Kerry eircom League team

I regularily look at the Kerry GAA website and they are quite worried about the prospect of a Kerry team playing eL soccer. There is a serious soccer movement going on down there at the mo, and a lot of the kids that go over to England, Scotland etc for trials are getting a lot of exposure.

Here are some of the posts:

"Heard this rumour myself. Kerry team are meant to replace Kildare county. I would love it to happen. do not think it would affect football in the county. as a supporter I often go to cork City matches and this has never stopped me attending all kerry games.. I never feel a sense of belonging at Turners Cross, and it might help boost some much needed county pride."

"Gaelic football in the town of Tralee has definately been effected by soccer. The Kingdom Boys and Brendans Park underage soccer teams, with very professional setups, has definately taken a significant number of players away from football.
Also the fact that the CEO of the FAI has Tralee connections means that money will be pumped into soccer in the area for the forseeable future"

"Yeah,
John Delaney is on record as saying he would love to see eircom league soccer in tralee. I think it is one of the things he wants to do during his term in office."

"yeah, but if it does happen, i think soccer in Tralee\Kerry will grow and this will affect the young fellas playing, There's so much soccer on tv nowadays they must dream of being the next Duffer or Keano, a lot more appealing than playing for Kerry you'd have to agree. At the moment, we've lost only one player to professionalism, Tadhg Kennelly and we could badly do with him, Mick Galwey is possibly another who could have worn the Kerry jersey more if it wasn't for professionalism. Usually, the best soccer players will be good football players aswell, Kevin Moran being the best example "

"Tralee already suffers bigtime from soccer. It would prob mean disaster for the bigger towns in the county "

Obviously they weren't the only posts but I think the GAA have a right to be worried. The schoolboy clubs do have excellent set-ups down there and an eL club at any level can only help to heighten an already large interest.

I did hear the other day, my uncle is a ref in the league, that it is a club who want to go out on their own. Rumoured to be Lisselton Rovers or Killarney Athletic.

Heard lots of talk about this but i think it all seems to be stemming from foot.ie.
Has there been any articles at all on this

It all sounds good to be honest .... I know the GAA would have concerns but it would also mean that maybe more and more lads will be involved in one sport or another, which is a good thing anyone will agree.
Normally, you'll play what you like best and that would normally best what you are best at .... i mean, you wont see streams of young players all changing to football over gaeilc. Maybe a few, but as a few have said already ... it is happening anyway, football is losing players to gaelic at an unreal rate.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Kingdom

"Yeah,
John Delaney is on record as saying he would love to see eircom league soccer in tralee. I think it is one of the things he wants to do during his term in office."

---

Yeah he'll be a great help to a Kerry team just like he is with Waterford United.:rolleyes:

It's very easy to over-estimate the impact an EL team will have upon soccer in an area.

If an area already has a very strong youth structure for soccer, I really don't see how the appearance of a senior club will dramatically change an existing dynamic- i.e. the growth of soccer in non-traditional heartlands anyway.

An EL team in Kerry would help raise the profile of the sport a bit - but the fact is that it's the Keane's, Duffs, Givens, Beckhams, Gerards, Hartsons etc of the world that these kids are and would lookg to anyway - not EL players. Soccer is growing anyway in Kerry - both in terms of playing and watching. An EL team isn't going to put that change onto a dramatically new trajectory.

Take Longford and Kildare as examples. Did their appearance into senior football in 1985 and 2002 respectively change anythign much in those counties ? I doubt they did - particularly not at the beginning. GAA is still the biggest show in Co Longford - even if the team is muck ! Kerry are much stronger in GAA, and it'll be difficult for some years for any new EL team there to emulate the relative success of Longford since they came in 20 years ago.

In summary - it's very easy for those not in-the-know to worry that the EL rolling into town is going to change everything utterly. It won't. And the changes they fear are happening anyway.

GAA will never be taken over in Kerry. I was born in Tralee and lived there until I was 19 and then moved on. Football is huge, well, was huge when I was there so I can only imagine what its like now.

The one thing that really gave football the biggest spark was when Tralee Dynamos U18 team, who I was playing with at the time, won the FAI Youth Cup beating Stella Maris, with Richie Baker, in the final. There was 3,000 at that game and it was amazing.

After that, football clubs would be popping up all over the county.

Now the thing is that GAA is still huge and will always be, but football can be up there with it as Kerry don't have any other sport, like hurling for example, to take other people away.

A kerry team would be great in the EL and they would not embaress themselves, I'm sure of that as I know the quality of players down there first hand.

I hope Kerry do join the Eircom League ,There could be alot of hidden talent in that part of Ireland ,And it would be good to see them shine .I went to see Cork city play Tralee Dynomos nearly 2 years ago and there werent bad at all .

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ccfcgirl

There could be alot of hidden talent in that part of Ireland.

