The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
‘Competition is the secret of our success’
IN a lot of ways, the story of Dr Crokes’ rise to the top of the Roll of Honour in the County Championship has its roots in the past, nearly three and a half decades ago to precise when they first sought to go on their own in the aftermath of being a part of the County Championship win by Killarney in 1983 as selector Vince Casey explained after last Sunday’s win.
“In 1985 we made a delegation to go on our own in the county championship in 1985, one of our selectors Der Brosnan and Pat’s father Murt O’Shea made it and we were refused.
“We had to step out in ‘85, it was our Centenary in ‘86 so we were allowed in and we never looked back since. It’s just been phenomenal, it took us 77 years to win our fifth title.
“This bunch of players are unbelievable, the dedication, the commitment, they put in. It’s great for Colm Cooper and Eoin Brosnan they have the most county championships medals ever.
“Over the last two decades they have been to the forefront of leadership in the team and you see to them what it means to them even after. That’s why this final was more special than any other final,” Casey said afterwards.
The final score was a little more comfortable than the game felt like towards the finish and it was only with Gavin White’s goal that they could relax according to Casey.
“Dingle have shown incredible commitment. We were four points up and they came back to bring it to two points. We were worried on the sideline because you are always worried about a goal, but they showed patience, they were trying to show points.
“Paul [Geaney] had a narrow wide from a free that would have brought it back to one point. The only time we started to feel the game was coming to it was the goal, that was when it was 14 v 15. We turned it over and moved at pace and thankfully our guys made the right decisions and it was easy for Gavin to finish,” the Crokes selector said.
Casey expressed his hope that White would go on to be one of the new leaders for Crokes in a new generation starting to emerge as he spoke of the structures that allowed White along with several youngsters to start emerging now.
“Pat O’Shea put in place a coaching structure in the ‘90s, when we won in 1992. A lot of people got involved, Edmund [O’Sullivan] has been phenomenally involved with most of these players over the last six years.
“With the minor teams he has been bringing through the David Shaws, Micheál Burns the next generation. Edmund would have a very strong link with them and look we have great people involved in the club.”
“Today is about the players and a whole lot of individuals who have contributed for these guys when they started at six, seven or eight and continuing the way up. It is very easy for Minors that when they don’t get a game at 19 to drift off.
“Micheál Burns is now 22/23 it’s taken a while for the likes of him to establish themselves on the team and thankfully they’ve been patient. David Shaw had won two Corn Uí Mhuirí’s with the Sem and he was still not starting until this year.
“They are the future, but they are also the present because we wouldn’t be as a strong if we didn’t have them. It’s the competition within the squad and the competition training wise that has been the secret of our success,” Casey feels.
Overall many will reflect on the loss to Kerins O’Rahillys in Round 2Aasbeingaturningpointforthe club in general and Casey felt that the club brought it to a different level after such a loss.
“They were the better team on the day, we stopped playing and they took advantage of it. In fairness to O’Rahillys and Micheál Quirke they are a very good side andtheyhaveputtogetheravery good structure.
“They came at us, we lost, and did we learn from it? Absolutely, and I suppose that was a time when the players hunger was questioned by various people and they’ve given this response numerous times when they’ve been asked about hunger.
“They moved on from there and brought it to another level. The other side of it is Gavin White was only coming back from injury at that time and Tony Brosnan was injured as well so we had to inject some youth into the team,” he said.