“JESUS, IF YOU told soccer fans down here that Kerry would have a team playing Shamrock Rovers in the semi-final of the cup a couple of years ago, they wouldn’t have believed you,” Kerry Gaelic football legend Darran O’Sullivan says.
“Kerry has been crying out for a soccer club for years. So the fact that we have one now, we’re all keen to get behind it.”
O’Sullivan is just one of the Kingdom’s sporting greats backing Kerry FC to make history this weekend by upsetting champions-elect Rovers in the FAI Cup semi-final in Tallaght.
“Obviously, we’re renowned for being a GAA county,” he adds, “but there’s a lot of diehard soccer heads in Kerry and Tralee, especially.
“There are a lot of really good soccer guys here, and a lot of us GAA lads were soccer heads before we really focused on Gaelic football. We’d have grown up watching and playing soccer, whether it be with Killarney, Tralee, or whoever.”
O’Sullivan modestly skips over the fact that he grew up playing underage football in England for Queens Park Rangers. His connections to Kerry FC are strong too, having lined up alongside current Kerry FC CEO Billy Dennehy in a Munster minor football final win over Cork 21 years ago.
Kerry FC's Billy Dennehy during his time as the club's manager. Laszlo Geczo / INPHO
Laszlo Geczo / INPHO / INPHO
“Reaching the FAI Cup semi-final in such a short period of time is down to the hard work of a number of people, but the likes of Billy Dennehy and Stephen Conway [Kerry FC chief operating officer], their work and passion for Kerry and Kerry soccer is huge,” O’Sullivan says.
“Those lads who were there from the start and set up the club, I’d have known them very well from a young age. They’re really good guys.
“There are a lot of people buying into their team. There’s a lot of goodwill. We can see the effort that’s going in and the improvements that are happening every year. Also, like everything, once you get a couple of good results, you get more and more people looking to get involved, jumping on that bandwagon.”
O’Sullivan is not the only Kerryman to have played for QPR, as current All-Ireland champion Paul Murphy spent his youth lining out with their namesake Quarry Park Rangers in the village of Gneevgullia.
Having claimed his third Sam Maguire this summer, Murphy, and Kerry Gaelic footballers in general, have spent most of their days as heavy favourites. There have been few, if any, days when they have been outsiders to the extent that Kerry will be in Tallaght.
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Kerry’s Paul Murphy lifts The Sam Maguire Cup. Ryan Byrne / INPHO
Ryan Byrne / INPHO / INPHO
“Sport is full of examples where favourites are perhaps just a little bit off their best, and the momentum of the game can get away from them,” Murphy says.
“You only have to look at Europe in the Ryder Cup last weekend. The momentum completely shifted, and it’s very hard to get that back. If you start a game flat and the other team is really at it, then funny things can happen, which nearly happened last Sunday in the golf.”
“With the difference in budgets, you’re almost leaning into David versus Goliath stuff. Rovers are the home team. They’re the Premier Division team. They’re playing in Europe.
Everyone is expecting them to win it. They have everything to lose.
O’Sullivan adds: “The Rovers lads have been playing games like this for a long time, and they’re experienced.
“But mentally, they could be looking down at Kerry, thinking it’s a handy game, and that’s the time when you can get caught. At the end of the day, they’re human beings.
“They probably see the difference in quality and experience of the two sides. They might think ‘this will be easy now’ or ‘this is a nice, handy game’. That’s just human nature.
“We’ve seen it in all the leagues across Europe that we watch. Nobody’s unbeatable. Anyone can beat anyone on their day. If Kerry come with that same energy and focus and concentration from the quarter-final, which is going to be a huge ask because Shamrock Rovers are a much higher level of opposition, then you never know. The crowd can play a big part, and we’re all hoping for that giant-killing game, but I think we’ll enjoy it either way.”
Ironically, Rovers have just come off the back of a European encounter where the roles were reversed, having travelled to Prague as 11/1 outsiders for their opening Conference League proper game of the season, with the home side comfortably winning 4-1.
Shamrock Rovers players applaud their supporters after defeat in Prague. Ryan Byrne / INPHO
Ryan Byrne / INPHO / INPHO
“You’ll have fellas who might be a bit tired, they might have a few knocks. Mentally as well, they might be drained after the game during the week,” O’Sullivan says.
“They are all different bits and pieces that the Kerry management will be looking at. They’ll obviously be concentrating on themselves first and foremost, but at the back of their mind, they must be thinking, ‘These lads are just after a midweek game and a bit of travel, and hopefully they’re underestimating what we’re going to bring. And then who knows?
Kerry have to make sure that they just hold up their end of the bargain and hope that Shamrock Rovers potentially do take their eye off the ball and are looking at bigger challenges that might lie ahead. That can happen.
“We’ve seen that in all codes, even across the water with bigger clubs like Liverpool and Arsenal. They all get caught out and we’re hoping that Shamrock Rovers will take Kerry for granted.”
Earlier this week, Kerry FC announced that all four of the club’s free supporters buses to Tallaght had been fully booked out. This is not a once-off deed for a big occasion, as the club has been covering the cost of coach travel for Kingdom supporters on the road all season.
