BRAVO Feale Rangers

John Flaherty

Job done! The summit reached! The invincibles vanquished and the cup safe in Lixnaw in the home of Captain Fantastic, Eamon Fitzmaurice! What a win! What a day to be a North Kerryman and in particular a Feale Rangers man as our team, heroes all, did the seemingly - impossible and against all odds, defeated the red-hot favourites, South Kerry, in the process, putting paid to their bid for four titles in a row and in the longer term, to their dream of equalling the John Mitchell's 5 in a row record. And how much sweeter the victory was because of the way the team was written off as no-hopers, journeymen foot- ballers who did not have the skill of the South Kerry aristo- crats. You insult North Kerry footballers at your peril, however and, while it was not the South Kerry team or their mentors who did it, it was they who felt the backlash as a fired-up Feale Rangers team swarmed all over them in the first half and sub- jected them to a fierce, physical barrage of hard hitting, hard tackling and intense competition for every ball, which allowed them no time to relax or settle on the ball as they had done in other games.

This physicallity was only part of the game plan dreamed up by the management, the others being winning mid-field and testing the South Kerry full back line with high ball, but it was key to disrupting the South Kerry game, as from 2 to 15, all the harrassed and hounded their much vaunted South Kerry opponentsinto subjection, nowhere more so than in the forward line where no South Kerry forward scored from play in the entire game. No team could maintain this intensity for an hour and inevitably, in the second half it dropped and allowed South Kerry to get more into the the game but they could still not get the better of the tigerish, tough Feale Rangers backs who have been a match for all forwards during the year. Like the true champions that they were, South Kerry battled to the end but could not get their noses in front. It must be said that they did not have much luck, striking the upright on a few occasions and missing two kickable frees while Eamonn Fitzmaurice kicked a brilliant point, his side's only second half point to win the game.

There followed scenes of unbridled joy and delight as young and old celebrated a great victory one which delighted me as much as the one I was involved with in 1978 All that remains now is to heartily congratulate all the players who brought this trophy home to North Kerry. They are worthy successors to the great men of 1978 and 1980. A very special word of congratulation to the management of Johnny Mulvihill, Christy Kileen and Jerome Stack. They picked the right team, came up with the right game plan, got their tactics spot on and, despite a very disrupted preparation, sent out a team fired up to play for their lives. The proof of the pudding is in the eating, the proof of the management is in the victory.