Crokes likely to appeal Buckley red ahead of Corofin clash
MULLINALAGHTA’S magical journey in the club championship ended in Thurles on Saturday evening, the pickings of 11 rural townlands finally quelled by the finesse and richer resources of Dr Crokes.
The result clears the way for a dream All-Ireland final with Corofin on March 17.
Having demolished all in their path in winning Kerry and Munster titles, Crokes met their most testing opponent to date and had to show immense composure after losing Johnny Buckley to a red card in the 19th minute.
They were soon trailing by three points, having conceded two first-half goals.
But, inspired by the exceptional Gavin White at centre-back, they showed admirable character in dominating the match from there on.
The reasons behind Buckley’s dismissal were unclear, happening off the ball and not being picked up by the television cameras. The experienced midfielder will miss the final unless he launches a successful appeal.
Crokes selector Niall O’Callaghan appeared to suggest that an appeal was likely.
“As far as I know, and I wasn’t looking at it, Johnny Buckley and his man were pushing each other and your man just went down and the referee probably sent him off for a striking offence, there was no striking offence as far as we are concerned,” he commented.
“TG4 are saying they don’t have a camera on it, we are hoping that one of our cameras might have it.”
Lifted by a sixth-minute goal from a Gary Rogers penalty, Mullinalaghta showed little signs of trepidation against the hot favourites in the opening 20 minutes.
Presence
Jayson Matthews offered a livewire presence in attack, feeding David McGivney for the game’s opening score, and it was Matthews who finished to the net after 19 minutes when Rian Brady’s high ball was fielded by James McGivney near the Crokes goal.
McGivney’s effort was stopped by Shane Murphy but Matthews powered through to finish for a second goal.
While the Crokes’ attack sparkled, their defence will be a cause for concern.
In the second half Matthews had a penalty claim after another high ball landed in the Crokes square and with 15 minutes to go Aidan McElligott got a hand to a dropping ball which forced a sharp reflex save from Murphy.
“There is always work to do,” admitted O’Callaghan when asked of those defects. “Like, there are a good team, they are in an All-Ireland semi-final, they are always going to cause you trouble.
“We are happy enough with the players we have, a couple of the boys didn’t play too well today, they need to pick up their game for Croke Park,
“I mean you are gong to be exposed totally up there on St Patrick’s Day if you don’t show up and if you play some of the stuff we played today, so we know that, we are not going to be complacent.”
The response to Buckley’s red card pleased him, and no doubt manager Pat O’Shea, with David Shaw moving out to the middle of the field and wielding instant influence, kicking the first of five points without reply.
Crokes played breathtaking football at times with Mullinalaghta simply trying to limit the damage.
Tony Brosnan continued his irrepressible form and added four points from play to Shaw’s three, with Kieran O’Leary claiming another four.
O’Leary was denied a goal early in the match by a brilliant Patrick Rogers save and in the second half Rogers made another vital stop to deny White a goal after a long run.
Donie McElligott managed to break the sequence of Crokes points that followed Buckley’s red card, and by the interval the Longford champions were still well in the match, trailing 2-3 to 0-11.
But the restart brought another dazzling spell of football from Crokes. With Colm Cooper watching from the bench, they hit five more in a row to open a seven-point lead.
Yet Mullinalaghta refused to accept defeat easily. They responded with the next three scores and the Crokes goal led a charmed life at times. While Crokes never looked in serious danger of losing they were never out of sight or fully safe.
O’Callaghan was not surprised by the battle.
“From a very small parish they got all the way to an All-Ireland semi-final and you have to give them the respect they deserve. And probably in the first 20 minutes we probably gave them a little bit too much respect and didn’t play our own game. And the Johnny Buckley incident, from our point of view, made all our players step up and start playing.”
Having won only their first county senior championship in 66 years in 2016, Mullinalaghta know they may never experience an adventure like this again. Team captain Shane Mulligan spoke proudly in defeat.
“We’ve had great support, the noise of the crowd when we came out there at the start of the game was amazing.
“I guess they wanted a performance, they wanted a win. But I think they were happy that we stayed going.
“We want to thank them for the support they’ve give us.”