The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
Crokes find Nemo too hot to handle
Kerry champions lose Munster and All-Ireland titles to Cork kingpins
DR Crokes won’t be the fifth team to successfully defend the All-Ireland Club SFC title after relinquishing their Munster title to Nemo Rangers in a final that saw a long year’s football finally catch up with the Killarney club in the most unforgiving way.
Only UCD (1974/’75), St Finbarrs (1980/’81) and Crossmaglen Rangers twice (’99/2000) and (2011/’12) have retained the Andy Merrigan Cup, proving just how difficult a task lay ahead for Dr Crokes since they beat Slaughtneil last March, and so it came to pass that another All-Ireland Club champions has perished on the road back to Croke Park.
It would be remiss to say that many, if any, saw this result coming, but if any club or team was to dethrone Dr Crokes then Munster and All-Ireland kingpins, Nemo, were as good a bet as any to get the job done. Of course, tradition and past glories county for nothing in this game, so it was that the Cork champions simply had to rock up to Pairc Ui Rinn last Sunday with a very good team, a very good game plan, and a very good attitiude. Unfortunately for Dr Crokes, Nemo came with all three.
The talents of inter-county men such as Paul Kerrigan, Barry O’Driscoll and Luke Connolly was no secret – and all three played a central part in Nemo’s success – but they needed so many others to rise to the challenge too, and to that end Kevin O’Donovan, Alan Cronin, Kevin Fulignati, Alan O’Donovan and Paddy Gumley answered the clarion call best.
Gumley – a Cavan native – belied his senior years with a brilliant performance at full forward, scoring three points from play and being a general nusiance to the Crokes rearguard. Fuliganti quelled the threat of Micheal Burns on the wing, and Kevin O’Donovan and Alan Cronin locked up the twin threat of Colm Cooper and Kieran O’Leary to such an extent that neither scored from play or had any meaningful impact on the game (other than O’Leary’s 53rd minute dismissal for two bookings).
That Nemo’s ‘man of the match’ contenders were forwards Connolly, Kerrigan and Gumley and Crokes’ were goalkeeper Shane Murphy and defenders John Payne and Gavin White says it all: the champions were on the back foot for much of this pulsating contest. Midway through the first half Nemo moved 0-8 to 0-3 ahead before Crokes went it at half time 0-9 to 0-5 behind.
Early in the second half Nemo opened up another five-point lead, before Crokes cut the deficit to just two points in the 41st minute, but the champions never looked comfortable chasing down a game in which Nemo were, for the most part, in their pomp. In characteristic fashion Dr Crokes battled to the bitter end, with Tony Brosnan forcing a 61st minute save from Micheal Aodh Martin when a goal would have made it 1-11 to 0-15 with almost five minutes additional time still to play. It merely showed that the provincial and All-Ireland champions weren’t going down without a fight – in every sense of the word – and a serious of scuffles broke out in an untidy last 10 minutes, which suited Nemo more than it did Crokes, even if the Cork side’s lead was never absolutely comfortable.
It would have been somewhat odd had Crokes raised the game’s only green flag at the end of the game when it was Nemo who had peppered the Crokes goal in the first half, creating six decent goal chances that were thwarted by a combination of Payne interventions and Murphy saves. The first chance came in the fifth minute when Barry O’Driscoll slipped three tackles to get a goal-bound shot away only for Payne to deflect the ball out for a ‘45. Five minutes later Payne had to deny Kerrigan and so it continued – Murphy making two great saves from Connolly – to the interval.
Johnny Buckley and White carried the fight best for Crokes but poor shooting and passing by the Crokes forwards – coupled with tenacious Nemo defending – suggested this was going to be a testing day for Crokes at the very least. In the end it proved much more than that.
This Dr Crokes team have been great and worthy champions.
NEMO RANGERS: M A Martin; K O’Donovan, A O’Reilly 0-1, A Cronin; J Donovan, S Cronin, K Fulignati; A O’Donovan, J Horgan; B O’Driscoll, P Kerrigan 0-1, C O’Brien; L Connolly 0-10 (5fs, 2 45s), P Gumley 0-3, C Dalton. Subs :C Horgan 0-1 for Gumley (58), A Greaney for Kerrigan (62).
DR CROKES: S Murphy; J Payne, M Moloney, L Quinn; D O’Leary, F Fitzgerald, G White 0-1; J Buckley 0-1, A O’Sullivan; M Burns, G O’Shea, B Looney 0-2; C Cooper 0-3f, D Casey 0-3 (1f), K O’Leary. Subs: P Clarke for O’Shea (44), T Brosnan for Burns (48), E Brosnan for Quinn (53), J Kiely 0-1 for Looney (54).
REFEREE: Sean Longeran (Tipperary)