Middling. Not big, not tiny
How many clubs are in Kerry?
Tyrone and Kerry have probably similar GAA playing populations per sq mile so the only reason playing numbers would be that Kerry have double the no of clubs?
As I’ve said Kerry do very well from their town clubs.
There are around 64 GAA clubs in Kerry, most of which outside of the Town clubs are absolutely tiny.
Amalgamations at underage level are the norm which again doesn’t help to build rivalries.
Everything in Kerry is weighted towards the Kerry Senior Football team.
He got another one even more badly wrong, some hurling shower or other.
When I last passed through Spaw I remarked to the wife that it was the home of Mike “Stam” O’Donoghue
Why would they be so small? I think Tyrone has 48 football clubs per 100-110k population GAA population. Kerry has 63 (are they football only or are some of them just hurling clubs)
Tyrone has a similar population to Kerry, in GAA terms a smaller population.
Strabane - 13k population (1 club)
Dungannon 14k population (1 club)
Cookstown 12k population (1 club)
Omagh 20k population (1 club)
So 4 clubs in a population of ~60k
Tralee and Killarney probably have about 6/7 clubs in a population of ~40k?
So proportiantely the rural clubs in Kerry should have bigger catchment populations that the ones in Tyrone.
Clubs like Augher, Clogher, Eskra, Derrytresk, Kileeshil etc are absolutely tiny in Tyrone with very small picks.
There’s a few sleeping giants there like Fintona and Moortown operating in the lower leagues that could really excel at senior if they get their acts together.
There’s pockets of Kerry, north Kerry really, which are hurling hotbeds. I’m not sure if they even field football teams, but if they do I’d hazard a guess they are junior at best.
The small ball is king. They’d burn you if you said to them that Gaelic football was the only sport they played in the county.
Have you ever been in Kerry?
Rural depopulation in Kerry.
Colaiste na Sceilge which once had almost 1,000 students is now around 400 and that covers half of South Kerry.
They sound like alright sorts to me
It’s a genuine question.
The numbers don’t make sense when I use Tyrone to compare and contrast, they have similar geographical and population constraints except Tyrone draws from a smaller pool.
You’d get on great with them.
It’s a county of 150k, 110k of which would be outside Tralee/Killarney.
@kerry1891 would know more but I’m not sure if the likes of Kilmoyley have any interest in the big ball.
Obviously Galvin was Lixnaw but they’d be predominantly a hurling area too I think.
Similar geographical contsraints? Much of South and West Kerry is covered in mountains, sparsely populated, is cut off from other parts of the county and many clubs have barely contributed anything to the county team or have climbed above Junior B level. I’d imagine there is a much larger holiday home population in Kerry also and temporary dwellers.
That point hardly matters; how many of these are male/female, what is the average age of rural dwellers etc? A quick look at the latest census shows that Kerry is one of the oldest counties in terms of average age in both Rural and Urban areas.
There is, but North Kerry is a slight misnomer for them. Most of them are slightly south of North.
Both Ardfert and Ballyduff have football teams. Ardfert won two all ireland football intermediates recently enough and were decent for a while. Both sides would have had Kerry underage players over the years, though I can’t recall either having had senior players.
Lixnaw do not have a football team but play with Finuge and are basically sister clubs. Finuge of course had Galvin and Fitzmaurice somewhat recently.
Causeway and Kilmoyley don’t field football teams but both have had Kerry minor footballers in the last decade who played with Ardfert.
Ballyheigue, Crotta/Kilflynn and Abbeydorney don’t field any football teams.
So while they definitely are hurling hotbeds, they are not completely useless to Kerry football.
There is a real dead spot between the Kerry border and the hurling pocket though.
Asdee
Ballylongford
Beale
Brosna
Moyvane
Tarbert
Ballydonoghue
Shannon Rangers
Knocknagoshel
Castleisland
Senans
Duagh
Off the top of my head Jason Foley is the current county only player from all of them clubs in the North Kerry Board, and it’s been an ongoing thing for a while now. It’s weird because they love their football there. North Kerry football championship is famously fiercely contested and sought after.
Hard for them to drive it on though, there’s nothing there. I know a few lads from Ballylongford and none of them live there anymore. No chance of a job there.
At least in South Kerry they’ve the tourists to milk.
Knockanure is another in North Kerry.
I think they just make bales of hay on the pitch there during the summer these days.
I left out a few because I wasn’t sure if they even field a team anymore. Clounmacken another. Not sure if they exist these days
There’s a census to back that up. I hardly think it fluctuates hugely does it from the norm?
You ever been up in North Tyrone mate, you ever seen the Sperrins? You ever been through the miles of forrest and mountains there. None of these things are in anwyay uniqe to Kerry. Donegal, Mayo, Tyrone, Galway etc all have these exact same issues which can impact small clubs. It’s not a unique situation I’m just curious as to what the justification is for their system.
In a pure numbers case, it doesn’t make much sense.
Castleisland Desmonds are former All-Ireland senior club champions, they won it in 1985 and were beaten finalists in 1986 (that 1986 final was one of my earliest games to attend in Croke Park).
I can’t remember them producing an inter-county senior footballer (of note at least) since Charlie Neligan?
There’s an unbelievable snobbery from the Killarney crowd to the North Kerry crowd.
Very much a ‘you’re not really from Kerry’ attitude.