Billy Lee: Strength of intermediate ranks shows big guns can never take anything for granted
During Dan Football Aib Casey, Pic: Final Kilshannig Austin Stacks O'sullivan, Their By Linehan Championship Is Tackled Semi Intermediate Club Diarmuid Munster Dylan
Austin Stacks, Crossmolina Deel Rovers and Ballinderry have all been All-Ireland senior club football champions in their illustrious histories.
It’s now 48 years since the Kerry side had their ultimate glory day, with the Mayo and Derry representatives becoming kingpins in 2001 and 2002 respectively.
The fact that they are three of the four clubs in Saturday afternoon’s intermediate championship semi-finals is fascinating. On one hand, it shows the calibre of the teams this season in the second tier but, for Stacks manager Billy Lee, it’s more about how easily you can fall off your perch.
“What it tells you is that the dynamics within counties can change quite quickly, and you can never under-estimate the challenge that lies ahead for you. If you’re a senior club, and you take your eyes off the ball, you could be in trouble,” he said.
“That’s happened to a number of famed clubs, in hurling and football, in the last number of years throughout the country. I suppose populations are changing, where people are residing, so you can never take anything for granted any longer. That’s what I’m seeing out of it.”
At the second time of asking, the 2021 Kingdom senior champions navigated a passage out of the intermediate ranks within such a competitive county.
A comfortable run through Munster has now led to Saturday’s clash with Ballinderry in Parnell Park (2pm).
“At this point in time, we just have one or two little things (injuries) to sort out, but I think we’re all good to go. Ballinderry have good pedigree, a club that were a senior club for many years, they’re one of the first clubs that spring to mind when you mention teams in Derry,” added the Newcastle West man.
“Their roll of honour shows that they’ve a great tradition, so they’ll always be producing quality players, and this team coming at us is no different. There are the McKinless’, Niall O’Donnell, Ruairí Forbes, Shea McCann, Ryan Bell, there is plenty of quality in the team. It will be an interesting clash.”
With Dylan Casey set to resume his customary place at the heart of a Stacks’ defence that also includes fellow inter-county panellists Joey Nagle and Armin Heinrich, added to the inspirational figure of Joe O’Connor at midfield, the Tralee outfit have a hugely formidable spine.
It’s the scoring output from numbers ten to fifteen and beyond that has caused concern for Lee and his management team at different stages of the season. Indeed, despite the seven-goal rout of Aherlow in the provincial decider, a double figures wide tally before half-time was never going to be excused.
“I think I said that in the aftermath of the Munster final. There were a lot of chances that we didn’t take in the first half against Aherlow, and you will struggle to get over the next day if you don’t start taking some of these. It’s been a focal point for sure, but it’s been like that all year,” admitted Lee.
“We’re all the time practicing our shooting, we’ve just got to keep encouraging the lads, and build their confidence in themselves. All-Ireland semi-finals don’t come around too often. We’ve just got to keep our feet on the ground, keep focused, and see if we can get over the line.”