Thriving not just surviving

Kerry hurling: Ian O'Riordanon the passion at play in tomorrow's Lixnaw versus Kilmoyley county final

So they've won their 35th All-Ireland, the first back-to-back titles in 17 years, they've landed all three nominations for player of the year, etc, but there's still some serious business to be decided in Kerry this year.

Tomorrow's county final will feature two clubs built on tradition and pride, two famous faces on the sideline, and a couple of All-Ireland medallists in the mix. It may not match the high stakes of Croke Park last month but for the people involved it counts every bit as much.

This, by the way, is the county hurling final, not football. Despite being the poor relation to football on the intercounty stage hurling is far from impoverished in Kerry - particularly in the north of the county.

Nor is it some mutant of the game, as rumour sometimes has it, where raw skill often takes a back seat to brute force. Tomorrow's final between Kilmoyley and Lixnaw should be high quality all the way. Kilmoyley are coached by former Clare captain and manager Anthony Daly, while Lixnaw are coached by former Limerick player and manager Eamonn Cregan.

"I was genuinely surprised at the quality of their skills, which are very, very good," says Cregan, who joined Lixnaw at the start of the summer, and has helped turn a losing streak in the league into a place in the final. "I've been in awe of some of the top brand of hurlers I've seen here. They take hurling very seriously, as seriously, say, as any club in Kilkenny. And they know their hurling. Sunday will be as competitive as any other county hurling final, I really believe that."

Lixnaw are part of a three-level club; Finuge being their intermediate football division, Feale Rangers, a group team, their senior football division, and Lixnaw the senior hurling division. Among their dual players are Paul Galvin, star of this year's All-Ireland winning football side, and Eamonn Fitzmaurice, who played with the county footballers until last year. Both are involved with Feale Rangers, who are awaiting the county football final on Sunday week.

Galvin, however, is carrying a shoulder injury, and admits he hasn't played a full game of hurling since the 2005 county final, where he helped Lixnaw to a win over Abbeydorney. He was also there in 1999 when Lixnaw won their first county title in 14 years, and Galvin has always rated those two achievements on a par with winning senior All-Ireland football titles with Kerry.

"I played nothing but hurling up to the age of about 14 or 15," says Galvin. "So I suppose naturally, it is my first game. I think Lixnaw are in with a great shout, and if I'm involved great, and can give a hand out even better still, but I have my eye on the following week too, the football final. Feale haven't won that in 26 years."

Kilmoyley are among Kerry hurling's heavyweights, with no football tradition. They've won 20 titles, one less than Ballyduff's record 21, and tomorrow marks their fifth senior final in seven years - having won four in a row from 2001-2004. Their manager during that time was John Meyler, currently with Wexford, and he also spent five years with the Kerry senior team during the 1990s.

"I was lucky to be involved in four county finals in Kerry," says Meyler, "and I can tell you they were so passionate, so colourful, and so fiercely competitive. I reckon the bragging rights in hurling are much bigger than anything in football. Football still dominates, and almost every potential dual player is going to put more emphasis on football . . . where there's the greater potential for success. Take Galvin and Fitzmaurice. They are excellent hurlers, and would be a huge asset to the county team, but unfortunately they don't get to play with the county."

The dual player problem is familiar to most counties, especially when one code holds such sway over the other. Yet Cregan hasn't found it a massive issue in Lixnaw, mainly because the club is in the Kerry hurling heartland: "In all areas of the country you have areas very pro-hurling, where it is the number one game. And the players I'm speaking with are hurling men first. And football second. It's still a difficult balancing act, and we need a good relationship with all the clubs.

"Like any hurling club, one of the problems is fielding 25 quality players. And it's difficult to get a full team together, with three of our players in the Dublin area, another one in Cork. But they're very dedicated, and turned up to the best of their ability. But take a player like Paul Galvin. We thought we'd have him for the week, but then the football semi-final went to a replay, in which he got injured. We didn't have him all summer either, because he was with Kerry. We'd love if he was playing, but I know he would feel a bit guilty about coming on in the final, because he hasn't been there at training. But he loves his hurling."

Rarely has any Kerry footballer doubled as a hurler at senior level. Five-time All-Ireland winner Johnny Culloty, and 1962 All-Ireland winning full back Niall Sheehy, were deft hurlers, and part of Kerry's 1961 All-Ireland junior winning team. They were the exceptions. Although Kerry won their first and only All-Ireland hurling title in 1891 (12 years before they won a football title) they've rarely even threatened to break through on the senior stage since.

Meyler, in fact, was involved during Kerry's most recent promising period in hurling, when they shocked Waterford in the 1993 Munster championship, soon followed by a win over newly-crowned All-Ireland champions Clare. "When we beat Waterford in 1993 that was a huge result," says Meyler. "Then in 1995 we got promoted to Division One, and in our first match beat Clare, who had just won the All-Ireland. The problem was we lost our next four matches, and were relegated.

"It wasn't for a lack of trying. There was always great support and backing from the county board, when Seán Kelly was chairman, and Tony O'Keeffe as secretary. Part of the problem is hurling is only played in a small pocket of the county. We're talking eight or nine senior clubs, all focused around one small area, with maybe the odd few players in Tralee or Killarney. But I remember talking with Seán Kelly about this at the time, that every effort should be made to keep Kerry in Division One. That's still the best way to promote hurling, even if the team is being beaten.

"Take the Rugby World Cup for comparison, and I think it's great to see smaller countries competing alongside New Zealand. Even if they are getting well beaten it's promoting the game in the country, and it's the same with hurling. That's why I'd love to see the championship opened, even say every four years, to all teams, just to give everyone the chance to compete against the best."

Meyler wonders, though, if Kerry hurling can ever close the gap on the leading counties: "The reality is if you went into, say, the Gaeltacht around Ventry, where the Ó Sé brothers are from, and tried to promote hurling there, chances are you'd be shot. But then I just heard Dr Crokes have beaten Kilmoyley at under-10 level. That is something of a breakthrough. But it's about maintaining that at under-14 and under-16 and so on up."

Cregan is equally cautious about predicting if or when Kerry hurling could be competitive at national level: "It's all about the underage work, really. I don't know whether a separate hurling board would make a difference. There was a separate football board in Limerick, and while it was there football was on the up. The good hurlers are very good, no doubt about that. But competing with the best, that's a tough job for most counties right now."