Friendlies 2026 - Kerry

[legendz]

Pre-season kicks off on Tuesday January 6th, with a trip to face National League side Killarney Celtic in Celtic Park. Becoming something of an annual fixture.

[culloty82]

I presume Halwax and Connor will be rotated between the posts during pre-season, although Foley may well start in Killarney next week. At least when the majority of business was done before Christmas, the line-ups should be relatively familiar compared to previous pre-seasons, though there'll doubtless still be the traditional "Trialist 1", "Trialist 2", et cetera in the mix as well!

[Martinho II]

Pre-season kicks off on Tuesday January 6th, with a trip to face National League side Killarney Celtic in Celtic Park. Becoming something of an annual fixture.

is there any rivalry between the two clubs legendz?

[culloty82]

By all accounts, even though it's a charity game, the tackles were fairly "robust", to put it mildly, last season, with Matt Keane, Graham O'Reilly and Steven McCarthy all wanting to prove a point against their former club, but a number of Kerry players and coaches have come through the Celtic ranks, and Celtic themselves said in a recent interview that their sole focus will be on the National League, with the First Division not a consideration in the foreseeable future, given their current resources.

[Zico]

Wasn’t aware that Celtics intentions were very much focused towards national league and not looking further towards first division down the line. To be fair to them, you have to respect that.
It’s just a pity Munster football was not better structured that has kind of forced them (and Villa) into this situation. If you put the top junior clubs and Munster senior league clubs in one league you would have a serious top division that would generate a lot of interest too. And could feed a good pyramid down to the district leagues in the province also which would allow ambitious clubs flourish as well as everyone finding their level…. Wishful thinking I guess..

[legendz]

Hard to see Kerry, Limerick or Clare clubs linking in with the so-called Munster Senior League. A conundrum to be solved at some stage.

[culloty82]

5-2 to Kerry tonight, with Brosnan, McGrath, Rob Keane, Palmer and Okwute all on the mark - granted, it may only be Killarney Celtic, but the number of goals bodes well for further games. Seems most of the new signings are being rested for the rest of pre-season.

[Zico]

McGrath and Okwute were not listed on squad per FAI connect. They had 7 trialists starting and 2 on the bench, but presumably not accurate then??

[culloty82]

For the most part, the squad numbers seem to correspond to last year's, which would make 28 Brookwell, but then Okwute's down as 29, and he was 11 last season, so who knows?

[dansultheman]

You couldn’t really judge much in last nights game. A mix of 20’s & some first team players. No Kelliher, Cian Murphy, Hakkinen, Cantwell, Borden, Matt Connor, Okuwute played the last 25 mins. It was great to see the 20’s players involved, I thought Shane Stack and Rob Keane were very good.

I was asking about the Trialists who was playing Left Back, Keegan was his name, from Florida, has Irish roots and was an All American. He did fairly well and looks like he has a serious long throw.

Looking forward to the friendly game next week (Treaty & Cobh Wanderers) to see the introduction of the clubs signings!

[culloty82]

Truffled out some stats on him - two goals and five assistants in 17 games is some going for a defender!

https://goargos.com/sports/mens-soccer/roster/keegan-lynch/8261

[legendz]

Other friendlies confirmed on social media.

Tuesday Jan 13, 19:30 - Treaty away in Ballingarry AFC.
Tuesday Jan 20, 14:00 - Waterford away in Villa FC.
Wednesday Feb 04, 14:00 - Cork City away in Bishopstown.

The weekend of Jan 31/Feb 01 potentially for an MSC quarter final.

[listowelceltic]

Is the Cobh Wanderers game on the main pitch or has the surface being ripped up?

[culloty82]

Kerry's Eye were implying last week that it would be the main pitch, when the first home League game isn't until the 20th, they must be confident that all the work (pitch and floodlights) can be finished in a month.

[Zico]

If they haven’t started work on the pitch yet then wait for the announcement of fixture reversal of first 2 home games in the next week or so….: based on other clubs who seem to start work on their surfaces a lot earlier than we are e.g. Dundalk (started early Dec and already reversing their first home fixture):