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‘If
they are good enough they are old enough,’ was the maxim
followed by Dick Fitzgerald in Sept. 1924, five days
before the All Ireland final, when he convinced the
Kerry selectors to pick a 17 year old garsun from
Mangerton View at right half - back for the final. He
had never played for Kerry, not even in a trial game.
The selectors were wary about this gamble, but they
bowed to the wisdom of Dickeen, who had won 5 All
Irelands with Kerry during an illustrious playing
career. He was right as Russell went on to win 6 All
Ireland medals, by the age of 26, the only Croke man to
do this, but that may change in the years ahead as no
less than 4 of the current crop of Dr Croke senior
players .Colm Gooch Cooper, Eoin Brosnan ,Kieran Cremin
and Kieran O Leary are winning All Ireland medals at a
fierce rate.
Russell won his All
Ireland medals in 1924,1926,1929,1930,1931,1932 and that
of course included Kerry’s first 4-in-a row, a feat not
repeated until Mick O Dwyer’s Golden era.
Paul Russell first heard
of his selection on the Kerry team from Frank O Shea,
the local blacksmith, when he was on his way down to The
Sem on that Wednesday morning. It was remarkable, but
would the gamble pay off ?. Dickeen took Russell up to
Killarney railway station and introduced him to the
other members of the Kerry team.
‘I was very nervous going
up on the train’, said the new boy on the block. ‘We
were staying in Barry’s Hotel and I couldn’t sleep. Jack
Prendergast, the jersey man had to lace my boots in the
dressing room ,because I wasn’t up to it with the
nerves’.
He was marking Dublin’s
dual All Ireland medallist Frank Burke and showed
enough in that game to mark him down as a certainty for
right half back on future Kerry teams He delivered on
that early promise and went on to win those 6 All
Irelands before he was 26 . He marked the cream of the
country’s half-forwards and his duels with the legendary
Kildare half-forward Paul Doyle never failed to make the
headlines.
He won 4 National League
medals and 3 Railway Cup medals. One of these Railway
Cup medals was won by him playing with Leinster in 1928.
He joined the Gárdai in 1925 . He was stationed in
several places in Leinster and got involved in the local
GAA scene,especially in Oldcastle county Meath. He was
seen as the catalyst of the resurgence of Meath in 1939.
They did not win their first All Ireland until 1949
Over to Paddy O’Brien,
that famous Meath full back .
“ We’d no All Ireland so
Russell being around the team had a huge effect on us.
He knew about winning All Irelands and getting him to
train the team was very important, He brought something
new to the county”.
He also turned his hand
to hurling in retirement when training Waterford to the
1938 All Ireland final and also played with the football
team.At one stage he was forced to turn his back on
Kerry by his boss Garda Commissioner Eoin Duffy and
declare for Dublin. Duffy was trying to build an All
Ireland team of Gárdai.
Russell was the great
exponent of the drop kick and perfected this while
playing with Dr Crokes,where he came under the watchful
eye of Dr Eamonn. The Kerry boss set out a section of
the field for each player and it was sacrilege to move
out of your own area. The attacking half-back is common
currency in today’s game but Russell pioneered it over
70 years ago.The precocious talented 17 year old defied
the wishes of his Kerry boss with the first ball he won
in his first All Ireland and soloed upfield. The Kerry
captain Jerry Pluggy Morarty gave out to him on the
field of play and Kerry county board official Din Joe
Baily continued the tirade in the dressing room at half
–time roaring at the garsun, Russell ‘ Who the hell said
you could go out and play football’. Dick Fitzgerald
wasn’t there to defend the teenager, but not alone did
he go on to win those 6 All Irelands but he was never
dropped by Kerry and became the prince of classy
half-backs . His hallmarks were the drop kick turning
defence in to attack and soloing upfield setting up
scoring opportunities, This style of play was anathema
to what Kerry trainer and fellow Croke man Dr Eamonn O
Sullivan preached nevertheless ,they became great
friends and worked closely together bringing continuing
All Ireland successes to Kerry and honour to the Dr
Croke club There are some great pictures of this duo
in later years on the sidelines, mentors for Dr Crokes
and for Kerry.
They took opposite sides,
however in the highly divisive and controversial Rule
27, the Ban. Dr Eamonn was strongly in favour of
retaining the Ban on foreign games. Paul Russell took
the opposite viewpoint and wrote three major articles in
The Kerryman in February 1962 arguing very strongly for
the removal of the Ban.That didn’t come until 1971 and
of course in 2007 the Irish rugby and soccer teams
played in the hallowed soil of Croke Park.
Paul used his newspaper
column in the Sunday Review to take on the conservative
sector within the GAA and was fearless in taking on the
status quo of the GAA,which needed radical overhaul. The
Sunday Review was a new paper which took on the
established ones and it looked to Russell as anchor man
for the GAA column.He was highly respected nation wide
as a star footballer and he drew a great readership for
his fearless honesty. The new paper lasted from 1957 to
1963.
Dr Eamonn was regarded as
a man before his time such were his coaching and tactics
training Kerry to win 8 All Irelands Paul Russell became
the jewel in the crown bringing unequalled successes to
Kerry and to Dr Crokes.
In 2007 the Dr Croke club
carried on these history making feats when Pat O ‘Shea
managed Kerry to All Ireland success at the first
attempt, and he had no less than 4 fellow Croke men in
the winning panel.
That’s what we call
tradition in a club now in its 121st year.
Paul Russel’s feats are
made of what we call Dr Crokes legends .
In 1926 the 20 year old
Russell became the first Secretary of the East Kerry
Board, which was founded by Dick Fitzgerald its first
Chairman.
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