Clinical Crokes dig it out against determined South

COUNTY SFC FINAL

Dr Crokes 0-17 South Kerry 1-12

SUCCESSFULLY defending their county title and moving joint-top of the County SFC title roll of honour with Austin Stacks on 12 will have given Dr Crokes plenty of satisfaction these last few days, but perhaps what will mean most around Lewis Road this week is that this Dr Crokes team stared into the abyss of defeat a little after four o’clock last Sunday afternoon and they didn’t blink or take a backward step.

Although the defending champions never trailed South Kerry after Kieran O’Leary’s fifth minute point cancelled out Bryan Sheehan’s second minute converted ‘45’, there was a moment in this absorbing county final when Crokes’ title came under serious threat. A sloppy foul by Johnny Buckley in the 48th minute saw a black card added to a previous yellow and a perp walk to the sideline for the county man. Buckley hadn’t been playing particularly well or been overly dominant at midfield. And that’s the point. South Kerry were just a point behind at that stage, 1-9 to 0-13, but were enjoying a slice of supremacy around the middle of Austin Stack Park and Buckley’s dismissal - and Crokes’ reduction to 14 men - handed the initiative to the 2015 champions.

Bryan Sheehan, who alongside Brendan O’Sullivan, had the upperhand in the midfield battle, landed a huge point two minutes later to level the match and for the briefest of moments the All-Ireland champions teetered. Or appeared to from the outside. But parity last a mere 60 seconds before Crokes were in front again, Daithi Casey tapping over a close-range free, and within another five minutes they were three clear, Jordan Kiely and Kieran O’Leary doing the necessary. The stuff of champions.

South Kerry manager William Harmon agonised afterwards about his team’s inability to take the leas at any stage in the second half and was left to ruminate the hypotheticals. Not that the divisional team didn’t have their chances. Indeed, the next two scores came courtesy of Ronan Hussey and Sheehan to bring South Kerry to within a point again, in the 60th minute and with three additional minutes signalled, but few teams can control an endgame quite like Crokes. At that stage Colm Cooper was fully up to the pitch of the game having come on as a 42nd minute substitute, after a hamstring strain kept him from starting his tenth county championship final to be involved in. Appropriately enough it was Gooch who laid on the ball for O’Leary to nick the insurance score, with just enough time left for Eoin Brosnan to come on an earn his seventh county championship medal, the same as Cooper.

On reflection Dr Crokes will come to realise this was a final they might easily have lost. Between wides, underhit shots and wrong options, South Kerry blew about 15 very presentable scoring chances. Crokes barely dropped a crumb. If it was a darts match Crokes would have had a threedart average of about 112 and hit every double; South Kerry would have lanquished around the 80 mark and bounced out more times than is imaginable. On a day when this vaunted Crokes attack failed to raise a green flag they put in an exhibition of efficiency, shooting just two wides in the first half, none in the second and generally making the utmost of every chance that came their way.

News of Cooper’s late withdrawal sent ripples around the lower than expected attendance in Stack Park - Niall O’Shea started instead of Ronan Hussey for South Kerry - and the drama and tension merely hightened from there on, fuelled by a goal-bound shot from Brendan O’Sullivan and a flying save from Shane Murphy after just 20 seconds. Sheehan converted the resulting ‘45’ but two great points under pressure from O’Leary put Crokes in front by the ninth minute and the champions would never go behind again.

Tony Brosnan - Cooper’s replacement - had his 15th minute shot deflected over the bar to put Crokes 0-5 to 0-2 ahead, and goalkeeper Padraig O’Sullivan made a brilliant one-handed save to divert Casey’s shot over the bar in the 17th minute as the champions edged 0-6 to 0-3 ahead.

Man of the match winner Gavin White then came forward to extend to extend Crokes’ lead, but just when it looked as if the club side were about to put some real distance between themselves and South Kerry by half time, a defensive error from Mike Moloney gifted Ian Galvin a goal to close the deficit to a point, 1-3 to 0-7.

Dr Crokes scored four of the last seven points of the half, a Micheal Burns brace and superb scores from Brosnan and Casey, to lead 0-11 to 1-6 at the interval, but it was evident from their efforts that South Kerry were, as ever, going to make life very difficult for the champions.

Burns and Paul O’Donoghue traded scores after the restart before Sheehan landed a longrange score that precipitated the arrival of Cooper and Kiely. They had barely found their feet when Buckley got his marching orders, but while that shifted the initiative toward South Kerry for the final quarter they couldn’t necklace the scores to get out in front on the scoreboard.

