When Brian Kelly pulled the curtain down on his Kerry career in January of this year it brought an end to an 12 year association with the famous Green and Gold jersey(or in his case the Yellow goalkeepers jersey).Brian caught the eye of the Kerry minor selectors in 2008,a year when St Brendans College were beaten in the Hogan Cup final by St Patricks Dungannon in Portlaoise. He was an ever present in the Kerry minors that year and they had a marathon year with a Munster Final replay and All Ireland semi final replay, where they eventually succumbed to an Aidan O Shea inspired Mayo. In the 7 games, Brian kept 5 clean sheets. In 2011 he again represented Kerry at U21 level ,defeating Limerick before losing to Cork in the Munster Final. He made his senior debut for Kerry on April 8th 2012 in Austin Stack Park vs Mayo, a game they drew but he had to bide his time to appear again as he was understudy to Brendan Kealy in 2013.He took the bull by the horns in 2014,making 5 League appearances and establishing himself as the Kingdom No.1.The year started well for him winning a Sigerson Cup with UCC and kept going as Kerry captured Munster and All Ireland titles that same year. Indeed Brian holds the distinction of keeping clean sheets in the Sigerson, Munster and All Ireland finals that year, a feat never done or repeated since. His battle with All Star Kealy continued into the following years with injury playing a part for the unfortunate Brian. But with all the transition in the Kerry squad Brian was a mainstay in there and made sure the goalkeeping department was a competitive one. He claimed 7 Munster titles,2 National Leagues and 1 All Ireland medal. A very solid and exemplary clubman the biggest compliment you could pay him, was made by a former Legion manager.”Hes the kind of fella you’d love to see your daughter bring home”.
