4 days ago
Mayo hurler David Kenny happy to focus on first love
It doesn't take a particularly giant leap of the imagination to picture David Kenny heading for Omagh this evening, instead of Croke Park.
Well over a decade since he first lined out for the Mayo senior hurlers, he will be a mainstay of Ray Larkin's team again for this afternoon's Nickey Rackard Cup final.
Mayo lost to Donegal in last year's decider so are desperate to atone and to secure a win that would return them to Christy Ring Cup activity.
That's the level Mayo operated at when Kenny first joined the group, a dozen or so years ago, and the Ring Cup was a tier two competition back then.
He went straight into that Mayo senior squad as a minor though was perhaps best known for his football exploits at the time, lining out in All-Ireland minor (2013) and U-21 (2016) wins.
Stephen Coen captained both of those successful underage teams but while he'll line out for the Mayo seniors against Tyrone this evening, Kenny will be on small ball duty at GAA HQ.
Not that he regrets the road he went down at that stage of his GAA career.
"Diarmuid O'Connor, Stephen Coen, Conor Loftus, all of those guys were on the minor and U-20 teams back then with me," said Kenny. "There'd be a lot of other good players that wouldn't necessarily have maybe made the breakthrough as seniors.
"But look, coming from Tooreen, definitely hurling was always kind of first for me. It's funny, you might pick football on some occasions and go after it but, in the heart, hurling was always first."
Kenny is humble enough to clarify that he didn't necessarily turn his back on Stephen Rochford or James Horan's football panels.
"I was in and out of (football) squads but never made the breakthrough," he acknowledged.
Again, it isn't any sort of regret because if football was a passion, hurling was a vocation. Other talented dual players went the football route, at hurling's expense.
"Shane Boland, our corner-forward, his brother is Fergal, who is with the footballers," said Kenny. "Fergal's a brilliant hurler too. Jack Carney is another man who was a brilliant hurler growing up. Jack Coyne, corner-back with the footballers, he's a very good corner-back, still plays hurling. He'd be extremely sticky. It's hard to see, as a hurling person, that quality and that talent not being available but it happens all the time, not just in Mayo."
For all of the difficulties that the Mayo footballers are currently experiencing, it's still an appealing prospect for young dual performers. There are only three senior hurling clubs in Mayo, four if you include the St Ciaran's amalgamation which comprises players from more than half a dozen junior clubs.
Kenny is optimistic about the future though. They had a pre-final meet and greet in Tooreen recently and there was a big turnout. He has noticed more younger players getting involved too.
If the Mayo seniors could climb the hurling ladder, they would become an even more attractive proposition. And it's not beyond them. When Kenny first joined the seniors, they were a top end tier two team.
"We played Kerry in a Christy Ring semi-final (2014), we were leading at half-time, we had home advantage in MacHale Park for whatever reason," he said. "We just lost out on that one in the end."
Kildare went on to win the Ring Cup that year and faced Westmeath in a promotion/relegation counter to see who would compete in the 2015 Leinster championship. There's a distance to go now for Mayo to get back to those heights. Getting over Roscommon, whom they've already beaten in Round 1 of the Rackard Cup group, and getting out of the fourth tier would be a solid start.
"Roscommon are a great side, physically very strong," said Kenny. "They're also very good in the air. They have lads like Brendan Mulry and Sean Canning inside, speed merchants. They've got a lot of threats but we'll do our best to hold them down."
