Na Gaeil go for glory in Kerry Senior Football Club Championship

By John Harrington

The biggest day yet in the history of the youngest GAA club in Kerry comes on Saturday when Na Gaeil play Rathmore in the Kerry Petroleum Senior Football Club Championship semi-finals.

Founded in 1979, this is the first time that Na Gaeil have made it to the penultimate stage of the senior club championship and reaching the final would be a major milestone for a club that has really grown in stature in recent years.

For much of their existence they’ve been commonly regarded as the minnow of the Tralee GAA scene compared to more storied clubs like Austin Stacks, Kerins O’Rahillys, and John Mitchels, but that’s no longer the case.

Winning the Kerry Premier Junior Championship in 2019 was the big breakthrough and their upward trajectory was further fuelled when they followed it up with Munster and All-Ireland honours.

The Kerry Intermediate championship was annexed in 2021, and for the past three years Na Gaeil have more than held their own in the club and county senior championships.

Their rise is a fitting reward for the initiative shown to first establish the club 46 years ago and the hard work undertaken since to build it up.

In the best traditions of the GAA, it was a very much a grassroots project that was inspired by the success of football teams from Oakpark on the north side of Tralee in the 1970s in the Community Games.

Local adults felt it would be good for children of the area and community spirit if a fourth Tralee GAA club could be set up for that part of the town, and so Na Gaeil was born.

“I guess it was felt there was a gap in this northern part of the town,” says current Na Gaeil club chairperson, Conor Kavanagh.

“In the centre you had two big clubs in Kerins O'Rahillys, Austin Stacks, John Mitchels, but there was certainly an opportunity in this side of town and it grew out of kids football and community games and all of that sort of stuff.

“We're very fortunate that we did and I guess it's been a success story, not without its ups and downs but we certainly have a thriving club now and please God the results will continue to come.

“We've a great underage section. Helen Tansley is the current chairperson of our Bord na nÓg and does a great job. I'd guess we have up to 400 kids involved in the club at various ages and grades.

“That's a great launchpad for any club for the future. A lot of our current intercounty players would have come through that underage system and fought their way up through the divisions to achieve success in the higher divisions of Bord na nÓg level.

“Thankfully we have a lot of county representatives now who are setting a great example for our kids currently in our underage set-up.”

The club has worked hard to nurture strong links with local schools like Scoil Mhic Easmainn Gaelscoil and Mercy Secondary School, Mounthawk, whose rise as a football force in recent years has mirrored Na Gaeil’s.

The prominence of county players like Diarmuid O’Connor, Jack Barry, Stefan Okunbor, and Damien Bourke has also made the club a more attractive proposition for young players who might otherwise have gravitated towards the other clubs in Tralee.

“The immediacy of success is what has an impact with the younger kids,” says O’Connor.

“They don't know any of the history but they would certainly know what clubs the Kerry players play with and that always has an impact, but it's pretty much in the here and now as opposed to past success.

“Having players on the Kerry panel inspires the younger kids and attracts them to Na Gaeil over some of the other clubs.”

Na Gaeil have also been helped by being able to call on a number of players from the hurling stronghold of Abbeydorney in the north of the county.

Abbeydorney are a hurling only club, so anyone from the village who fancies playing a bit of football can do so with Na Gaeil because both clubs are part of the St. Brendan’s divisional board.

This mutually beneficial arrangement has seen fine hurlers like Kerry captain Oisin Maunsell and James O’Connor make a big impact on the football field with Na Gaeil.

The only downside with having a big contingent of Kerry county men and dual players on their panel is that Na Gaeil struggle to play with a full hand for the first half of the season, which is why they play in Division 3 of the League.

“It's a completely different vibe when you have all of those lads coming back into the team” says Kavanagh.

“One of our coaches described it to me like a divisional team you're trying to weld these players together in a small period of time.

“We've always felt that if we can get our full team on the pitch and have them all available and fit that we'd be a very decent side and a match for anyone on our day.

“The year before last we beat the Crokes in the championship and they've been right up there in finals and winning county leagues, et cetera, for many years, but we beat them in our own ground two years ago.

“Likewise, this year we beat our neighbours Austin Stacks who had won Division 1 of the League. That was a huge win for us and we had to back it up then against Templenoe and back it up against Dingle.”

Those three wins have brought Na Gaeil to Saturday’s semi-final against Rathmore where Kavanagh is expecting another tough encounter.

“Rathmore will be very tough opponents, they're a very good side,” he says. “They have a number of inter-county players at various levels. Paul Murphy has been brilliant for them, Shane Ryan has been brilliant for them.

“He's the one guy who's a real exponent of the fly goalie and is very effective out the field as well.

“There's no easy matches at this point of the championship but we feel like on our day we can be a match for anyone.”