Harmon rues missed chances to edge ahead

A DEJECTED William Harmon put a brave face on matters in the aftermath of a county final that seemed to have the South Kerry manager still catching his breath half an hour after the final whistle. Or maybe it was that the Milltown/Castlemaine club man has invested so much in this South Kerry team over the last few years that the pain of defeat made it hard to gather his thoughts and express them.

“At times in the second half there when we had chances...maybe a small bit more composure...maybe better decision making on the ball,” Harman gasped as if he had kicked every ball with his team over the preceding hour. “I felt if we got it level at all that maybe we could crack on but it just didn’t happen for us at all. Just didn’t happen. You have to give credit to Dr Crokes, they’re a great side, a great club team. Been in here before, done this before and I suppose they eked it out in the end. But nothing but credit to the lads from South Kerry too, they gave it everything.”

Harmon hardly needed reminding of the killer stat, the glut of wasted scoring opportunities by his team, which was always going to be costly on a day when the champions were so economical and efficient in front of the posts.

“IN the first half I think the Crokes only kicked two wides. But we were only two points down at half time and we were happy enough with that. We knew we could give more, I knew we would come strong in the second half but we just couldn’t get level, couldn’t get level,” Harmon conceded. “If we did get level I think it could have been a different game but fair play to Crokes, when they went up the field they always executed. They always kept that one point ahead, that was the killer in the end.

“I think we would have deserved (the win). We brought the game to Crokes, we went at them, it’s just unfortunate but that’s life. We always believe in ourselves, we always believe we can pull it out of the fire. It’s just on the ball, the tiny things. But this is a great group. There’s seven or eight under-21s in that South Kerry team. They’ll all learn from this experience, I’ve no doubt. Three years ago not many people would have even thought of South Kerry being back in finals, winning finals. We’ve been in two finals in three years, winning one, and winning the Under-21 last year which was a great platform for these guys to push on. They’ll be back.

“We knew the story before hand with Cooper but it doesn’t matter because they’re all very good footballers. They brought on young (Paul) Clarke, they brought on young Jordan Kiely, all lovely footballers. Look, they’re all as good as each other but Colm Cooper is a huge player and a big loss to them. Of course we were delighted not to see him on from the start but when he did come on there near the end you still have to manage him and mind him, he’s a great player.”

Meanwhile, Crokes captain Daithi Casey said the retention of the Bishop Moynihan Cup was perhaps the most satisfying part of the whole story for him and his team.

“The sweetest thing is we went back-to-back because people questioned whether we would do that, whether we had the hunger to go back for it again,” he said. “That’s the biggest achievement for this group of players, that when the questions were put to us we stepped up to the plate and did it again.”

And on going joint-top of the County Championship roll of honour with Austin Stacks and Laune Rangers (all now with 12 titles) Casey said: “It wasn’t something we were thinking about coming into the game, it was just about winning. It’s fantastic for the club that we draw level with Stacks and Laune Rangers, something we will look back on when we have retired.”