CROTTA O’NEILLS

Titles: 9 (1939, 1941, 1943, 1944, 1945, 1947, 1950, 1951, 1968)

Championship 2017: defeated in the second round by Causeway on a scoreline of0-12to2-18

Manager: Pádraig Cronin (3rd year) Captain: Shane Nolan (right) Key man: Seán Weir

Players in: Barry Mahony, Eamonn Rohan, Jordan Conway & Darragh O’Donoghue

Players out: Tom Cronin, Adrian O’Mahony, David Behan(inj)

First Round: versus Ballyheigue

What they say: “Our hope would be to get the team to perform to their maximum. I don’t think we’ve got that in the last couple of years with injuries, we’ve had an amount of injuries and what we’d hope to have is the best team Crotta can have available and fit and see how they go. I think there’s good potential there, but potential is just one thing, we need to star t winning a few matches and we’ll target the first match. Our own man, Brendan Mahony, is over them and I know that they’ll be well drilled and well up for us so I know we’ve a big task on hand. So we’ll target the first match and see how we go from there” – manager Pádraig Cronin

Overview: There’s a bit of a buzz about Crotta O’Neills at the moment. That’s what a couple of county minor titles will do for a club. When they last reached the final – in 2011 – it was the type of campaign that seemed to spring from nowhere. If they’re to do something similar this time around it’ll be easier to see the roots of it. Crotta have a real groundswell of talent coming through thanks to that underage success. They’ve got a nice haul of players on the Kerry senior panel and with manager Pádraig Cronin bringing Eddie Murphy on board as coach Crotta are cer tain to be well-drilled. It’s an exciting time for the club, but they’ve got to make use of it while they can. They’ve been handed what’s on paper a helpful draw – against Ballyheigue – and as long as they play to their potential it’s a game they should win, granting them a place in the quar ter-finals at least. Given how they’ve fared in recent years that would represent progress, but you get the feeling their aiming a little bit higher than that. A semi-final ber th wouldn’t be out of the question we feel.