The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
O’Neill: Not conceding a goal was the key to success
WHILE Harry O’Neill’s first thoughts were with Giles O’Grady the Dr Crokes selector was nonetheless pleased that his teams escaped with a hardearned win.
“Giles O’Grady got a horrific injury in the first half and that’s where your first thought should be at, but outside of that our job was to come over here, get into a semi-final and that’s where we are, and we’re delighted with that.
“The O’Rahillys fellas said to me that we got a purple patch there in the middle of the first half and we did. We racked up that score and it put some distance between the two teams and thankfully we were able to keep them at arm’s length the whole time.
“The wind was a bit of a factor and we knew that Tommy Walsh was going to go on the edge of the square for them and he’s always a threat. (We knew) if we could keep the scoreboard ticking over in the second half, which I think we did, just about well enough, we were happy enough.
“Obviously not conceding a goal was crucial. The key was not to concede a goal, we didn’t do that, and we went on to keep the scoreboard ticking over.
“We’re happy enough to have just got over the line. We’ve had a tough battle.”
O’Rahillys joint-manager Morgan Nix felt his team’s inability ot raise a green flag was costly.
“We did okay for about ten minutes after the game started up again, but after that we couldn’t get our hands on the ball around the middle. They got their hands on a lot of ball and we couldn’t get it up to our forwards. They went ahead maybe four points quick enough and we were seven down at half time, which was a lot. There was a breeze out there but seven was a lot to bring back.
“We played well in the second half, and fair play to our lads they did take the game to them but we just never got close enough.
“We had one goal chance midway through the second half and had we managed to stick that then it was game on, but when that didn’t go in they always had the cushion of their goal.
As for the season as a whole, Nix said it was a disappointing end to the year.
“We put a lot of work in this year and we aimed to go a lot higher than a quarter-final. We have a good panel, but Crokes are one of the better teams. We drew them, we played Legion and South Kerry already, two of last year’s finalists, and then Crokes. We put a lot of work in and we’re not happy going out at the quarter-finals.
“There’s a lot of young lads there, we’ve Dave [Moran], Tommy [Walsh], Jack [Savage], Barry John [Keane], Cormac Coffey so there’s still a good nucleus there, but you’ve to take your chances and today is gone, and another year is gone.”