by Eamonn Fitzgerald

It is still only January but what an antidote to the seasonally wild, wet, and windy weather it is for supporters of Rathmore and Fossa to be heading off to Croke Park.

The Devil’s Ladder was cleared on Saturday last. The pinnacle lies ahead. Will it be scaled successfully, and will major silverware be brought home so early in the year?

Both clubs will be grateful to Seán Kelly, the former GAA president who extended the opportunity for even the smallest GAA club in the country to win an All-Ireland title and to play those finals in Croke Park.

Both finals will go ahead at HQ on Sunday, commencing with the junior final at 1.30pm followed intermediate final at 3.30pm. TG4 will carry both games live .

FOSSA v STEWARTSTOWN HARPS

Fossa came through with flying colours at Portlaoise last weekend. This venue has been a graveyard for so many Kerry teams but after an uncertain start when Castletown could have gone five points clear, Fossa asserted supremacy. Once Cian O’Shea finished the ball to the net after 19 minutes and Emmett scored a second one, Castletown struggled badly. They were 2-7 to 0-6 in arrears at half-time.

The result was never in doubt two minutes after the restart when Eoin Talbot scored their third goal. Passage to the final was secured.

The Clifford brothers were as consistently brilliant as ever. Paudie’s endless energy setting up attacks from centre back was not wasted up front by younger brother David who scored seven points.

Fossa manager Adrian Sheehan will be delighted with the form of Matt Rennie, the O’Sheas and goalkeeper Shane O’Sullivan who is getting good cover from the defence.

Will Fossa be All-Ireland Junior club champions on Sunday next? I expect so. Not just as easy as that, of course. All-Ireland finals are won on the day by the team that delivers its best display when it really matters.

The Clifford brothers are so far ahead of any other players at this level that the Tyrone side will have to do something special to cause an upset.

However, Kerry teams never get it easy against Tyrone opposition. Eamonn Fitzmaurice will remember the pain of losing to this opposition when he was a player with Finuge. On Sunday next, he will be on the management team with Fossa.

A lot will depend on the referee. If he ignores blatant pulling, dragging, body checking and much worse than that, then it will take the extra class of the Cliffords to steer the boat to the safety of the prized harbour.

Stewartstown Harps had a real battle and had to go to extra time to beat Galway champions Clifden 1-14 to 1-9 after extra time at Dr Hyde Park. They are strongly Catholic and Nationalist, tough and resilient. They will not bend their knee easily and will relish the challenge of a Kerry club team.

I believe that Croke Park will bring out the best in the Cliffords, and class will tell once overconfidence is banished. It is not a foregone conclusion, but I expect Fossa to be crowned All-Ireland Junior Club champions.

RATHMORE v GALBALLY PEARSES

As expected, Rathmore eased into the Intermediate final by defeating St Mogue’s Fethard of Wexford 2-16 to 1-10.

With a score like that one would expect Chrissy Spiers, Rathmore’s top scorer in this campaign, to end with 10 points or so. Not so on this occasion as the Ryan brothers delivered 1-8 between them.

Kerry All-Star goalkeeper Shane Ryan, playing at corner forward, grabbed the goal initiative in the 12th minute and the Sliabh Luachra men went on a scoring spree of 2-5. The second goal was scored by the ever-consistent poacher, John Moynihan.

The Wexford side did engineer somewhat of a rally, before half-time scoring 1-4, but no doubt Denis Moynihan used the half-time talk to get them back on track. Rathmore were so much on top in the second half that they did not have to depend on Kenneth O’Keeffe to make a great save at the finish. The veteran goalkeeper is still playing so well, releasing Shane Ryan to add potency to their attack.

What a day it will be for the three Ryan brothers in Croke Park, Shane, Mark, and Cathal. Will Rathmore bring home the All-Ireland cup?

They have plenty of good players in all lines of the field, but their full-back Andrew Moynihan may not start. He pulled a hamstring in training during Christmas and hamstrings are notoriously slow to heal fully. He has had a great season and will be a big loss if unable to start.

Their ability to score goals was the difference between Dunmore McHales of Galway and Galbally last weekend. The former lost 1-9 to 4-4 after conceding three of those goals in the first half. Galbally do not have any county player and their best-known member is Paddy Tally. The former Tyrone player and much-travelled coach was a key man in Jack O’Connor’s management team in 2022.

