Crokes’ credentials will be fully tested by South

COUNTY SFC SEMI-FINAL

Dr Crokes v South Kerry Sunday, October 27 Fitzgerald Stadium, 3.15pm

SINCE 2010 Dr Crokes have won seven of the nine county senior championship titles completed, with Austin Stacks (2014) and South Kerry (2015) the only flies in the Killarney club’s ointment. In the previous decade South Kerry scooped up four titles, which makes them the second most successful team in the county championship since the turn of the century; their five only bettered by Crokes’ eight.

If this semi-final meeting was the actual county final few would be surprised or disappointed: there is seldom a bad or forgettable game when these two sides meet. That they meet at the penultimate stage makes this fixture no less appealing or anticipated, especially as Dr Crokes are still on course to complete what would be their second four-in-a-row this decade, while South Kerry can become only the second multi-title winning team this decade if they can claim the Bishop Moynihan Cup for the 11th time in total.

Both teams arrive at this semi-final unbeaten: South Kerry having beaten Shannon Rangers, St Brendans and St Kierans, while the champions have despatched Rathmore, St Kierans and Kenmare Shamrocks with relative ease. It’s fair to assume this semi-final will be the toughest examination – by a distance – of each’s credentials, which makes it a game to really look forward to and one quite hard to predict the result of.

Dr Crokes being Dr Crokes will come into the game as favourites, and why wouldn’t they. Unlike the 2018 championship, when they were beaten in round two and have to right themselves in the round 3, this campaign they haven’t put a foot wrong, starting with a ruthless demolition of Rathmore in the first round.

The absence of Colm Cooper was notable then (they were also missing goalkeeper Shane Murphy and defender John Payne that day), but though the Gooch hasn’t featured since – and is unlikely to for the rest of the year, at least – the teams looks to have moved into a new post-Cooper era and appear none the worse for it.

Plenty of the old guard from the start of the decade are still here – Payne, Moloney, Buckley, Casey, Looney, and the O’Learys – but there’s a new, young rump of players – Michael Potts, Gavin White, Micheál Burns, David Shaw, Tony Brosnan and Mark O’Shea, among others – that have been stitched in seamlessly into a team that still retains Pat O’Shea’s bedrock philosophies of how a Crokes team should play the game, even if their old manager, like Cooper, is not involved this year.

Any hangover from their All-Ireland Club final defeat to Corofin in March looked well and truly cured, and while Dr Crokes have two huge games to overcome to retain their Kerry title, one can be certain that regaining the Andy Merrigan Cup remain high on their agenda.

South Kerry can never set their sights on All-Ireland glory, but they can and do see county championship titles as attainable almost every year, and for the last 15 years they’ve been reaping more than most.

In that time they’ve been greatly helped by the proliferation of county standard footballers coming out of the district, but, nevertheless, it’s a credit to successive teams and managers that they’ve been able to get the best out of a sprawling geographical district that draws on eight clubs.

A comfortable first round 12-point win over Shannon Rangers was the perfect was to ease themselves into the championship, and a second home game – and win – against St Brendans fast-tracked them to last Sunday’s quarter-final where they wrestled with St Kierans for 30 minutes before pulling away in the second half to win by six points.

On paper South Kerry are a formidable team. From Killian Young at full back to Mark Griffin and centre-back, Bryan Sheehan and Graham O’Sullivan at midfield, and Brendan O’Sullivan, Daniel Daly, Ciarán Keating and Niall O’Shea in attack, this is a talent-heavy South Kerry team, and that’s without mentioning Robert Wharton, Fionan Clifford, Conor O’Shea and Barry O’Dwyer, all of whom are quality players.

In Young, Griffin and Wharton they have defenders who can get a good handle of Shaw, Brosnan and Burns, while Sheehan – who remains one of the best club footballers in the county – and Graham O’Sullivan will more than match Johnny Buckley and young Mark O’Shea in the Crokes midfield.

Having Brendan O’Sullivan back to fitness is a huge boost for South Kerry, while the Dalys, the O’Sheas, Keating and O’Dwyer are forwards who ability to score is matched only by their propensity to work hard.

Whatever else Dr Crokes can expect on Sunday it’s that South Kerry will contest and compete until their last breath at the final whistle. After that it’s simply a question of which team can mine the most scores against two tenacious defences.

It easy – perhaps too easy – to side for Dr Crokes because, well, because they’re Crokes, but they do have the form and experience and players to carry the day. South Kerry, however, have those three qualities, too, and this could easily go to extra-time and even a second day out to find a winner. Verdict: Dr Crokes