“That isn’t a small gesture. That’s a big gesture for any club to do,” O’Sullivan says.
“It’s things like that which show the club has an appreciation for the support that they’re getting. Any small or big gestures, like free buses, go a long way in enticing people to get on the road and support the team.
Kerry has great support; there are a lot of die-hard supporters who go to every game and travel the length and breadth of the country. GAA has always been the number one sport in Kerry, but we didn’t have a soccer club to follow!
The buzz surrounding Kerry’s magical cup run has also seeped into the household of Kingdom legend Kieran Donaghy.
Kieran Donaghy before the 2015 All-Ireland Senior Championship Semi-Final. Cathal Noonan / INPHO
Cathal Noonan / INPHO / INPHO
“My daughter has got the bug for it,” he tells The 42.
“I don’t make it to the games every week, but I might be going every week from now because my daughter’s first-ever game was the 4-3 comeback in the quarter-final against Sligo Rovers. She’s obsessed. She wants to go playing soccer now. That was such a big result, and you could see the kids were electric after it. If you can get kids off of screens and bring them to support their local clubs, you’re helping and inspiring them for the future.”
We have no relationship with the footballers across the water, whereas the Kerry boys are walking around the town. Your kids can meet them after the game, say hello and take photos.
Staring down the barrel at a 3-0 defeat and impending cup elimination, not many in Mounthawk Park would have backed Kerry to pull off one of the greatest shocks in FAI Cup history, but Donaghy did.
“I was actually interviewed at the game when it was 3-0. I remember them saying, ‘Look, it’s been a great game and a great run.’
“I said, ‘It’s not over yet, there’s half an hour to go!”
“They were doing some sort of local documentary, and I made the point to them that in sport, when you get to that stage of knockout football, there’s no such thing as a moral victory. You have to fight on and keep scrapping. You have to hope something’s going to bounce your way, and you could see once Kerry got the first goal back that, hold on, there was something there, and you could just see the players grow in front of you.
Donaghy, like O’Sullivan, has previously played alongside Billy Dennehy, while he also shares multiple connections to Kerry FC star Ronan Teahan. He soldiered alongside Ronan’s father, John, on the basketball court for the guts of a decade, with the pair winning National Cups and National Leagues together. Teahan’s mother, Marie Fitzgerald, was twice a football All-Star in the 1990s, while his uncle, Maurice, is widely regarded as one of the best to ever do it.
Kerry FC's Ronan Teahan and Charlie Lyons of the Cobh Ramblers. Laszlo Geczo / INPHO
Laszlo Geczo / INPHO / INPHO
The growth of the League of Ireland in general is also of interest to Donaghy. In his role with PST Sport, he has overseen astroturf pitch installation deals with Shamrock Rovers, Shelbourne and Bray Wanderers.
But this weekend, only Kerry Football Club matters.
“Rovers had a tough night in Prague, and obviously they would have been tired getting back into Dublin on Friday. Now they have to go back out on Sunday night, ” Donaghy says.
“That’s not easy when there’s a fresh bunch of Kerry men coming up to the capital and they’re taking a bit of a crowd up with them.”
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'Kerry has been crying out for a soccer club for years': GAA greats hoping for FAI Cup giantkilling
“JESUS, IF YOU told soccer fans down here that Kerry would have a team playing Shamrock Rovers in the semi-final of the cup a couple of years ago, they wouldn’t have believed you,” Kerry Gaelic football legend Darran O’Sullivan says.
“Kerry has been crying out for a soccer club for years. So the fact that we have one now, we’re all keen to get behind it.”
O’Sullivan is just one of the Kingdom’s sporting greats backing Kerry FC to make history this weekend by upsetting champions-elect Rovers in the FAI Cup semi-final in Tallaght.
“Obviously, we’re renowned for being a GAA county,” he adds, “but there’s a lot of diehard soccer heads in Kerry and Tralee, especially.
“There are a lot of really good soccer guys here, and a lot of us GAA lads were soccer heads before we really focused on Gaelic football. We’d have grown up watching and playing soccer, whether it be with Killarney, Tralee, or whoever.”
O’Sullivan modestly skips over the fact that he grew up playing underage football in England for Queens Park Rangers. His connections to Kerry FC are strong too, having lined up alongside current Kerry FC CEO Billy Dennehy in a Munster minor football final win over Cork 21 years ago.
“Reaching the FAI Cup semi-final in such a short period of time is down to the hard work of a number of people, but the likes of Billy Dennehy and Stephen Conway [Kerry FC chief operating officer], their work and passion for Kerry and Kerry soccer is huge,” O’Sullivan says.
“Those lads who were there from the start and set up the club, I’d have known them very well from a young age. They’re really good guys.
“There are a lot of people buying into their team. There’s a lot of goodwill. We can see the effort that’s going in and the improvements that are happening every year. Also, like everything, once you get a couple of good results, you get more and more people looking to get involved, jumping on that bandwagon.”
O’Sullivan is not the only Kerryman to have played for QPR, as current All-Ireland champion Paul Murphy spent his youth lining out with their namesake Quarry Park Rangers in the village of Gneevgullia.
