‘Nobody wants to lose, but the extra game has been of benefit to us’ – O’Callaghan
A PERFORMANCE that pretty much spoke for itself on the pitch, but when asked about what Dr Crokes would take away most from last Sunday’s win, selector Niall O’Callaghan said they were happy with how they played the whole way through.
“The fact we performed for a full 70 minutes and showed up today is what we will take out of the win. We’re very happy with how we applied ourselves and negated their threats and asked the questions of them. As a Crokes team we expect our forwards to score as well, which they did today,” he said.
A strong sense that the loss to future Semi-Final opponents Kerins O’Rahillys might have been somewhat of a ‘blessing in disguise’ is arguably evident from their two outings since and O’Callaghan agreed that the players have responded in the right way since that loss in the winners round.
“Nobody wants to lose but the extra game has been of benefit to us in having time to work on a few things after losing to O’Rahillys,” he said.
Another matter raising eyebrows at present is the fact Colm Cooper has not started for the Killarney side in the last two games. The Crokes selector says it not a major issue as the team ethic is foremost in Cooper’s mind.
“Colm is a team man and it doesn’t matter to him if he starts or not. That’s the standard he sets in the dressing room which he wants everyone to match,” O’Callaghan said. Indeed
, the policy of promoting younger players is working for the club from what they are being exposed to in an experienced dressing room, their selector feels.
“The experience we have in the dressing room says a lot. The core of that group has won six of the last eight County Championships and we always want to get our younger players involved with that sort of experience.”
The bigger talking point from last Sunday’s proceedings was arguably Legion’s performance, something their selector Enda Walshe admitted was hard to explain considering how well they had gone in the championship up to that point.
“It was a malfunction by us in the firsthalf and, while we made a good start to the second-half, their goal killed us really. We are better than that and we just have to work hard to show everyone that there can be a better Legion in the future.”
Walshe’s disappointment with Sunday was for the players themselves in general.
“It was a fierce pity for them with the work they had put in. They felt that they were ready for it but you can’t take anything away for Crokes with the way they played today. They are favourites for the County Championship and going for three-in-a-row for a reason.
“Anyone that wants to beat them has to be at their very best and we certainly weren’t near that today,” he said.
There won’t be much time for feeling sorry for themselves as they face into an O’Donoghue Cup quarter-final with Currow this weekend.
“There are two things that you can do in this situation, either lie down and die or else get back on the horse and fight. We have ambitions and we want to win trophies. The O’Donoghue Cup is something we desperately want to win and that will be our sole focus for the moment.”