‘The record this year will show you that we’re the best club team in Kerry,’ says Liam O’Connor

Tuesday afternoon and Liam O’Connor’s car is at the garage. They’ve assured him it will be ready to roll at 2pm and, seeing as how that’s 30 minutes away and he’s hanging around, the opportunity to chat about Dingle’s journey to a first-ever fixture in the Munster club SFC is welcomed.

But where to begin? The Dingle selector could take the full half hour explaining the curiosities of Kerry club football and why his club, beaten in the semi-finals of the county championship, will represent the Kingdom this weekend.

The short version is that they’re doing so as winners of the separate club championship. They beat Kenmare in the final of that competition in September and with two divisional teams, East Kerry and Mid-Kerry, contesting the county championship final, and seeing as how divisional teams can’t compete in the province, the club championship winners were sent forth.

Principally because they’re from Kerry, and partly because they’ve got so many recognised current and former county men, like Paul Geaney, Barry Dan O’Sullivan and freshly minted All-Star Tom O’Sullivan, Dingle have been installed as favourites. Not just to beat Clonmel Commercials in Thurles this Sunday mind you, but to win the Munster title outright.

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It is quite the leap when you consider that the relatively star-studded Clonmel, the back-to-back Tipperary champions, were provincial finalists as recently as 2019 and were winners in 2015.

Hand on heart, O’Connor isn’t sure what to expect. It won’t just be the club’s first game at this level but their first time even staying together overnight before a match.

“The record this year will show you that we’re the best club team in Kerry,” said O’Connor, part of Dingle manager Padraig Corcoran’s back room. “But what that means going into a Munster campaign for us I’m not really sure. If it was a club like Dr Crokes or Austin Stacks who had been there and done that, it would be different, but we’re completely inexperienced in provincial football and we don’t know what to expect. I’m not plámasing you at all, we really won’t know until the ball is thrown in whether the lads are ready for it or not.”

The previous time that Dingle won the club championship, in 2015, a divisional team, South Kerry, also won the county championship. Dingle, controversially, didn’t get the nod for provincial duty though as Killarney Legion, a club team, were runners up in the county final so were chosen instead.

But there’s more to that tale. Because the 2015 county final initially ended in a draw on a mid-November Saturday and a Kerry representative was needed the next weekend in Munster, Legion played against Nemo Rangers, lost the game and then lost the county final replay after that.

The current discussion in Kerry, ignited by Kerins O’Rahillys after their recent relegation to the intermediate ranks, is whether the number of teams in the county championship, just eight, should be increased. O’Rahillys are after all the reigning Munster club champions.

“I think there’s going to be discussion on championship structures in Kerry throughout the rest of the winter,” predicted O’Connor. “Especially when we saw the result of the intermediate final the other day (Milltown-Castlemaine beat Fossa). Mid-Kerry, who have been East Kerry’s closest challengers in the last few years, are now going to be weaker with the absence of Milltown-Castlemaine players who have gone senior and East Kerry are going to be their usual selves because they’ll keep the Fossa lads and obviously the Cliffords. You wouldn’t get any sort of price at this stage on East Kerry winning next year’s county championship.”

Dingle lost their county semi-final to Mid-Kerry over four weeks ago now. They were right in it at the beginning of the second half but then went over 30 minutes without a score and were wiped out.

“A couple of decisions went against us and I think adrenaline just suddenly turned to lactic acid and 10 games in 11 weeks caught up with us,” said O’Connor. “From there to the finish of that game it was just bad decision making and we were a beaten docket at that stage.”

He’s noticed the enthusiasm return in recent weeks, helped by last weekend’s 2-14 to 0-9 West Kerry senior championship final defeat of Annascaul. The only slight negative is that AFL player Mark O’Connor, present for the club final win and the county championship, is back in Australia.

“There was never a chance that he was going to be allowed to stay on to compete in a Munster campaign, we knew that would be the case so that was fine,” said O’Connor.