The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
Kilmoyley get benefit of the doubt against Crotta
COUNTY SHC QUARTER-FINAL
Crotta O’Neills v Kilmoyley
Saturday, July 27 Austin Stack Park, 7pm
IT says much about Crotta O’Neills’ development in the past twelve months that what once might have seemed an easy tie to adjudicate has us genuinely stumped.
Pretty much any other year aside from this one Kilmoyley would have been clear and obvious favourites. They had the form, the players and the pedigree. That, of course, is not to say they’ve had it easy against the green and red over the years.
Crotta have given as good as they’ve got against Kilmoyley over the past four or five seasons, often coming out the wrong side when they could have and really should have won the game.
The difference between those games, and this, is the stage of the competition. The early rounds aren’t remotely representative of what we’re going to get this weekend. This is the real deal, do-ordie, knock-out championship hurling.
The phony war is over and that being the case we’re inclined to go with the more proven commodity – Kilmoyley. They’ve won two of the last three championships, they reached last year’s semi-finals and, yet, somehow we’re not wholly convinced of them as of yet.
Losing Paudie O’Connor has been a hammer blow and, while they took Ballyheigue apart in the losers round game, questions remain about their capacity to get the scores they need to return to the top of the pile.
Against Ballyheigue their movement was excellent and they put up over some great scores. Jordan Brick for the second game in-a-row looked like the hurler Kilmoyley need him to be.
Seán Maunsell, Joe McElligott and Maurice O’Connor, meanwhile, also looked very good, but Ballyheigue’s fall off was so precipitous, after a stunning opening ten or eleven minutes, that we can’t let be one hundred percent convinced of the green and gold just yet. Neither, of course, can we be completely convinced of Crotta O’Neills. They’re obviously a team on the move, but they’re still to take a significant scalp. Beating Ballyheigue was about the bare minimum they had to do.
Against Ballyduff in the winners’ round they showed flashes of what they might be able to become, but when push came to shove Ballyduff were still able to find something within themselves that Crotta were not, not yet anyway.
That’s the thing, Crotta are still learning, still developing. Losing to Ballyduff wasn’t the end of the world, what they would have learned in that defeat was invaluable. Pádraig Cronin’s men would have learned a hell of a lot more from that game than Kilmoyley did from their game with Ballyheigue (although the confidence Kilmoyley generated from that victory was surely invaluable).
It’s going to be fascinating to see how Crotta approach this weekend’s game. They’ve got to view it as the perfect opportunity to get that much needed scalp – their first of note really since they reached the final in 2011.
There’s a serious spine to this Crotta team. Seán Weir, through Tomás O’Connor, Barry Mahony, Jordan Conway and Shane Nolan (the forward line does tend to rotate somewhat it’s got to be noted).
Of course, similar things can be said about Kilmoyley’s spine. Colman Savage and James Godley, for instance, are fearsome operators at the centre of Kilmoyley’s defence. As always a lot will hinge upon Daniel Collins. How well he plays and how well Crotta play him.
Kilmoyley have done enough over the recent past to deserve the favourites tag, but by the same token we would be by no means surprised if the O’Neills pushed on to the next level.
Verdict: Kilmoyley