---

Stephen O'Mahony (Limerick, Ireland U-19)
James Sugrue (Limerick)
Dave Conway (Limerick, Limerick's Young Player of the Year 2004)
Timmy Lynch (Limerick)
Shane Guthrie (Cork City, Kilkenny City)
David Henessey (Waterford United, Cobh Ramblers)
Chris Kearns (St.Patrick's Athletic, Limerick)

And that's just in the last 2-3 years and off the top of my head. All plucked from the Kerry U-21 team.

And also... Drogman still lives! :eek:

This stat is almost 5 years old but at the time there were more people playing football than gaelic in Kerry. This was actually discussed at a Kerry county board GAA meeting.

An EL league team would probably have a better chance than in Kildare although remember we have 2 potential vacancies so nobody has to be kicked out.

Tullamore and Westport are 2 other strong football towns which are possibilities.

However we will be faced with the same problems. The vast majority of people who follow/play football in this country support the premiership (or Celtic) and the national team and I can't see Kerry being that different.

A Kerry team would also have to do a lot more travelling. I'd certainly love to see it and beats local derbies v Cobh.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Drogman.

GAA will never be taken over in Kerry. I was born in Tralee and lived there until I was 19 and then moved on. Football is huge, well, was huge when I was there so I can only imagine what its like now.

The one thing that really gave football the biggest spark was when Tralee Dynamos U18 team, who I was playing with at the time, won the FAI Youth Cup beating Stella Maris, with Richie Baker, in the final. There was 3,000 at that game and it was amazing.

After that, football clubs would be popping up all over the county.

Now the thing is that GAA is still huge and will always be, but football can be up there with it as Kerry don't have any other sport, like hurling for example, to take other people away.

A kerry team would be great in the EL and they would not embaress themselves, I'm sure of that as I know the quality of players down there first hand.

---

First things first Drogman, I never said that it would take over GAA. That would a ludicrous statement to make.

I was simply saying that the GAA would have stiffer competition for players coming into their late teens if there was an eircom league team playing in Kerry. Remember its all well and good having good players playing both codes up to 16/17/18 but currently the GAA can exert a lot of pressure, without really having to commit to anything. With an eL team the chances of a youngster being signed is more of an incentive to a child continuing on as opposed to hoping at getting a trial across the water.

We have all seen how successful young eircom League players regularily make it into the International squads (i mean U-21's by this) and in extreme cases, like Kevin Doyle, this can lead to bigger things.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Cop on

:eek: Kerry have a very good hurling team ! (OK, so they'll not beat cork/cats/banner/déise anytime soon, but they're in div. 2 )

---

True, but there are only a hnadful of senior clubs in the County

I hope it happens - my wife is from Tralee, so I can coincide the obligatory trips to the in-laws with a United away game

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Risteard

Heard lots of talk about this but i think it all seems to be stemming from foot.ie.
Has there been any articles at all on this

---

Well considering some of the stories that go around in the press these days they'll probably combine the three threads on this topic that are going at the moment on foot, and make a sensational scoop!:rolleyes:
At present I don't know how close any KDL team are at the moment to getting their set up right to join the league, but I do know of one club that are very confident of being ready for next year. I just wonder where all this leaves the Genesis report which called for a reduction in the number of league teams instead of an increase. I know that theoretically 2 teams could be left out at the end of the season but I don't think anyone wants that to happen. If more than one club were to join then it would be good to have someone from counties not already represented in the eL (like Kerry) such as Mayo (Castlebar), Offaly (Tullamore) and Sligo/Leitrim.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Kerry Blue

If more than one club were to join then it would be good to have someone from counties not already represented in the eL (like Kerry) such as Mayo (Castlebar), Offaly (Tullamore) and Sligo/Leitrim.

---

Err - ever heard of Sligo Rovers....?

And Leitrim is the smallest County in the country population wise. More people live on the Waterside of Derry (i.e. the quiet side) than the whole of the county....! Hardly fertile ground for a senior football team.....

I can remember someone posting a map with all the population centres on here before, cant remember where is was now though. Would be interesting to see where the gaps are !!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by dcfcsteve

Err - ever heard of Sligo Rovers....?

And Leitrim is the smallest County in the country population wise. More people live on the Waterside of Derry (i.e. the quiet side) than the whole of the county....! Hardly fertile ground for a senior football team.....

---

I meant to say Roscommon/Leitrim. It's just that Sligo always seems to go with Leitrim. I know that Leitrim has a tiny population, I was just making the point that it would be nice if we got a couple of extra west of Ireland teams in the League if more were added. Besides some of the Dublin teams aren't exactly drawing the fans in in their thousands, despite the huge population.

Roscommon/Leitrim is just not fertile ground for a senior football team.

They're both small county's population-wise, there's no tradition of football in either county, and their population centres are also very, very small (Leitrim = Carrick ; North Roscommon = Boyle; South Roscommon = Roscommon town).

And anyways - Athlone is technically in Roscommon anyway, so they already have a team :D And Sligo Rovers is very close to North Roscommon and Leitrim.

Westport, Tralee, Killarney, Mullingar - all would be much stronger locations for a new EL team, and only Mullingar is in the 'congested' (team's-wise) Eastern part of the country.