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Top plays bottom as Kerry welcome league leaders Galway to Tralee

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LOI First Division

Kerry FC v Galway United

Tonight at 7.45pm

Mounthawk Park

A formidable task awaits league newcomers Kerry FC tonight (Friday) as they welcome top-of-the-table Galway United to Tralee.

Galway have been on a rampage since the start of the season, winning all nine of their games while scoring 29 goals and conceding just three in the process.

Their biggest victory so far came against Kerry in the reverse fixture when John Caulfield’s side racked up a record-breaking nine goals, with the men from the Kingdom only managing one in reply.

Kerry will need to keep a close eye on Ed McCarthy; the former Treaty player bagged a first-half hat-trick in that 9-1 drubbing.

The match will be shown live on LOI TV.

Billy Dennehy’s charges are still looking for that elusive first win but they can take heart from last weekend’s narrow 1-0 defeat to second place Waterford. The visitors showed resilience at the Waterford Regional Sports Centre as their hosts created a string of first-half chances, but they were eventually undone by a Ronan Coughlan goal in the 70th minute.

This result means that the Tralee-based club drew one and lost eight of their first round of fixtures. They will be hoping for a better return from the second round, which gets underway tonight against Galway.

Despite the scoreline in the previous encounter, the match is expected to be a sell-out or very close to one.

Kerry’s average attendance in the first round was 1,194 - the fifth highest average in the division after Waterford (2,238), Galway (2,064), Finn Harps (1,575) and Cobh Ramblers (1,394).

The official capacity at Mounthawk Park is 1,200.

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Kerry’s All-Ireland heroes launch new football camp for girls

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Legendary Kerry ladies’ player Louise Ní Mhuircheartaigh will be inspiring the next generation of superstars at the new Laochra football camp, which takes place in Killarney in August.

Aimed at girls aged 12 to 16, the camp is being run by three leaders who were central to Kerry’s magnificent All-Ireland triumph in 2024: Darragh Long (joint manager), Declan Quill (joint manager) and Anna Maria O’Donoghue (selector).

Camp ambassador Louise will be on hand to offer guidance in a coaching capacity, as will some members of the current Kerry team.

“We want you to train with your heroes so you can be the next hero,” explains Darragh Long.

“We feel very strongly about ladies’ football. It has been brilliant to myself and Declan over the last five or six years, and it has been brilliant to Anna Maria and Louise over their full careers, so we just see it as an opportunity to give something back to a sport that gave an awful lot to us.

“We’re aiming at an age group of 12 to 16, girls who will hopefully be starting on their intercounty journey. We will be able to give them a skillset they will be able to use as their steps to success. To try and be the next Louise or the next Síofra O’Shea.

“We have three workshops planned. One with Eric McDonnell, who was our strength and conditioning coach when we won the All-Ireland. One with Michelle O’Connor, an All-Ireland winning performance coach. And one with Claire O’Sullivan, our nutritionist when we won the All-Ireland.

“It’s all about giving the girls the skills and the bits and pieces they’ll need if they want to make it to the top. We really think we can give them a good grounding. We’ll also be providing a huge amount of coaching throughout the week.”

Many teenage girls give up on sport around the ages of 15 or 16. Long and his fellow camp founders are hopeful that attending Laochra might encourage girls to stick with it that bit longer.

“We would see it as a huge success if 10, 15, or 20 of the girls who come to the camp continue to play football after the camp because they got a bit of a buzz or a bit of energy from us during the week.”

The Laochra camp will run from August 12-15 at Dr Crokes GAA grounds in Killarney. You can register here.

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St Paul’s sign 6ft American guard Burnham

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Having really found their feet in the Women’s Super League in the second half of the season, culminating in a drive to the final, Utility Trust St Paul’s have signalled their intent to push on for the 2025/26 season by announcing the signing of American guard Maisie Burnham.

Burnham (24) comes to Killarney following an honour-laden time in the Liberty High School where she also excelled at volleyball. She went to the Eastern Washington University where she led the team in scoring in the 2020/21 season with over 14 points per game – the highest PPG ever for an EWU freshman.

She moved onto the University of Portland where she really found her feet with the team and as her time progressed with the Pilots her stats went north, peaking in the 2024/2025 season when she averaged 16.3 points per game.

Maisie, a guard and standing at 6ft, is a native of Spangle City in Washington and the club will welcome her to the Kingdom in plenty of time ahead of the new season.

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