Hear the one about the 51-year-old lining out in the South Kerry football championship?

Well, he’s 52 now and will do so again for Valentia Young Islanders today in Chapeltown.

It’s a story that should warm the heart but instead it is a tale which is a reflection of the GAA wasteland that South Kerry is becoming, a veritable no country for young men.

“We would be struggling without him,” says Valentia chairperson Deirdre Lyne of their elder saviour.

“The U17 rule is crippling rural clubs. They talk about burnout - it’s not the club player that is being burnt out; it’s the player on the development squad, the Kerry south division side, the county and he’s the lead player in his school. But the club footballer is getting no football.

“They talk about welfare, I think it’s a lot more dangerous to be playing a 52-year-old in senior football than a 17-year-old. He’s a very fit 52-year-old and without him we’d be in trouble.”

Waterville won’t be showing them much sympathy today, not when they and so many others in South Kerry have similar tales of woe.

As the area’s principal town, Cahirciveen should be better off but St Mary’s have their troubles also.

“The biggest problem in South Kerry is depopulation and to be honest I don’t think the parish rule is going to matter a whole pile in South Kerry in a few more years,” remarks former chairman Mossie Coffey.

“Club are amalgamating and where you had 10, 12 clubs in the 1980s and 90s you’re down to every club amalgamating now at under-age.

“Other parts of the county have problems catering for numbers; our problem down there is getting numbers.

“Coláiste (na Sceilge) opened 20 years ago and the numbers were north of 800. Now they’re north of 400.

“There are no youngsters. In Caherciveen, when we were growing up on New Street there were 100 kids. In that section now, there’s no more than half a dozen. We haven’t been competing and won’t be competing at under-age level in the last number of years and we won’t be because they aren’t there.”

Envious eyes are directed towards Dr Crokes and Austin Stacks who it was claimed recently have as many registered players as 20 other clubs put together, but they too are experiencing difficulties.

House prices in Killarney and Tralee town are rising significantly with club members being forced to move outside the parish boundaries knowing their children will have to play for other clubs.

The parish rule, part of Kerry’s bye-laws, states that “a player may only play with a club in the parish” as defined in the GAA’s Official Guide.

There are exceptions - a person in permanent residence in a town of more than one club and/or parish shall be entitled to join any club in that town and a person in permanent residence in a county committee designated “open area” shall be entitled to join any club in that specified area.

Permanent residence in Kerry is now defined as living at a fixed address for 96 weeks. However, they are rarely exercised, Shane Murphy’s switch from Kilcummin to Dr. Crokes being the most recent significant example.

Despite their appearance in Sunday’s Kerry SFC final, the strength of Dingle’s tourism industry has also proven to be a difficulty for the club at under-age level. With a hold on property development in the town and a lack of long-term rentals because of the attractiveness of providing AirBnBs, it is becoming increasingly difficult for young families to establish themselves in the catchment area of the club.

“The town is paying for its own success, we’re paying for that in that people are having to move out because there is not enough housing in Dingle,” reports club chairman Paul Geaney Snr.

“Our numbers are low at certain age groups but in general that’s the same across the board because the decline of population in rural Ireland.

“There are certain age groups that are grand but we were in trouble at U16 last year. We had a bare minor team but we got over the line with it.

“Amalgamations are already happening but that carries its own problems because of certain clubs and old rivalries.

“Certain fellas in clubs wouldn’t be keen to co-operate, silly old stuff. But going forward we’re okay as a club.”

“There is a bit more land being developed and there will be more houses and rooms for tourism coming on board. That should open it up a little bit more for longer-term letting. There is a problem at U10 level but that’s down to the numbers more than anything else.”

At meetings organised by the county board, there has been a growing sentiment that the parish rule, which for so long had contributed to the strength of Kerry GAA, has now become an obstruction; that the 45 parishes in the county is no longer an accurate means of defining Kerry as a GAA county.

A relaxation of it looks to be on the cards but it’s a question of exactly which would be agreeable to both rural and town clubs.

“We can’t let it prevent lads playing football,” said one county board executive member. “That’s the bottom line.”

To that effect, Killarney Legion intend putting forward a motion to the forthcoming annual convention.

They have options. One is to emulate the rule in the GAA Official Guide specifically for Dublin where a player can declare for and join the club for whom either of his parents were a member of at the time of his birth (although it’s widely acknowledged no parish rule exists in the capital). That idea of a legacy exemption would appeal to those who have had to move out to the satellites villages and town of Kerry’s most urban areas.

The other being considered is Kerry following the example of Cork and using the parish rule more as a guideline than any hard rule.

The example of how Castlehaven not just survive but thrive might appeal to some in the likes of South Kerry while those clubs in Killarney and Tralee wouldn’t be denied players for economic reasons.

However, Lyne only sees the ‘parent’ idea as helping Valentia - “like keeping the family name alive,” says one other club official - but even at that she has her doubts.

“The only way we’d see it benefitting us is if you could return to your father’s club. That would have been a proposal put on the table when we have been at any of these forums. The club once put out a proposal ring-fencing the bigger clubs and if any players wished to transfer from those clubs to others they would be permitted to do so, no questions asked.

“But I don’t know how realistic it is to be travelling to training 60 miles away. I don’t know if I would do it. I’m the chairperson but would I drive 60 miles to bring my child training? I don’t think I would. I don’t see any clubs in this area being able to go again on their own at under-age level. At senior level, at least you are broadening the band.”

Two years ago, Joe Crowley, then chairman of the parish and player registration committee which was established under Patrick O’Sullivan’s county chairmanship in 2014, claimed the parish rule was being flouted by those who wanted their offspring to line out for the clubs to which they were affiliated.

This had come despite the body having helped to facilitate five agreements between neighbouring clubs over disputed parts of parishes, namely in North and Mid Kerry.

Passing into rule a change would not only make legitimate a practice that has been carried out for several years now but regulate it too.

Of course, there have been high profile cases where it has been upheld. In 2011, after a long legal battle two young O’Sullivan brothers through their parents Christina and Michael were prevented from claiming a derogation of the parish rule and playing for Listry, which was the club closest to their club, and were told they had to line out for Ballyhar-Firies, their parish team. In a similar case 12 years previous, the same clubs were involved in a matter involving brothers who were granted a derogation to play for Listry despite being outside their parish.

The value of the parish rule has always been held as a means of preventing the bigger clubs becoming too big but the price of urban property in Kerry and rural depopulation have made it next to redundant as much as it is mostly enforced.

“Its relevance in defining community has decreased,” read the GAA’s 2002 Strategic Report. “New bye-laws should be introduced to define the geographic boundaries for club membership, as a strict interpretation of the one-club-per-parish rule will not be universally appropriate going forward.”

At times to their discomfort and at others to just mild irritation, Kerry recognise that. No rule is going to flood Cahirciveen with people or cut property prices in Killarney but a relaxation of the parish rule would at least relieve some of the pressure.