THERE MAY HAVE been little novelty for Paul Kerrigan in this Munster club final appearance, a last run out of the season deep in winter has been a typical close to his football year.
Yesterday was his sixth outing in a provincial decider, a fifth triumph achieved on the back of an authoritative display by Nemo Rangers.
And yet while it was an occasion he has grown accustomed to, the 2019 edition still stood out as an afternoon of personal significance at the Fraher Field in Dungarvan.
Lining out for the 2pm throw-in took him to the 100 mark in senior championship games played in his club’s black and green colours. He had to wait a while to ink his name on the scoresheet, fisting over a 53rd minute point after a frustrating game in front of the posts.
But that score took his tally to 300 points (23-231) in the time frame since his senior club debut back in 2005. A couple of nice milestones to savour then after this win over Clonmel Commercials, indebted to diligent record keeping in the club for alerting him to those statistics.
“There’s a fella there Mick Morgan from Nemo, he’s unbelievable at keeping those archives. He told me I’m only the third fella to do it (reach 100 games with Nemo). I think my Dad (Jimmy Kerrigan) has 101 so I’ll catch him the next day and work on Dinny (Allen) then after that.
“I haven’t got injured too much in my career. Any time you get to put on the jersey especially in these type of games, Munster championship and All-Ireland series, you’re delighted. It’s a nice honour.
“We were probably running away with it towards the end, probably should have had couple more points on board, myself being very much guilty of that. But look we’re just delighted to add another Munster.”
.@AlanCroninjnr will play his 50th Championship game tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/ftSym7h93N
— NemoRangersGAA (@NemoRangersGAA) November 30, 2019
The latest provincial accolade comes on the back of playing his part in an 8th senior success in Cork on the October Bank Holiday weekend.
“Fellas are very conscious of racking up their own amounts. I think the record is nine or something, you’d like to get to nine and then you’d like to get to ten and push on. We wanted to get back, especially after a poor year last year with Nemo. We’ve answered it the right way, winning the county and winning another good final today.”
The only recent blemish on Nemo’s Munster final record occurred in 2015. They were not consumed here by thoughts of revenge for the manner in which Clonmel Commercials had inflicted defeat four years ago but afterwards there was still contentment at reversing that result.
“There’s been a bit of turnover,” outlines Kerrigan.
“A lot of these lads, the mid 20s lads, 2015 would have been their first county and that was their abiding memory of Munster and then a lot of them came to the fore against Crokes two years ago.
“Look they’re really looking forward to pushing on now. They’re conscious when you come out of the county, you want to do well in Munster. It (the 2015 defeat) wasn’t a big thing to be honest with you but it was there.”
Next up they’ll renew acquaintances with another familiar foe as Corofin lie in wait.
“These lads, they’re very good, football always comes first. They know how to socialise to be fair to them but it’s not at the sake of their football. Fellas will enjoy it and then it’s back hard next weekend.
“Coming into the Clonmel game, we had something similar (in atoning for a loss) and we were obviously beaten comprehensively by Corofin. We’ll be massive underdogs. We’ve a month to prepare. As usual we’ll always give it a good rattle.”
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