The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
Dingle’s giant-killing might continue but Crokes depth should pull them through
THE noises from the Dr Crokes dressing room were instructive. You wouldn’t have expected whoops of delight from the Killarney men after they had booked their place in the semi-finals on the back of a five-point win over Kerins O’Rahillys. Firstly, this was just a quarter-final match, a means to a greater end, which – one suspects – doesn’t end with the Bishop Moynihan Cup. Secondly, Crokes had dispatched of O’Rahillys with a workmanlike, though hardly spectacular, performance, nothing more, nothing less. A performance that team selector Harry O’Neill suggested leaves his team with plenty to work on.
Still, the hair-dryer treatment visited on the Crokes players afterwards – through the door it sounded like their manager Pat O’Shea was doing the Alex Ferguson impersonation – suggested a serious level if dissatisfaction with the display that did for O‘Rahillys and deposited the Crokes into the penultimate stage.
At that stage O’Shea might have suggested that a similar performance simply wouldn’t be good enough to account for the reigning champions, South Kerry, were the semi-final draw to pair them together. Of course, an hour and change later the champions would be no more, done for by a doughty Dingle team that will take beating on Sunday when they front up to O’Shea’s men.
On the surface there was little enough to fault in Crokes’ quarter-final win. A goal and 16 points is respectable scoring on any given Sunday. Keeping a clean sheet – and limiting the opposition to hardly one decent shot at goal – is another box ticked. Limiting the opposition starting forwards to just six points from play is another gold star for the defence. Leading by seven points and half-time and closing the deal ahead by five after playing against a stiff wind for the second half speaks volumes.
A good day’s work then, but Crokes are perfectionists and O’Shea demands perfection. Dingle can expect a backlash.
For their part Dingle will bounce into Sunday’s semi-final brimming with confidence, although their taking down of the champions shouldn’t be regarded as a total surprise. This is a young and coming Dingle team, and like Kenmare District on the other side of the draw, why shouldn’t their time be now rather than a year or three down the line?
In Paul Geaney they have one of the top five forwards in the country right now. Cousins Mikey and Conor bring their own talents to the attack, while Cathal Bambury, Tomás Sheehy and Paul Devane can compare favourably with Crokes lesser stars in their forward lines.
The midfield tussle between the O’Sullivan brothers, Barry and Darragh, and Ambrose O’Donovan and Johnny Buckley will be game defining, and Dr Crokes will have to ensure the Ó Suilleabháin boys don’t establish a platform to feed the Geaneys with a regular and measured supply of ball.
If Dingle are to struggle it’s probably going to be at the back. Matthew Flaherty, Breandan Kelliher and the two Tom O’Sullivans are tidy defenders but they’ll face an attack a couple of notches up from even what South Kerry brought last Saturday.
It’s easy to just reel of the names – Cooper, Casey, O’Leary, Looney, Brosnan – and gush and praise, but the reality is that Crokes still possess a really potent attack, capable of cleaning any defence.
Casey still runs hard and often. Cooper still orchestrates and has that’s assassin’s eye. O’Leary is always good for a couple of scores at this level, and Tony Brosnan is an emerging talent who looks quite at ease among such decorated company.
One assumes Fionn Fitzgerald will be asked to curtail Paul Geaney. Gavin White – excellent against O’Rahillys – will possibly take up Mikey Geaney, with John Payne possibly asked to pick up Conor Geaney if he operates close to the Crokes goal. Getting the match-ups right on both sides will be crucial.
It’s probably too simplistic to think that because Dingle dethroned the champions last weekend that they won’t strike twice and dump the favourites out this weekend. But why not? Killian Young was a major loss for South Kerry last Saturday, but Dingle’s young players still had to go out and believe they could beat the champions and then execute the plan. What’s to stop them doing it again next Sunday?
Of course, they came up against a divisional team short on match practice, whereas Dr Crokes – like Dingle themselves – are a club team that now has their county men fully back in harness and benefiting from that, at times, stern examination from O’Rahillys.
Looking down their bench last Sunday, Crokes have Eoin Brosnan, Jordan Kiely, Micheal Burns, Luke Quinn, Jamie Doolan and Mike Milner to call on. Dingle don’t have the same depth of resources to call on. That might be the difference in a very tight game.
Verdict: Dr Crokes