![\"AERIAL](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/4782131_10_articleinlinemobile_3237672_1_.jpg\" "\\"AERIAL")
AERIAL COMBAT: Gaeltacht’s Aidan Walsh and Darren Ryan of Fossa contest the kickout in the Kerry IFC final in Tralee. Pic: Brendan Moran\/Sportsfile<\/p>\nKerry All-Ireland winner Brian \u00d3 Beaglaoich has singled out former Cork star Aidan Walsh for his role in securing An Ghaeltacht\u2019s promotion back to senior grade in Kerry <\/p>\n
Walsh played a key and mature role in Sunday\u2019s IFC final win over David Clifford\u2019s Fossa, especially in the second period when the west Kerry side were under the cosh for stages.<\/p>\n
\u00d3 Beaglaoich reckoned it must have been very difficult for Walsh to pull the plug on his Kanturk career and throw his lot in with the Gallarus club, where he now lives with his wife and family.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know Aidan put a serious effort into Kanturk, bringing them to where they are in hurling and football. He has brought massive experience to us, he\u2019s very calm on the ball, he has a serious engine, and he was up and down the field all day for us. In that second half, he won a couple of massive turnovers. Everyone gets on well with him, he\u2019s just a good lad, he\u2019d fit in anywhere,\u201d reckoned Gaeltacht\u2019s All-Star in waiting.<\/p>\n
For \u00d3 Beaglaoich, it\u2019s like so many of his All-Ireland winning Kerry colleagues in terms of powering on to the county championship after an inter-county campaign that began last winter. He will be expected to line up with West Kerry next weekend as the divisional sides open their account.<\/p>\n
\u201cI still feel good, you do when you are winning, but there\u2019s no way I could go all this year and then straight back into pre-season with Kerry – that\u2019s where it doesn\u2019t work. You might be grand for the first few months of 2026 but then you\u2019ll start feeling it when you don\u2019t get any break at all. But for now we will worry about that if or when it comes.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
At the start of this year Gaeltacht were struggling for a manager before Fergal \u00d3 S\u00e9 stepped back into the breach. Bringing Dara \u00d3 Cinn\u00e9ide, Conall O Cruadhlaoich (coach) and P\u00e1draig O Conchuir in alongside him fed the optimism that spread through the Gallarus ranks like a blowtorch.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe tend to make things hard for ourselves, we drew with Desmonds in the first group game, even in the last game in the group we didn\u2019t know whether we were out or through. Then we were five points down with five minutes to go against Gneeveguilla in the quarter final and Cathal (O Beaglaoich) got us over the line.<\/p>\n
AERIAL COMBAT: Gaeltacht’s Aidan Walsh and Darren Ryan of Fossa contest the kickout in the Kerry IFC final in Tralee. Pic: Brendan Moran\/Sportsfile<\/p>\n
\u201cAny game we\u2019ve played it\u2019s been tight but we are battle-hardened. It is a tough fixture list, that\u2019s six weeks in a row and now we have county championship next weekend with West Kerry against South Kerry in Killorglin so it isn\u2019t ideal the way games are coming thick and fast.<\/p>\n
\u201cFergal, Dara, Conall and Padraig are all serious club men. I\u2019m not sure Fergal (older brother of Darragh, Tom\u00e1s and Marc) wanted it either, but once he got in there, he\u2019s some man, he puts everything into it. You would do anything for him, he\u2019s mad for it in a good way, he\u2019s the sort of manager you want to be playing for.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
East Kerry are also in Kerry SFC action on Sunday in Tralee against St Kieran\u2019s but they will do so without the services of Paudie Clifford, who hobbled off in Sunday\u2019s IFC final loss with a leg injury he\u2019s been battling all season. There would have to be a question mark too over David Clifford\u2019s availability, though he may want to play.<\/p>\n
Reflected Fossa coach Jerome Stack: \u201cI\u2019m not saying he is but if I were in Jack O\u2019Connor\u2019s shoes, I\u2019d be delighted the Cliffords are finished with the club championship. But they are just competitive people and they want to play, and especially proud of their own club. This might get them a rest but that was the last thing on their mind. Paudie Clifford was playing on, at best, on one leg and a bit.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n Kerry SFC (divisional round):\u00a0\n <\/p>\n
\n Saturday:\u00a0South Kerry v West Kerry, Killorglin, 4pm; Sunday: St Brendan’s v Mid Kerry, Austin Stack Park, 2pm; St Kieran’s v East Kerry, Austin Stack Park, 4pm<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kerry All-Ireland winner Brian \u00d3 Beaglaoich has singled out former Cork star Aidan Walsh for his role in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23320,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[6937,1964,61,60,112],"class_list":["post-23319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-kerry-gaa","tag-cork-gaa","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23319"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23319\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}