The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
A whole now ball game but same old result expected from Crokes
Dr Crokes v Dingle Sunday, April 29 Austin Stack Park, Tralee Throw-in at 2.30pm
IF the winner’s name was engraved on the Senior Club Championship cup immediately after the final whistle of the final, said engraver could probably save themselves doing a rush job on Sunday afternoon and scratch out ‘Dr Crokes’ on the silver plating at their leisure any time this week. That’s not being flattering to the reigning champions or unkind on Dingle, just a realistic view on how this game will probably play out.
Dr Crokes will be appearing in their seventh consecutive senior club final on Sunday (winners in 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2017) while Dingle are chasing rare silverware at this level. Having topped their respective groups to arrive at this finale, it was coincidential and perhaps unfortunate that these two had to meet in a county league fixture last weekend, and if that is to be any yardstick for how next weekend’s re-match might go, that’s what leads to believe the engraver might as well get on it with. Dr Crokes won by 2-12 to 0-7 back in Dingle; ergo, more of the same in Austin Stack Park on Sunday, right? Not so fast.
With the Kerry squad spirited away for a training weekend both teams were without several key players, and the availability of those players - to both teams makes this Senior Club final a very different ball game in every sense.
Dingle probably won’t have Mikey Geaney available as he nurses an injury but they will have Paul and Conor Geaney, Barry O’Sullivan, Matthew Flaherty and their two Tom O’Sullivans back in the fold, and that will strengthen their hand hugely. Of course, Dr Crokes will welcome back, injuries notwithstanding, Shane Murphy, Johnny Buckley, Fionn Fitzgerald, Daithi Casey, Micheal Burns and, possibly Gavin White (though unlikely) which makes an already impressive Crokes team even more impressive. And that’s the challenge for Dingle: getting the best out of their own county men is one thing but being able to live with an even stronger Crokes team is another altogether.
Even with the absence of their Kerry panellists, the defending champions fielded a strong team against Dingle last weekend with Mike Moloney, David O’Leary, Shane Doolan, Eoin Brosnan, Alan O’Sullivan, Gavin O’Shea and Colm Cooper bringing a huge amount of experience to the side, while David Naughton, Paul Clarke, Michael Potts and David Shaw lent an injection of youth. What has to be scary from Dingle’s point of view is that there was no Kieran O’Leary, Brian Looney, Tony Brosnan or Jordan Kiely in the Crokes team last weekend, and the first three there should be available on Sunday, though Kiely might miss out with a hamstring problem. Team captain John Payne is struggling to be fit to play as well.
Dingle manager Sean Geaney - back in management after a lengthy break from the game might be daunted by the task he and his team face again on Sunday but the 2008 All-Ireland U-21 winning manager is looking forward to the challenge.
“Dr Crokes are the standard bearer in Kerry football and have been for the last number of years. They’re a fantastic club and team and are fantastically coached by Pat O’Shea,” Geaney told The Kerryman, with a hat tip to the man he served as a Kerry selector with a decade ago.
“We’re going to give it a go, we’re not going into this final to make up the numbers. From our point of view as a management team we’re only three or four months into the job so we’re not fully up to speed with where we are at as a team. We haven’t seen the county players at all but for the three club championship games, so this final will give us a better idea of what we’re like with those lads. The county league is going to be tough for us, but it’s really about building for the county championship later in the year and this game will hopefully give us a better idea of where we are at and going.”
It’s a decade since Geaney managed Kerry to the county’s last All-Ireland U-21 title at the same time as he was a senior team selector with Pat O’Shea, winning the All-Ireland title in 2007. After a short stint in charge of the John Mitchels minors Geaney - who lives and works in Castleisland stepped away from management for the best part of the last ten years before being cajoled back to manage his native Dingle.
“It’s a whole different ball game now,” he says of the way the game, even at club level, has evolved. “Training a club like Dingle now is as big a job as training the Kerry Under-21s ten years ago. Dealing with fellas away in colleges, working away, making sure they are on proper programmes, organising training and challenge games, that’s all changed a lot. Players are more aware of the increasing standards all the time so even at club level you won’t get away with throwing out any old session to them. They demand the best.
“I’ve enjoyed the new format of the senior club championship, it seems to have given the competition a new relevance. Even though the real significance for the winners is still tied in with a district team winning the county championship, the new format seems to have given a pep up to the competition. The three games in the group is more enjoyable for the players. We had a really tough opening round against Rathmore, who have been a very good championship team over the last few years, but once we got over them we were in a good place. Legion have been a tough team for Dingle in recent years and Kenmare were in the final last year so it was a tough group for us. The other side had really strong teams too and Crokes came through that fairly well so we know what we’re up against. It probably wasn’t ideal that we had to play in the county league in between. They beat us fair and square, but as I said, it will be a different game next weekend. There’s no point being pessimistic. Realistic would be a better word I’d say than optimistic but we’ll go and give a good shot,” Geaney added. Dr Crokes team selector and spokesman Edmund O’Sullivan feels Sunday’s final is going to be a lot closer than last weekend’s league meeting was, not least because of who Dingle will have next day out. “The individuals they have on the Kerry panel that will be back next Sunday are class players. Paul Geaney is one of the top forwards in the country at the moment and he can hurt any team. They have the fire-pow- er up front and they can put up scores very quickly on a team, so I really believe it’s going to be a close game.”
Of course, O’Sullivan acknowledges that Crokes’ returning county men greatly strengthens their hand too, while Looney, O’Leary and Tony Brosnan bring an extra dimension that wasn’t there last weekend.
“We’d always be quietly confident going into games that we can win” O’Sullivan says “given how the team has performed over the last few years. But there’ll be no complacency or taking any team for granted. Pat (O’Shea) is methodical in his preparations and there is no taking the foot off the gas despite what some of these players have achieved. There are plenty of young fellas chomping at the bit to get into the team and do well, and that mix of older lads and their experience, and the young lads and the energy they bring is invaluable.
“We’re under no illusions that this will be a completely different Dingle team and they have the players to hurt you quickly. Quietly confident that we can retain the title but we’ll be taking nothing for granted at all.”
Whether the rest of us - that theoretical cup engraver included - can or should take this final and the result for granted is another matter. Given the presence and threat alone of Paul Geaney, Dingle should be capable of putting up a decent challenge to the champions but it’s impossible to see anything other than a Dr Crokes win.