“We’ve no right to think we’ve a God given right to win”

FOR four county championship campaigns from 2010 to 2013 inclusive Dr Crokes were unbeatable. Untouchable, almost. That first year, 2010, they had seven points to spare over Austin Stacks in the county final, and over the next three county deciders they won by an average of almost 11 points - five, eleven and then sixteen. They were, by any yardstick, invincible at home.

They were fairly handy when it came to the Munster championship too. They lost that first provincial decider in 2010 to Nemo Rangers by two points, but no shame in that: the Cork city club were then, and remain now, the standard-bearer of club football in Munster. That 2010 title handed Nemo their 15 provincial title, 12 more than Dr Crokes at the time.

Since then Dr Crokes have doubled their tally of Munster titles from three to six, beating UCC, Castlehaven and Cratloe by an average of five points in successive Munster finals. Significantly, perhaps, it was Cratloe, from Clare, who pushed Crokes closest to defeat - one point, in fact. Twelve months later Austin Stacks were on the Munster Club campaign and had to fight on their backs to get out of Pairc Ui Chaoimh with a four-point win over Waterford champions, The Nire.

After winning those three provincial titles after the turn of the decade, Dr Crokes failed to reach an All-Ireland Club Final on St Patrick’s Day in any of the three years. A Clare club, Kilmurry-Ibrickane, and a Cork club, Nemo, have been in Croke Park on March 17 more recently than a Kerry club has. It all feeds into Harry O’Neill’s admission that Dr Crokes have “no God given right to win these things”.

For all the lore and talent and expectation that Dr Crokes teams have been and continue to be associated with, team selector O’Neill knows that nothing is given, everything is earned on the football field.

“Expectation, I don’t know, but excitement, you’re always excited when you’re in finals. We were in a final today, we’re in another one next weekend and there’s excitement there,” O’Neill said in the wake of his team’s successful retention of the County Football League title last Saturday. “But I’ve said this before and people are probably sick of me saying it but we had a run there of four years where we got four county championships in a row and when you’re doing that there’s excitement, there’s expectation, there’s everything. But we’ve had two very bad years so our feet have been put firmly back on the ground so there is no expectation, no nothing now.

“We are taking every game completely on merit and we know we’re in a battle next weekend and that’s what we are preparing for. There is nobody talking about anything further than next Sunday and that’s the way we have approached this year because we have no right to be thinking we have a God given right to win these things. We don’t. We saw what can happen when we take our off the ball and that happened that last couple of years. The lads are doing well, they’re working hard and we’ll just take it every step as it comes,” O’Neill insists.

He is aware of the loose talk around the town and county that Crokes should and will be winning this provincial title handy enough, but O’Neill has been involved with these teams on these days for too long to be duped by such chatter.

“The one thing we’ve always known is that whatever team you meet in Munster you’ve to show them a huge amount of respect because they are county champions. This in The Nire’s second Munster Final in two years (sic) so they’re no mugs. These guys are serious footballers so we definitely need to step up on our performance from the last day.

“Last week (against Loughmore-Castleiney) we were probably a small bit frustrated with what went on on the field but the lads got through the game, they managed the game well, and they got over the line. We got today (against Stacks) out of the way, we’ll move on now Tuesday night and start focusing on The Nire and look forward with another battle against them.

“We certainly won’t take them for granted,” O’Neill says, almost as much for the benefit of the Crokes players and supporters as for the media and wider audience. “I think there’s too much of that talk goes on around to be honest, it’s like, ‘oh that’s a team from Waterford’. The Nire are county champions in Waterford and they work as hard as any team in Munster or in the country. They’ve some very talented footballers and at club level it’s an even playing field.

“They went down to Clonakilty, which is literally (Cork champions) Roscarbery’s back yard and they were down seven points at one stage and they still showed the grit and determination and football to come through and win that game in extra-time. They pushed (Austin) Stacks to the limit two years ago in Pairc Ui Chaoimh (in the 2014 Munster Club Final) and we played them ourselves. I know it was back in 2006 but they limited us to only one point in the second half that day and we only won the game by three so we know the challenge that’s coming up.”