No chance of history repeating as Crokes stand firm
HE WASN’T having it again. Eleven months ago, Conor Ferris was beaten in the Kilmacud goal by an injurytime shot that gave a famous, shock victory to the champions of Ulster.
On that occasion it was Kilcoo of Down. This time, the Dublin champions were up against Glen from Derry, and while they made much harder work of building a lead in this final than they had against Kilcoo, they were nonetheless within sight of victory, deep into time added on.
Controversy may attend the number of players they had on the pitch for the end-game, but Kilmacud were under a more conventional, acute sort of pressure too.
Then a Hail Mary ball was hoisted in on top of the desperate Glen forwards. They trailed by two points, 1-11 to 1-9, and they needed the kind of intervention that saved Kilcoo and crumpled the Dublin super-club last February.
And it almost happened again. A breaking ball skidded towards Conor Glass, who had grown increasingly influential through the second half.
The Derry star pulled on it, catching it with the spot between his instep and his heel. It wasn’t the cleanest contact, but it was almost enough, as the ball went spinning towards the bottom-right-hand corner of Ferris’s goal. Not this time. He dived full length, making a terrific save and quenching the chance of any more dramatics.
That was only the second of his decisive interventions in this game. In the 49th minute, with Glen leading by a point, Stevie O’Hara closed in on the Kilmacud goal, with a man free to his right and Ferris standing before him.
O’Hara looked fazed by his options, Ferris was out in a flash, the forward didn’t connect with his shot, and the threat passed.
Dara Mullin was named man of the match, while Ben Shovlin and Craig Dias had huge roles in helping Kilmacud control the middle third, thereby guaranteeing enough ball for their misfiring attack to eventually click.
But for the game’s most influential player, you could not look beyond Ferris.
His was not the name that attracted most pre-match attention. And no, nor was it that of Shane Walsh, the new arrival whose contentious move from Galway had done little to soften the image of Kilmacud as a behemoth enjoying vast advantages over more traditional clubs.
It was Paul Mannion who filled conversations when the starting teams were confirmed.
Noises during the week intimated the returning Dublin star was close to fitness. He had not played since September, in Crokes’ Dublin quarter-final win over Cuala, having suffered a serious ankle injury.
When his start was confirmed, it hardened Kilmacud’s status as favourites, with him and Walsh bringing class rare even at this level of the club game.
Glen fitted the role of underdog neatly, contesting their first final, and boasting nothing like the spread of experienced inter-county talent Crokes could call upon.
It didn’t matter for most of the first half, as the Ulster champions roared into the lead in 35 seconds.
Danny Tallon, the impressive full forward took possession inside and shaped to kick a point. Instead, he dummied inside and lashed a shot high beyond Ferris for a goal.
Alex Doherty followed up with a point, and Crokes were floundering. The aggressive attacking intent of Glen seemed to rock them, and in truth it took most of the first half for them to regain composure.
Slowly, though, Shovlin and Dias started to wrest back some control, buttressed by the formidable shape and vast experience of Rory O’Carroll.
However, they needed the stimulant of a 16th minute penalty to really come into the contest. It was an indisputable spot kick, with Ryan Dougan, the Glen full back, crudely pulling back Shane Cunningham as the Crokes captain cut in along the end line.
Dougan’s options were limited as Cunningham manoeuvred into a scoring position.
Walsh, who five minutes earlier had fallen short with an uncharacteristically poor free, took the penalty and slid it expertly to the right of Connlan Bradley, sending the keeper the wrong way.
From there, Crokes inched their way to a minimal half-time advantage, 1-4 to 1-3.
Credit to Glen, and unsurprisingly from a team under the smart tutelage of Malachy O’Rourke, they roared into the start of the second half, with Tallon, twice, Alex Doherty and Jack Doherty scoring. A Walsh 45 and a Mannion free kept Crokes within a point, before Mullin and Walsh scored to level it in the 53rd minute.
Cian O’Connor, a replacement, drove over the important point to put them in front, and a Walsh free at the start of time added on, gave them a cushion of sorts.
It wasn’t the deepest, but it was enough, when the agility and anticipation of Conor Ferris is counted in, too.
Crokes had their cup, for the third time. Glen have their regrets, and the club season had a deeply satisfying conclusion.
KILMACUD CROKES: C Ferris; D O’Brien, T Clancy, M Mullin; C O’Shea, R O’Carroll, A McGowan; B Shovlin, C Dias; A Jones (S Horan 50), S Walsh, D Mullin (C Casey 60); P Mannion (T Fox 60), H Kenny (C O’Connor 47), S Cunningham (capt, L Ward 57).
SCORERS: S Walsh 1-3 (1-0 pen, 0-3 frees), S Cunningham and D Mullin 0-2 each, C Dias, D O’Brien, P Mannion (0-1f), C O’Connor 0-1 each.
GLEN: C Bradley; C Mulholland, R Dougan, C Carville (c); T Flannagan, M Warnock, E Mulholland; C Glass, E Bradley; E Doherty, J Doherty, C Convery (S O’Hara 37); C McGuckian, A Doherty (P Gunning 57), D Tallon. SCORERS: D Tallon 1-3 (0-2 frees); A Doherty (0-1 mark) and E Bradley (0-1 free) 0-2 each; J Doherty and C McGuckian 0-1 each. REFEREE: D O’Mahoney (Tipperary).