Crokes end hurt to give Gooch his day
WHEN the final whistle went, an emotional Colm Cooper clenched his fists and screamed towards the sky. The wet and slippy conditions meant this All-Ireland final was instantly forgettable but it had an ending that everyone will remember.
The extraordinary story of Slaughtneil’s season had so dominated the narrative ahead of this game that it was almost ignored that one of the game’s greats was looking for his moment of glory with his club.
Three years had passed since Cooper ruptured his cruciate ligament in an All-Ireland semi-final against Castlebar Mitchels. The concern was that could have been his final chance to claim a club medal.
Yesterday, though, Dr Crokes returned to the top of the club game, bringing the Andy Merrigan Cup back to Killarney after a gap of 25 years.
The Gooch may not have been the game’s outstanding player, he was too well policed by Brendan Rodgers, but he did pop up for the decisive score in the 20th minute, drifting into space and latching onto the end of Daithi Casey’s strong run through the centre, to finish the ball into the corner of Antoin McMullan’s net. It was the only time in the entire season that the Slaughtneil goalkeeper was beaten — and it took a touch of class to do it.
Cooper’s goal was vital, as Slaughtneil had raced into a four-point lead and as Crokes selector Harry O’Neill pointed out afterwards, the Derry side are experts at holding a lead.
‘I was in charge of Crokes back in 2000 and that was the first time that Colm came on the scene, so he has been on the road a long time with Crokes,’ O’Neill said afterwards. ‘Colm has been a fantastic servant to the club and county and whole of the GAA. People admire what he has done and it was fantastic for him to finish with an All-Ireland club medal in his pocket but Colm would be the first to brush that off and say the most important thing was the club won.’
Before Cooper found the net, though, it looked like Crokes would once again be the bridesmaids. The Kerry side looked a little anxious in the opening exchanges, with Slaughtneil probing their fullback line with some lovely kick-passing. Cormac O’Doherty was prominent in the early exchanges and had a hand in most of their opening scores.
O’Doherty set up Paudie Cassidy for Slaughtneil’s goal in the 13th minute, with a neat lay-off to the midfielder, who surged through the centre, side-stepping Crokes keeper Shane Murphy before rolling the ball into an empty net. Points from Chris Bradley and Paul Bradley put Slaughtneil 1-4 to 0-2 ahead by the 19th minute.
But they would score only three more points in the final 40 minutes as Crokes’ defence settled into the game. Cassidy would be sent off just before the break for a low blow on Kieran O’Leary and after that the Derry side simply had too much of a struggle on their hands.
‘The sending-off changed the game,’ Slaughtneil assistant manager John Joe Kearney claimed. ‘Losing your attacking midfield would set any team back. It certainly set us back.’
Kearney believed that O’Leary made too much of the incident. ‘I thought young O’Leary made a meal of it. Look, Paudie can’t argue with it. He did something he shouldn’t have done. But it was just a flick of the hand and I thought the player saw an opportunity to get someone sent off.’
Crokes went in at the break 1-6 to 1-5 ahead and defended superbly in the second half, limiting their opponents to only two points, both of which came from placed-balls.
Johnny Buckley was one of the stars for Crokes, alongside Daithi Casey and Brian Looney, who scored three excellent points from play in the first half. And after the break, they brought the energetic Jordan Kiely and Michael Burns on to run at Slaughtneil as they tired.
Afterwards, Buckley put into context what it meant for the Killarney club. ‘A lot of players played in a semi-final 10 years ago and all those semi-final defeats were bitter pills to swallow. But it makes it all the sweeter now.’
Twenty-five years on, Dr Crokes are back on top of the club game, propelled there by one of the all-time greats.