Rathmore have skated through all opposition this year once they got over An Ghaeltacht in the Kerry final. They need to control play from the start on Sunday, keep the defence tight and avoid conceding goals. O’Keefe is playing so well in goals and Kerry star Paul Murphy will marshal their defence.

I expect brothers Mark and Cathal Ryan to win midfield and with Shane Ryan, Brian Friel, and ace free-taker Spiers to point the way, they have the winning formula. Just like Fossa, they need to assert supremacy and impose their dominance on the scoreboard. They must avoid the expected Tyrone ambush.

THE FOSSA NUGGET

Best of luck to Fossa and Rathmore, who will be looking for support for their fund-raising efforts to defray the very significant cost involved in an All-Ireland Club campaign.

Contributions from the Munster Council and the Central Council are miserable. Surely, the GAA will rethink that financial support this year. After all, David Clifford has been such a box office draw wherever he played, attracting so many extra hundreds of supporters. When the final whistle is blown where do the hordes of supporters and neutrals rush, but to be near the Footballer of the Year, David Clifford. The Nugget from Fossa.

But even the goose that lays the golden egg needs to be nourished.

The two Tyrone clubs’ main fundraisers for the finals are sponsorship for the full panel of players at €100 a pop, and the response has been magnificent with great help from the Tyrone diaspora, particularly in the USA.

MORAN SHOWS CLASS

Kilmacud Crokes won their Senior Club semi-final but just by one goal. Kerins O’Rahillys did so well to take them to the last seconds in the five minutes of overtime.

Who else but David Moran, my Man of the Match, to win that that late ball and punch for an equaliser. The keeper was beaten but a defender swept the ball away to safety.

Well played Kerins O’Rahillys. It was fitting that Moran, Kerry’s best club midfielder that I have seen for the past number of years, almost sent the game into extra time. Yes, he has been that consistent and Jack O’Connor will be looking for a replacement if David calls it a day at intercounty level. He has been magnificent.

Diarmuid O’Connor, Jack Barry and others will compete for the midfield spots for Jack’s team in 2023 but none are in Moran’s class. Are there more potential Kerry midfielders around the county?

PAUDIE PALMER RIP

Too young to die. Too full of life, energy, enthusiasm and Kerry roguery. Paudie Palmer RIP was laid to rest at Innishannon on Wednesday last following an untimely and heart-breaking hit-and-run road accident.

I have known Paudie for many years and our lives and paths crossed so often, especially in relation to GAA games at individual colleges and intercounty levels. He spent most of his teaching life at St Brogan’s College, Bandon, where he was a very popular teacher of science and was very involved with Cork VEC football teams.

When we met on opposite sides in the Kerry colleges and county teams the banter was energising. After his retirement from teaching, he brought the same enthusiasm to his work as a radio commentator with C103. Knowledgeable, effective and articulate, he had a way with words on air and in the printed media with the Echo.

He never forgot where he came from or lost his native endearing Kerry smile, plámás, unfailing good humour, or whatever it took to enliven your day. Paudie was the kind of soul you loved to meet and anywhere there was ball to be kicked, he was there.

Pre-match exchanges were great until he stopped you in full flow. “Yerra, we’ll get back to that and we’ll certainly meet up at the weekend for the next match. Must go now, on the air in 90 seconds. Go on, go on, go on…”

He loved Templenoe and was very proud of the achievements of that team making great strides up through the divisions of the Kerry leagues.  022 could not have been better with so many All-Ireland medals won by club members to add to the collections of the Spillane brothers. Paudie travelled to Tralee on the day prior to his accident to attend the funeral of the great Kerry defender of the 1950s, Mixie Palmer, son of PW, the Sneem native related to Paudie.

From Direendaragh, Blackwater and Templenoe and for most of his life in Cork, he was a wonderful person and he had a great way with people. The airwaves are silent, and we are so glad to have had the opportunities to be with him. He was a tonic to meet. One is grateful for the days you met Palmer; the memories of the grámhar Kerryman adopted by Cork live on.

Well, his journey in this life is over and what a heartbreak that is for his beloved wife Colette and daughters, Claire and Emily. To those closest to him and his huge extended GAA family of friends and listeners, guím solas na bhFlaitheas ar Phaudie agus solas na Síorraiochta ar a chlann.