“We want the players to play to the best of their ability”
SOME subtle changes to the Dr Crokes backroom team this year with the departure of Harry O’Neill and Eddie ‘Tatler’ O’Sullivan seeing Vince Casey, Edmund O’Sullivan and Der Brosnan come in, in their place. Niall ‘Botty’ O’Callaghan remained in situ along with manager Pat O’Shea as he explained the rationale behind the changes.
“We had an awful lot of Minors come on board this year and you don’t just walk straight from a Minor side into a senior team especially at a club like ours. That’s why Edmund came in because he would be familiar with the players from Minor level having been involved there the last few years.
“Vince is a bundle of energy and enthusiasm in any management and does a lot off the field for the club as well with fundraising and that. Der would have been a selector with the club in the past and would be very familiar with the history and roots of the club so we feel we have a nice mix there,” O’Callaghan said.
His views on the change of format to the County Championship might surprise some in believing it favours divisional sides, but O’Callaghan feels the year has worked out well for the defending champions to this point.
“I feel it suits a divisional side more from the point of view that with all the Club Championships concluded in April there is very little conflict between clubs and districts over players like there might have been in the past except for clubs that are going out into Munster. I would like the draw to be done a little earlier as well to create a bit more hype and interest in it, if it was done earlier I think there would be a better focus by all the teams towards it,” the Crokes selector said.
The effect of the Senior Club Championship success last April allowed some of the newer recruits in the panel to get County League time and experience of senior Football although there were some tough examinations early in their bid to get back into an 11th County Final this millennium.
“Being four points down with eight minutes to go against St Kierans we probably should have lost but bringing David Shaw in was a massive factor in winning that game. We didn’t have the intensity we should have had for the first game against O’Rahillys and lost a lead no one would have expected to have done so in the past.
“We licked our wounds and regrouped but Legion was the first game where we felt like ourselves again and we were as happy with how we defended that day as how we attacked that day,” O’Callaghan said.
Keeping their places on the starting line-up appears to be what is keeping Crokes to maintain the high standards they continue to set, something O’Callaghan believes comes from the more senior players in the side.
“I feel you are only as good as the atmosphere you create in a dressing room and the likes of Colm (Cooper) and Eoin (Brosnan) create that for us along with a few others. No one is automatic on this team with the choice we have now and you need that sort of mindset if you want to drive on and achieve more. Colm and Eoin played nonstop for 12 or 13 years effectively when you think of it because no sooner were they done with Kerry than they were back with us, while once we were finished they had to go straight back to Kerry,” he said.
Tralee certainly is a venue that will not phase Dr Crokes on Sunday - they have not lost a Championship encounter in Austin Stack Park since 2002 - as O’Callaghan says the focus is purely on themselves ahead of Sunday.
“We play the game, not the occasion, venue or the team we are competing against. Winning a seventh county title in nine years is all we want to try and get out of the final. You play the game on its merits with anything that might come after is firmly put away until afterwards depending on how you do,” he believes.
Dingle have made great strides this year O’Callaghan feels with his thoughts on the West Kerry side something that might be expected of the Crokes themselves at their optimum.
“Dingle are the sort of team that that can have three or four goals on you in the space of five minutes before you know where you are. They have superb forwards that can open up on you and find those goals. I rate Tom O’Sullivan very highly, I think he has had a great County Championship, the same with Barry Dan (O’Sullivan). Mikey Geaney has brought his game to a whole new level as well this year, something I think is to do with the fact he has managed to stay free of injury,” the Crokes selector said of Sunday’s opponents.
Even with all the success of the past decade for the club, the desire performance-wise is a very simple one for the three-in-a-row seeking holders on Sunday in trying to match a similar three-in-a-row that was completed against the same opposition back in 2012.
“We want the players to play to the best of their ability, if they do that we should be there or thereabouts in terms of winning. If it’s not good enough then we would be still be happy if they show they have done their best in their performance.”