Lucky 13 for Crokes to top Kingdom roll of honour
Dingle challenge falls short as late Gavin White goal sees records fall
RECORDS tumbled in every direction as Dr Crokes absorbed Dingle’s best shots to retain their Kerry senior title in Austin Stack Park.
The win pushes them to the top of the roll of honour in Kerry with 13 titles, one more than Laune Rangers and Austin Stacks.
Colm Cooper and Eoin Brosnan have now shared in eight of those successes, placing them on top of an individual list, while Crokes’ threein-a-row, coming after a four-in-a-row earlier in the decade, gives them a level of dominance in one decade that no other club has enjoyed.
Cooper and Brosnan played more peripheral roles than normal, both coming off the bench as second-half substitutes for the second successive year, as the younger generation that has been nurtured carefully over the last two decades made their mark impressively.
For the second successive year Gavin White was named Man of the Match, his 60th-minute goal ensuring the Bishop Moynihan Cup stayed in Killarney after clever approach work in a counter-attack from Brian Looney and Kieran O’Leary, whose interchange with the flying White opened up the Dingle defence.
Micheál Burns also impressed with his work-rate and energy, while David Shaw, who has kept Cooper out of the team, franked that form and showed a lot of class with four points, watched by his first cousin Aidan O’Shea, the Mayo footballer, in the stand.
The final, watched by
6,028, was very much a window into some of the best talent coming through in the county.
For Dingle, Tom O’Sullivan was a real leader, especially when they fell behind by six points in the firsthalf, while Matthew O’Flaherty, operating as Dingle’s sweeper, and midfielder Barry O’Sullivan continually dragged them back from perilous situations with their direct running.
After the unruly scenes of last week’s semi-final replay between Dingle and East Kerry, this was a much more placid affair, with just one minor flashpoint near the end when Cooper and O’Sullivan were yellow carded.
Padraig Ó Conchuir, the Dingle captain, was also yellow-carded for the second time, resulting in a 57th-minute red after an initial 13th-minute yellow for lashing out at Tony Brosnan, who was also booked. There was speculation beforehand that Mark O’Connor had been released by his AFL club Geelong for the final, but that didn’t manifest and he could only watch from the sidelines as Crokes largely dictated.
With Conor Geaney only coming on late and Cathal Bambury not seeing any action due to injury, Dingle certainly missed this trio.
Crokes had the considerable weight of experience behind them. Fionn Fitzgerald oozed calm in defence, especially when Dingle went so direct in the closing stages, while Dáithí Casey and Looney ran hard and often.
O’Leary didn’t score, but he made the first two points and provided assists for the last three, including the goal.
Crokes enjoyed their best spell in the first-half when they scored seven unanswered points from the seventh to the 21st minutes to build a 0-8 to 0-2 lead.
Shaw scored three points and set up another for Looney, while Tony Brosnan clipped over two fine points off his left as Crokes repeatedly punished errant Dingle kick-outs.
Led by Tom O’Sullivan, Dingle pushed back and were looking a lot better when they trailed by just 0-8 to
0-6 at the break.
A pivotal moment early in the second-half saw Shane Murphy save from close range from Paul Geaney, who kicked some fine frees. However, after scoring nine goals in this year’s championship – Dingle scored at least one goal in all six games they played – he never left a lasting mark otherwise on the game.
“Paul’s one of the best forwards in the country at the moment, so you can’t give him the ball. He was getting three goals a game so it’s common sense to just crowd him out,” reflected Crokes captain John Payne.
Geaney’s cousin Mikey did help rally Dingle at stages in the second-half, while Barry O’Sullivan scored a point and was fouled for three more frees which Paul Geaney converted.
However, every time they felt like they were getting close, Crokes found
an answer. Paul Geaney had a chance from a free to narrow it to just one point down the home stretch after Tom O’Sullivan was fouled just before the goal.
Crokes selector Vince Casey said climbing to the top of the roll of honour in Kerry made it the most special of all their recent titles.
“In 1985 we made a delegation to go on our own in the county championship (they had been with Killarney in the years before that). One of our selectors, Der Brosnan, and Pat’s father Murt O’Shea went and we were refused,” he recalled.
“We were allowed go in ’86 and we never looked back since.
“It’s just been phenomenal, it took us 77 years to win our fifth, this bunch of players are unbelievable, the dedication, the commitment, the hunger, the most incredible bunch of players led by Colm (Cooper) and Eoin (Brosnan).
“They now have the most county championships, incredible that over the last two decades (they featured in the 2000 championship win) they have been to the forefront of leadership in the team.”
Casey also paid tribute to Edmund O’Sullivan, brother-in-law of manager Pat O’Shea, who has joined the management team and had such a big role in the developmental role of this new breed of players at minor level.