Championship

Tribute to Moss Keane and the Black and Amber County Final

October 12th, 2010
by Weeshie Fogarty

The phone call came from a friend in Dublin, "Moss Keane is dead". I like thousands of people near and far were shocked to hear the sad news last week. Moss was only sixty two years old, far too young to die, and while it was known he was battling cancer the news of his passing came as a huge shock. Moss Keane was a special person. There was and never will be another Kerryman like him. He was different in a beautiful way to any human being I have ever met. To spend time in his company was a satisfying and rich experience and while it was seldom we met if I was ever at an event or a launch where he attended I always made it my business to make him off and just say hello because time in the company of Moss Keane would leave you feeling much better in yourself. He was a giant of a man, six foot five and tipping twenty stone at his fittest.  The year was 1969; I stood in the canal goal in Croke Park, the Kerry juniors and Wicklow in the Home All Ireland final. Moss was full back, towering above me blocking out the late Autumn sun, I felt safe and protected. We had roomed together in Barry's hotel the previous night. We chatted and talked about Kerry our clubs and even touched on the religious side of life.

Five minutes into the game a long high ball dropped slowly under the cross bar, I collected the pig skin and moved side ways to clear and the next thing I knew two Wicklow men, McCarthy and Wall met me head on and drove me ball and all well behind the end line. Following the fifty (it's a 45 now) which went wide. Moss turned to me, apologized at not keeping his man at bay. It was a different world around the square back then. "It won't happen again" he promised and then he turned to the Wicklow captain. Towering over his opponent Moss dug the heel of his boot into the Croke Park turf, marked out a kind of a line and growled at the Wicklow captain. "If you come inside that line during the rest of the game our developing friend ship is well and truly finished". Wicklow won the game and in his superb book with Billy Keane he speaks about the notoriety of being on a losing team in a final against a so called weaker county. In 2005 he travelled from Dublin to join me on Terrace Talk to discuss his book and afterwards before he left on his return journey we sat and talked about a great variety of subjects, sporting and otherwise.  He was in my opinion a shy person behind it all and one of my favourite people. Courteous and kind he had a wonderful sense of humor. A legend in his sport he loved Kerry and while Moss has woven his wonderful unique personality into the fabric of our nation which he represented so magnificently on fifty one occasions he will never be replaced. His death has left a huge void in the lives of all who knew him and of course no more so than his wife Anne and daughters Sara and Ann Maria.

It makes for a nice change to have an all club Kerry county final next Sunday, not that I have anything against divisional teams. In fact I am and always was a strong advocate of divisional sides in our county championship and I firmly believe the great success Kerry has enjoy down the decades has been in many ways a direct result of  players achieving greatness. This in my view is because their divisional teams have participated in the latter stages of many championships thus giving those players the experience, training and coaching and exposure they would never receive at club level. However that is a story for another day and all eyes will now be on "Kerrys little All ireland" as Dr Jim Brosnan once referred our county final to. It promises to be a fascinating colorful and emotional affair as two of the county's top clubs face each other. If is as good as last Sundays hurling county final then we are in for a real treat. Lixnaw and Ballyduff served up as great an exhibition of Kerry hurling as I have ever seen and well done to both clubs for an enthralling hour in Austin Stack Park.

As usual both sides will play down their chances but whatever way you look at it Dr Crokes will enter the contest as favourites. While they made heavy weather at the end of beating South Kerry in the semi final nevertheless the fact that they have eventually got the better of that star studded team from the south will give them massive confidence to go on and complete the job. And I know from my friends in the Crokes that another incentive driving them on is the fact that next year they will be celebrating the 125th anniversary of their club and what more fitting way to mark the occasion than be in a position to win a second club All Ireland title.  Of course Austin Stacks are also a club with a rich and glorious history and whatever way you look at it this fact will have a big bearing on the final result. Both clubs are born winners; they have been very impressive on their march to this final, however injuries have blighted the prospects of both. Kieran o Leary is a huge loss to Crokes and now we know that Daniel Bohane who would I presume have been marking Colm Cooper is definitely out. So who can mark Gooch, that will be the main problem on the agenda for the Stacks mentors. Pa McCarthy and Denis Costello are tight close effective defenders and indeed who ever is assigned the job of marking the Croke man will have to sacrifice every other aspect of his game in an effort to curtail one of that great corner forwards of our generation. 

We are also told that Graham o Connell is injured and will not play for Stacks. This might be the deciding facture that will swing the result towards the "lake side boys". Mickey Collins, Dara Long and Tj Hogan are fast with great penetration and can kick points from any angle however while Crokes have Cooper Stacks have Kieran Donaghy and here is the man that might have the greatest bearing of all on this intriguing final. The Rockies have reached this stage without relying too much on Star and it has been obvious that their game plan has not to shower every ball into him. Their scoring has been well spread. Now however I believe with game the being played in Tralee it will be a little bit less difficult to get more ball into Donaghy. If he gets twice as much ball as he has got in the two previous games in the championship then he is capable of causing havoc. Michael Moloney is a very effective full back; he will be tested to the limit next Sunday. Ambrose o Donovan and Johnny Buckley facing William Kirby and Barry Shanahan in the middle of the field will break even I believe. Crokes have been there or there about for the past decade, they are riding high in division one, I don't think they will let this one slip. I hope we don't have "a basketball style referee" and see a free flowing game. It could be a cracker like the hurling final. Crokes greater experience to shade it.



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