyrone621305
7Armagh6213-85
8Derry6015-291

In the seventh and final round of the league, Galway play Kerry, Mayo are at home to Donegal, Armagh host Derry, and Tyrone welcome Dublin to Healy Park, Omagh. All four matches are being played simultaneously at 3.45pm on Sunday.

So, who will be joining the Oak Leafers in Division 2 in 2026?

If Kerry lose they will remain on six points, which means that if Armagh and Tyrone both win, they will move onto seven points, relegating the Kingdom. However, if Kerry lose they will stay up if one or both of Armagh or Tyrone lose.

If Kerry lose and either Armagh or Tyrone draw and the other win, Kerry are safe on the head-to-head rule. If Kerry lose and both Armagh and Tyrone draw, there will be a three-way tie on six points. In this event, points difference will come into play, and Kerry will survive if they lose to Galway by less than 20.

If Kerry draw with Galway, they will almost certainly be safe. Such a result would move them up to seven points, and even if Armagh and Tyrone both win, Kerry’s superior points difference would, barring an incredible set of results, see them over the line. Kerry are currently on +11 with Armagh on -8 and Tyrone breaking even on zero. So Armagh would need to beat Derry by 20 points and Tyrone would need to beat Dublin by 12 for them both to overtake Kerry.

Now, let’s fix our gaze upwards rather than down. A place in the league final is also on the cards – if all those cards fall kindly.

If Kerry win, they will wind up on eight points, guaranteeing their status as a Division 1 team for the 24th year in a row. If they win by three points (or more), that’s where things get interesting. Such a margin of victory would see them overtake their direct opponents, Galway, on ‘points for’ (if they win by three) or ‘overall points difference’ (if they win by more than three).

It would also guarantee that they would slip in between Mayo and Donegal, with the winner of that game moving into first, and the loser missing out on the league final. (A draw would be enough for Donegal, but not enough for Mayo.)

Kerry’s fate (again, if they win) would then depend on the result in the Tyrone v Dublin game. If Dublin win, they will advance to the league final. If Dublin draw, they will advance to the league final. But if Dublin lose, they will be passed out by Kerry, and Jack O’Connor’s men will sneak into the Croke Park decider via the side entrance.

That would be a remarkable turn of events considering the team’s spotty form up to this point, but the main priority will simply be to win and ensure survival. Anything on top of that would be a hard-earned bonus.

Tyrone v Dublin will be shown on TG4 with all other Division 1 and Division 2 games available live on the TG4 YouTube channel.

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Spa GAA Club unveil hi-tech solar panels

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2 days ago

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22 March 2025

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This week has seen Spa GAA swap their traditional blue and gold colours to go green, all for the sake of climate change and the environment.

In partnership with solar energy specialist REC Ireland they have just installed a 28.5 kW Solar PV system at their club grounds in Tullig.

The system, comprising 60 PV panels and supported by 10 kW battery storage, is mounted on the south-facing roof of their multi-purpose sports hall. It represents a state-of-the-art installation and it comes on foot of the club being one of the first GAA club recipients of Kerry County Council’s Climate Action Grant Scheme, launched in 2024.

“This is a hugely positive initiative in terms of reducing our on-site carbon footprint, promoting renewable energy and reducing our dependency on oil and gas,” club chairman Tadhg Hickey said.

In a further sign of Spa’s commitment to the green agenda, the club have recently been shortlisted as the only GAA club in Kerry in the Shared Island Sports Club Electrical Vehicle charging scheme, under which funding is provided to install a network of publicly accessible chargers for communities through local sports clubs.

Along with ramping up public EV charging facilities in local communities, the scheme offers significant potential for clubs to generate income, and is another example of the positive contribution of sports clubs in their locality.

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