Dr. Crokes 'Band of Brothers' keep hurling flame lit in Killarney

By John Harrington

What sort of person do you have to be to spend decades trying to grow hurling in the ultimate football town of Killarney?

“Half-tapped!”, says Gene O’Doherty, the Dr. Crokes Hurling Committee Chairperson, with a laugh.

He and others like Niall Keogh and Timmy Hourigan have all spent north of 30 years coaching, cajoling, and begging for the sake of the small ball in Killarney and a sense of humour is required along with equal parts determination.

“We're like that show the Band of Brothers, that's us,” says O’Doherty. “You've to cut your hands and share blood and all of that! And once you're in you can't get out!”

It’s thanks to the efforts of that Band of Brothers that hurling is still going strong in Dr. Crokes even if it’s a much harder sell in a county where football is a quasi-religion.

Kerry Intermediate hurling champions for the fourth time in their history this year, Dr. Crokes will contest the AIB GAA Junior Club Hurling Championship semi-final against Caherline of Limerick on Saturday.

Days like their extra-time Intermediate Final win over St. Brendan’s are certainly a great reward for hurling zealots like O’Doherty who have been toiling at the rock-face in the club for decades, but you wouldn’t want to be relying on them for validation.

You need to appreciate the little wins too in order to source the energy required to spread the hurling gospel year after year.

“When you see a small lad being able to rise the ball and strike it, it's just something great to see,” says O’Doherty.

“I'm coaching about 30 years every Saturday morning down in the Academy, myself and another fella by the name of Niall Keogh.

“No matter what else might be on, come Saturday morning at nine o'clock I'm gone out the gap and I won't be back until quarter past 11.

“That's what all my Saturday mornings have been like for the last 30 years unless there’s something very important on!”

O’Doherty grew up in cottage so close to Fitzgerald Stadium that on Munster Football Final day he could smell the Deep Heat.

Gaelic football was his first sport but then when he went to Killarney Vocational School he was introduced to hurling by a teacher from Kilgarvan and fell in love with the game.

The deal was fully sealed in 1987 when he watched the epic Munster Hurling Final replay between Tipperary and Cork in Fitzgerald Stadium

“Myself and my pals used to get in over the wall,” says O’Doherty. “We had all the secrets for that place. The rope is still hanging over the wall! It used be great craic.

“That match was an unreal game, just deadly. I was even out on the pitch afterwards.”

There has long been a tradition of hurling in Killarney even it has tended to flicker more than flame over the years.

O’Doherty and others like him have done untold work to keep the game alive, but always with the tacit understanding it will forever be a niche rather than mainstream pursuit for the young people of the town.

“We had a couple of fellas down along the years that played with Kerry and they were locals,” says O’Doherty.

“Killarney won a senior and three minors in a row at one stage so there's always been a bit of tradition.

“But once the football gets good again, the hurling can be forgotten and we have to think of something else to bring ourselves back again.

“We're always trying. Our Chairperson is supportive and anything we want we get, but down here football is everything.

“We go to the schools and we do this and we do that but once the Kerry footballers win the All-Ireland then the hurleys are thrown away and they all catch a football again.

“Crokes won the county football final again this year, they’re in the semi-final of the O’Donoghue Cup, and they’ll soon start their Munster campaign, so what the kids see all the time is football.

“In contrast to that, the hurlers haven't played a competitive match in over three months. The kids don't see hurling enough in the field whereas ever day you go up there's a football.

“Once a football competition is over down here another one starts. You'd hardly be at home when you get a text! It's all football!”

The job of keeping the game alive in the town has been helped over the years by the recruitment of blow-ins from more traditional hurling counties.

They’ve gotten some good ones, but none perhaps as influential as Timmy Hourigan from Lattin-Cullen in Tipperary who has given great service to the club in a variety of roles over the years.

“I couldn't tell you how much work for hurling in Dr. Crokes Timmy has done,” says O’Doherty.

“He's all the time at it. The man is just crazy about hurling. He'd be stuck in with juveniles, seniors, he's coached teams for Kerry.

“We don’t have anyone from Tipperary hurling for us now but we’ve had some good ones. Cormac Bonnar won an Intermediate championship with us. He had some hand on him. Anyone with a bit of cuteness, that's all you want.

“Johnny Dunphy was another good Tipp lad we had. He was from Clonmel and came to work in the Bank here but moved to Cork after he got a promotion. I said to him, 'Johnny, why did you have to be so clever?'

“We have a couple of nice players from other counties now. We have a hurley-maker now, James Murphy, who's a brother of Eoin Murphy the Kilkenny goalkeeper.

“He's moved to Killarney and is making all the hurleys for us as well as playing for the team. He's a nice little player, he has the touches.”

The Dr. Crokes team that plays Caherline in Saturday’s Munster semi-final is mainly made up of home-grown players who would have been introduced to the game in the Academy by O’Doherty.

It includes dual stars like Tom Doyle, Adam Byrne, and Aaron Murphy who featured for the footballers in their Kerry SFC championship success but who are equally committed to the small ball code.

It’s a great achievement by the club to feature in provincial championships in both codes in the same year.

“You're just happy for the boys to have an opportunity like this,” says O’Doherty.

“I don't know how many U20s we have on the team but it's great for them. One or two of them don't play football at all, they're just out and out hurlers, so it's great to see them get that bit of success.

“We've brought through a couple of good young fellas. Hopefully if we could get another couple every year it would keep us going.”

O’Doherty and his Band of Brothers will stay going anyway. They love the game of hurling and it’s one they want to share.

“You just want the children to have that opportunity to play the game for the fun of playing the game,” he says.

“All kids want is that opportunity. They'd play anything if you give them the opportunity, be it tiddly winks or hurling.

“Some of them really enjoy it, they just tear into it. There's nothing better than seeing them do that.

“You'd wonder what you're doing sometimes and other times you'd really enjoy it. The good outweighs the bad. It is what it is. You accept what it is and don't fight it.

“We'll keep trying away anyway. Like goalies in hurling, you have to be half-tapped. We'll be down on two knees on Saturday morning again anyway!”