Ó Cinnéide: more power to Dr Crokes on their latest success

AN Ghaeltacht Selector Dara Ó Cinnéide was pretty pragmatic in his assessment of the exchanges and the end result. His team are currently on a learning curve, and endeavouring to play catch up with the likes of Crokes, with their focus now firmly set on their next outing against the Ulster champions.

“It was a fixture [which] kind of didn’t suit either team. We were delighted to give our lads another week off after the West Kerry final. Crokes just wanted to finish out the year.

“They are still the best club team in Kerry, and, they showed it there today, they were missing seven or eight players, but, they were well able to absorb that, and, bring on the likes of David Shaw late in the game, they have the quality all over, and, they are just that bit more cleverer than most other teams around at the moment.

“They were worthy winners today, and, for us to make any kind of inroads with the team we had out today as well we would need to be getting those goals ourselves and not them.

“Their use of space and their use of the width of the pitch, is a lot more refined, and, a lot more advanced than what we would be at.

“We are coming up from Intermediate, they are a hardened senior team.

“The quality of the goalie as well, it’s not just his kick outs, he is a great shot stopper. It was a kind of a reference point for us to start off, a five week block. We will be doing a bit over Christmas, we have to enjoy it as well, have a bit of fun, we need to keep lads fresh, and learn from what Crokes did last year, what other clubs have done.

“We will be picking their brains to find out what they did to go through the Christmas period.

“In a way justice was done today, in a sense, the team that went unbeaten right throughout the year ended the year unbeaten.

“We would have loved to have won today, we went out to win it, but the reality is that Crokes were the best team in the County League, as well as the County Championship, and, more power to them.”