Tommy Walsh primed for 'great occasion' after Kerins O'Rahilly's plot alternative route to Croker

In September last, Kerins O'Rahilly's lost their third successive group game in the Kerry senior football championship, winding up with a points difference of -35.

Just a few months later, and they're bound for Croke Park for a meeting with the All-Ireland favourites Kilmacud Crokes.

The idiosyncrasies of the Kerry club scene are no secret at this stage and a source of some fascination to outsiders.

By the start of the Kerry SFC in early September, Kerins O'Rahilly's had already booked their spot in the final of the club championship - a separate eight-strong event restricted to senior club teams, excluding divisional outfits - where they would face the Spillane-powered Templenoe in mid-October.

East Kerry's borderline absurd strength in 2022 meant there was always a strong likelihood that the O'Rahilly's-Templenoe victor would provide the Kerry representative in the Munster club. (Indeed, O'Rahilly's very heavy defeat to East Kerry in their opening group game may have made their mind up for them as to where to place their focus for the remainder of the season.)

Key figures returned to the set-up. Both Jack Savage and Cormac Coffey, based in Dubai since August and absent for the county championship, returned in time for the Templenoe game.

With all that in mind, O'Rahilly's re-grouped, edged out the Spillanes et al by a point in the Kerry club final, before scraping hard-fought wins against Éire Óg and Newcastlewest to win their first ever Munster club title. In the process, they became the first Kerry club to win the province after not winning the senior county championship since Dr Crokes in 2006 - Castleisland Desmonds performed the feat twice in the 1980s.

The re-jigged calendar certainly helped matters, says O'Rahilly's