The Kerry hurlers competing in Munster is a “no brainer” for selector Pat Bennett, as they get the rare opportunity to meet opposition from the province tomorrow night.
Kerry have been beaten in the last three finals of the Joe McDonagh Cup though their status should they emerge from the second tier competition has been meddled with repeatedly over the years.
At different stages they would have had to beat the fifth placed team in Munster had they won the Joe McDonagh in order to earn promotion or else, bizarrely, enter the Leinster Championship.
But it’s now much more straightforward - should they make it fourth time lucky this year they will simply be added to the Munster Championship, which would then contain six counties.
Bennett said: “To me it is a no brainer. In fairness to the Munster Council, they asked if we won a Joe McDonagh would we come into Munster. Kerry is in Munster. Why would you want to go and play with Leinster? I didn’t get that.
“We always wanted to play in Munster. How are you going to get to that level? By going up and playing them. You are going to get your trimmings but you have to play them.
“We played Wexford in the Liam MacCarthy last year, the first time in 17 years they played. The boys absolutely loved it. We got bet but the boys loved it. These are the teams we want to play, 4,500 below in Austin Stacks.
“That is how you are going to do it and build it. These guys are passionate. They work as hard as any of the other intercounty teams, they train as hard. They do everything. It is just to get over the line, that is what they have to do.”
Tomorrow night in Austin Stack Park they get the chance to pit themselves against elite opposition as they face Cork in the Co-Op Superstores Munster League, before playing Limerick on Tuesday week. Last year they scored a notable victory over Tipperary in the competition.
“Great for Kerry to have Cork coming,” Bennett acknowledged. “They will come and they know what happened to Tipp last year.
“It is not about respect or anything like that, all of a sudden they are saying we need to go down there and win this. They are going to come with a decent team to beat us and that is what we want. We want to get the hammerings.
“The Laoises, the Westmeaths, the Antrims, they have all gone up and played in Division One. They have got hammerings, won games, drawn games. We have to do that in Kerry.
“We have to try win our League and get out of there but no one is going to give it to you. Down are working really hard. Kildare are working really hard. Carlow. Name them, there is a puck of a ball between any of them when you play them. You have Offaly, you have Laois. You can’t call it.
“It is hard to get out of but from our point of view we put a lot into the Munster League because we are getting ready for the League whereas the others might take it as it comes, play 30, 35 guys. We are flat out.”
Bennett, who previously worked alongside Davy Fitzgerald in his native Waterford and Wexford, is optimistic as to the prospect of Kerry becoming consistently competitive in Munster in years to come.
He points out how out of a panel of 45 at the moment, about 17 come from outside the traditional hurling heartland of North Kerry and while the senior management team led by former Waterford star Stephen Molumphy has taken an interest in developing the county’s emerging talent.
“If you look at an under-17 footballer in Kerry and an under-17 hurler, totally different,”Bennett noted. “Because the strength and conditioning is there in football and not in hurling.
“We are bringing that into the equation. As well as now, we are looking five years down the line, guys that are good hurlers, and they are good hurlers. Very impressive.
“The minors, their stickwork is brilliant. Physically they are just like 14-year-olds compared to the other counties. That is the level they have to get up.
“In fairness, the county board are looking at the structures. They are putting in the structures for them to get better and better.
“I keep telling the boys, I am not going to put in the effort if they don’t want to compete. Why bother, it is a total waste of time. If you don’t want to compete, why be there?”
He added: “They knew after last year what we would demand. If you don’t commit, you are gone. These guys come in and commit.
“Last year, we were trying to get a panel and I rang 10 guys and not one of them came in. This year I rang 22 and 21 came in. That is the difference. That is what you have to maintain.”
