Former Kerry star Tommy Walsh is hoping that Kerins O'Rahillys can overcome the disadvantage of playing Kilmacud Croke's at Croke Park with the sheer weight of their enthusiasm.
Sunday's AIB All-Ireland club football semi-final tie will be a first Croke Park outing for the majority of the O'Rahilly's players compared to Dublin representatives Kilmacud, who have played there regularly.
In the last 13 months, back-to-back Leinster champions Kilmacud have played five times at GAA Headquarters, the most recent of which was last month's provincial final win.
Walsh, a two-time All-Ireland winner with Kerry and former AFL player, acknowledged that there is an obvious 'location advantage' for the Dubliners though suggested that his own team's inexperience could actually be a positive.
"We'd be hoping that, having not played there before, we'll be gunning to get out there," said Walsh. "In a way, that will be an advantage for us because Kilmacud have obviously played a lot of games there before. So hopefully we'll get that bounce.
"With it being on in Dublin, we are going to have to travel up the night before, something a lot of our players wouldn't be used to. But look, everyone grows up wanting to play in Croke Park and it is a huge chance for fellas that have never played there before and, as I say, while it might be an advantage to Kilmacud in a certain respect, we'd be hoping that guys will lift their game with the fact that they are playing there and that it will focus the minds of fellas, that this might be their one and only chance of playing in Croke Park."
In truth, Walsh and Kerins O'Rahillys are mightily fortunate to be in the position to represent Munster. They only qualified for the provincial competition as two divisional sides (East Kerry and Mid Kerry) contested the county final, meaning that Kerins O'Rahillys, as winners of the separate club championship, were catapulted into Munster. As curious as that arrangement already is, they also lost all three of their group games in the county championship before turning things around and beating the Clare and Limerick champions in the province.
"To a certain extent it probably is (unexpected)," said Walsh of the journey. "But we always felt we were capable of winning one of the competitions in Kerry and this is obviously just a consequence of that. When you win the club championship in Kerry, as opposed to the county championship, certain things have to fall into place for you to progress to Munster. Thankfully, with the strength of East Kerry at the moment, they won the county championship and that allowed us to progress."
After recovering from a knee injury which sidelined him for those county championship games, Walsh has shown strong form in Munster though the 34-year-old target man, whose last appearance for Kerry was against Tyrone in the 2021 All-Ireland semi-final, isn't thinking about a county return.
"I'll be in my 40s and wishing I could still be playing," said Walsh. "But it doesn't work like that, you have your time and then you pass the jersey on to the next guy coming through. I'm enjoying being on the other side of it too. Of course, after the All-Ireland final, seeing Kerry win that, there is a little bit of a feeling, 'Jeez, I would love to have been there'. But everybody is going to experience that when they finish up playing, it's only natural."
Walsh accepts that the Tralee outfit are underdogs for Sunday's semi-final.
"I think if you were to look at the performances over the last while, you'd probably see how easily Kilmacud have got to this stage and how difficult it has been for us," he said.