Having claimed his third Sam Maguire this summer, Murphy, and Kerry Gaelic footballers in general, have spent most of their days as heavy favourites. There have been few, if any, days when they have been outsiders to the extent that Kerry will be in Tallaght.
“Sport is full of examples where favourites are perhaps just a little bit off their best, and the momentum of the game can get away from them,” Murphy says.
“You only have to look at Europe in the Ryder Cup last weekend. The momentum completely shifted, and it’s very hard to get that back. If you start a game flat and the other team is really at it, then funny things can happen, which nearly happened last Sunday in the golf.”
“With the difference in budgets, you’re almost leaning into David versus Goliath stuff. Rovers are the home team. They’re the Premier Division team. They’re playing in Europe.
O’Sullivan adds: “The Rovers lads have been playing games like this for a long time, and they’re experienced.
“But mentally, they could be looking down at Kerry, thinking it’s a handy game, and that’s the time when you can get caught. At the end of the day, they’re human beings.
“They probably see the difference in quality and experience of the two sides. They might think ‘this will be easy now’ or ‘this is a nice, handy game’. That’s just human nature.
“We’ve seen it in all the leagues across Europe that we watch. Nobody’s unbeatable. Anyone can beat anyone on their day. If Kerry come with that same energy and focus and concentration from the quarter-final, which is going to be a huge ask because Shamrock Rovers are a much higher level of opposition, then you never know. The crowd can play a big part, and we’re all hoping for that giant-killing game, but I think we’ll enjoy it either way.”
Ironically, Rovers have just come off the back of a European encounter where the roles were reversed, having travelled to Prague as 11/1 outsiders for their opening Conference League proper game of the season, with the home side comfortably winning 4-1.
“You’ll have fellas who might be a bit tired, they might have a few knocks. Mentally as well, they might be drained after the game during the week,” O’Sullivan says.
“They are all different bits and pieces that the Kerry management will be looking at. They’ll obviously be concentrating on themselves first and foremost, but at the back of their mind, they must be thinking, ‘These lads are just after a midweek game and a bit of travel, and hopefully they’re underestimating what we’re going to bring. And then who knows?
“We’ve seen that in all codes, even across the water with bigger clubs like Liverpool and Arsenal. They all get caught out and we’re hoping that Shamrock Rovers will take Kerry for granted.”
Earlier this week, Kerry FC announced that all four of the club’s free supporters buses to Tallaght had been fully booked out. This is not a once-off deed for a big occasion, as the club has been covering the cost of coach travel for Kingdom supporters on the road all season.
“That isn’t a small gesture. That’s a big gesture for any club to do,” O’Sullivan says.
“It’s things like that which show the club has an appreciation for the support that they’re getting. Any small or big gestures, like free buses, go a long way in enticing people to get on the road and support the team.
The buzz surrounding Kerry’s magical cup run has also seeped into the household of Kingdom legend Kieran Donaghy.
“My daughter has got the bug for it,” he tells The 42.
“I don’t make it to the games every week, but I might be going every week from now because my daughter’s first-ever game was the 4-3 comeback in the quarter-final against Sligo Rovers. She’s obsessed. She wants to go playing soccer now. That was such a big result, and you could see the kids were electric after it. If you can get kids off of screens and bring them to support their local clubs, you’re helping and inspiring them for the future.”
Staring down the barrel at a 3-0 defeat and impending cup elimination, not many in Mounthawk Park would have backed Kerry to pull off one of the greatest shocks in FAI Cup history, but Donaghy did.
“I was actually interviewed at the game when it was 3-0. I remember them saying, ‘Look, it’s been a great game and a great run.’
“I said, ‘It’s not over yet, there’s half an hour to go!”
“They were doing some sort of local documentary, and I made the point to them that in sport, when you get to that stage of knockout football, there’s no such thing as a moral victory. You have to fight on and keep scrapping. You have to hope something’s going to bounce your way, and you could see once Kerry got the first goal back that, hold on, there was something there, and you could just see the players grow in front of you.
Donaghy, like O’Sullivan, has previously played alongside Billy Dennehy, while he also shares multiple connections to Kerry FC star Ronan Teahan. He soldiered alongside Ronan’s father, John, on the basketball court for the guts of a decade, with the pair winning National Cups and National Leagues together. Teahan’s mother, Marie Fitzgerald, was twice a football All-Star in the 1990s, while his uncle, Maurice, is widely regarded as one of the best to ever do it.
The growth of the League of Ireland in general is also of interest to Donaghy. In his role with PST Sport, he has overseen astroturf pitch installation deals with Shamrock Rovers, Shelbourne and Bray Wanderers.
But this weekend, only Kerry Football Club matters.
“Rovers had a tough night in Prague, and obviously they would have been tired getting back into Dublin on Friday. Now they have to go back out on Sunday night, ” Donaghy says.
“That’s not easy when there’s a fresh bunch of Kerry men coming up to the capital and they’re taking a bit of a crowd up with them.”
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Darran O'Sullivan GAA Kerry kerry fc Kerry GAA Kieran Donaghy Paul Murphy Soccer Underdogs