Sars goalkeeper Alan Kennedy ready for his 67th consecutive championship game

ALAN Kennedy began 2007 as Sarsfields’ third-choice goalkeeper but was in the number 1 jersey by the time of the championship and has not missed a minute since.

After Waterford native Donal O’Rourke returned home and Paddy Gahan got injured, Kennedy found himself thrust in for the first-round tie against Blackrock, keeping a clean sheet in a 0-13 to 0-12 win.

Since then, he has been ever-present and Sunday’s Co-op SuperStores Cork Premier SHC quarter-final against Glen Rovers in Páirc Uí Chaoimh (3.15pm) will be his 67th consecutive championship appearance.

While his 36th birthday is two months away, he has no intentions of calling it a day.

“I love it,” he says.

“You can’t replace these days with anything. We’ve a new wave of players who’ve come in and I’d go to war with them.

“It’s the Tuesday and Thursday night and the Saturday or Sunday mornings that you live for and you can’t replace that. I’ve the rest of my life to play golf or meet lads for a pint.

“I understand players walking away from inter-county at a certain age because it’s a huge commitment but it baffles me if a fellas doesn’t want to hurl until he can’t do it anymore.

“I’ve just been fortunate. As a goalkeeper, you have that longevity that comes with not being injured – you’re not pulling muscles and the only thing that might happen is getting hurt with the sliotar.

Shane Collins was snapping at my heels for a long time and then he went off and concentrated on golf. Now Colin Looney is there and he would walk on to any club team in Cork.

“It’s because of him that keeps me going. Him wanting that jersey drives me in training and that’s what you need, competition is key in any team.”

The first half of Kennedy’s senior career brought titles in 2008, 2010, 2012 and 2014 but Sars have been waiting since then. The netminder knows there’s no divine right to success.

“It was only brought to my attention recently that 2017 was the last time we were in a county semi-final,” he says.

“I’ve been hearing nonsense since the Midleton game, ‘Ye’re going the right way, ye’re one of the favourites,’ – we’ve no right to be called favourites after the last few years.

“We didn’t look beyond Na Piarsaigh, after that there was no looking beyond Carrigtwohill and then on to Midleton.

“We knew there was a carrot there that, if we beat Midleton, there was a very good chance that we’d get the bye to the semi.

“The flipside of that is that, for the last three or four weeks, we can’t get competitive games. We had a challenge game against Fr O’Neills below in Sars and that’s all we’ve had.”

RIVALS

Still, Kennedy doesn’t foresee any issues in terms of getting up for this one.

“Erin’s Own are our rivals and all the old stock in Sars would say that,” he says, “but for this modern team that we have, it’s the Glen.

“We’ve played them so many times underage in different grades and it’s always been the Glen for me. We played them in the 2008 semi-final and since then we’ve played them so often and they’re great battles, they’re the best of them.

“There’s a great respect then as well because we know them off the pitch and fellas work together. But when you cross the white lines, there’s that bit of edge. To say I’m looking forward to it is an understatement.”