KERRY FIRE STILL BURNS
Crokes star Micheal ready for county return with Jack
MICHEAL BURNS has left the door open to a Kerry return after starring for Dr Crokes as they took the club championship title for the 11th time.
Burns pulled out of Jack O’connor’s squad last February, with the Kerry boss (below) saying at the time that the player “possibly didn’t feel he was getting the game time that was going to keep him happy and motivated”.
He spent much of the summer in Chicago, where he played for the Wolfe Tones club, but he has made a seamless return to duty back home, slotting four points from play as Crokes beat holders
Dingle by 1-15 to 0-11 in the club championship final at Austin Stack Park yesterday.
Speaking to TG4 after the game, Burns, who came off the bench in Kerry’s All-ireland final win over Galway in 2022, said: “Ah look, if Kerry ever wanted, you never turn down a chance to play for Kerry, ever. Circumstances or whatever didn’t work out last year b u t it’s a privilege to play for
Kerry.
“I’m not out here trying to prove a point to anyone, I’m out here to to win football games for the Dr Crokes but, like I said, Kerry is he greatest county in the country, most successful and if you’re asked to play for Kerry, you go and play for Kerry, simple as that.
“But I’m going
to enjoy this one.” Crokes will now focus on the more prestigious county championship, which has been dominated by divisional sides and particularly the David Clifford-led East Kerry in recent years.
If that trend continues the Killarney outfit will go forward as Kerry’s representatives in the Munster Club Championship in November on the back of yesterday’s win. But Burns insisted that he has no qualms about the structure in the county.
“It’s great, it’s been like that, that’s the tradition in Kerry. We could hum and haw about it, give out about it but it’s good for Kerry football, everyone gets a chance to play at the highest level within the county.
“If you’re not good enough, you’re not good enough and that’s it. You clap the other team on the back but it improves us as players.
“It drives us as a club to try and compete with the likes of East Kerry and these divisional squads so no, it’s the way it has been and the way it will be forever so we’ll just go at it and that’s the main competition in Kerry, that’s the one you want to win.”
Burns explained that, although he spent much of the summer in America, the fact that he pulled out of the county squad made it easier to slot back in with Crokes, who are being managed once again by Pat O’shea, Kerry’s 2007 All-ireland winning boss.
“I left the inter-county scene in January or February so I had been involved for eight or nine weeks when we played county league week on week.
“I feel those eight or nine weeks stood to me massively. I worked with Pat previously but I was reintegrated into his thinking and the way he wanted to play so when I went away, I had a great summer.
“We were very successful out there, had a great summer but came straight back here and after having that eight or nine weeks I felt like I slotted in fairly well.”
You never turn down the chance to play for Kerry, ever. Circumstances didn’t work out last year..