By the 57th minute Crokes were three in front again, but late scores from Hussey and Sheehan (free) hauled the challengers back to within one again, and despite the loss of Moloney to a late black card Crokes held on to retain their title, with O’Leary’s fourth from play the franking the win.

DR CROKES: Shane Murphy, John Payne, Michael Moloney, Luke Quinn, David O’Leary, Fionn Fitzgerald, Gavin White (0-1), Johnny Buckley, Alan O’Sullivan, Micheál Burns (0-4), Gavin O’Shea, Brian Looney, Tony Brosnan (0-2), Daithí Casey (0-5, 2f), Kieran O’Leary (0-4) Subs: Jordan Kiely (0-1) for T Brosnan, 42, Colm Cooper for G O’Shea, 42, Paul Clarke for M Burns (inj), 56, Eoin Brosnan for B Looney, 60 (+3) Black Card: Ambrose O’Donovan for M Moloney, 60

SOUTH KERRY: Padraig O’Sullivan (Skellig Rangers), Brian Sugrue (Renard), Mark Griffin (St Michaels/Foilmore), Fionán Clifford (Waterville), Paul O’Sullivan (Valentia), John Curran (Valentia), Robert Wharton (Renard), Bryan Sheehan (0-7, 3f, 1 ‘45’) (St Marys), Brendan O’Sullivan (0-1) (Valentia), Conor O’Shea (0-1) (St Marys), Paul O’Donoghue (0-2) (St Marys), Graham O’Sullivan (Dromid Pearses), Niall O’Shea (Dromid Pearses), Matthew O’Sullivan (St Michaes/ Foilmore), Daniel Daly (St Marys) Subs: Ian Galvin (1-0) (Sneem/ Derrynane) for D Daly (inj), 11, Denis Daly (St Marys) for N O’Shea, 33, Oran Clifford for J Curran, 36, Ronan Hussey (0-1) for Matthew O’Sullivan, 45, Barry Dwyer (Waterville) for I Galvin, 60

REF: Brendan Griffin (Clounmacon)

THERE’S always one. One guy who puts his hand up. One guy who, when the fat is the in fire, stands tall. One guy who doesn’t wilt. One guy who carries the fight and keeps the flame alive.

Often times that guy is an elder statesman. Somebody who’s been there, done that. Somebody who knows the score. When you’ve seen it all you don’t panic, nothing surprises you, nothing fazes you.

Rarer is the young buck who stamps his authority on a county final as Gavin White did on Sunday afternoon. The Kerry panellist is just twenty years of age. He only started playing senior championship football during the 2015 campaign.

He doesn’t have all the oodles and oodles of experience that others on that Crokes team would have. Even so in his three years playing with the big boys White has packed an awful lot in.

In the past twelve months alone he’s played in two county finals, a Munster final and an All Ireland club final. Clearly he’s a quick study this guy. Soaking up every last morsel of information, squeezing what he can out of each and every experience.

The result is a player who’s better now than he was twelve months ago. A player who will be better still in another twelve months time. He’s got the hunger and the drive to keep on improving and his ambitions clearly don’t stop at Lewis Road.

White is a player who’s got all you’d need to make an impact as a Kerry senior footballer. It’s not just the skill or the anticipation and vision, it’s not just his eagerness to learn and improve, it’s his attitude, the character he shows.

White was named man of the match on Sunday not because of what he did in the first half when the Crokes were motoring nicely, he was named man of the match because of what he did when Crokes were in a spot of bother.

He got in blocks – one on Bryan Sheehan was particularly impressive – he made last gasp tackles which saved near certain scores. There’s a steely determination to the young man and plenty fire in the belly too.

His role wasn’t just that of fire-fighter, he actively took the fight to the Iveragh men. From half-back he drove his side on, helping turn the tide against a team which was increasingly on the front foot.

Looking back at the game now, at three days remove, it’s easy to imbue it with a certain sense of inevitability. Crokes were the more clinical side (massively so) and that being the case they were always going to win it... right?

Well it didn’t feel that clear cut at around 4pm on Sunday afternoon. Crokes needed to dig deep, they needed players like Gavin White to step up to the plate. That he was able to, that Crokes were able to draw upon all their reserves, that’s the real story of the game.

“You know it’s a team effort, a team game and it’s not just because of my performance that we won out there,” White answers when asked about being named man of the match in a county final for the first time.

“There were guys who came on there today that contributed like Paul Clarke, Ambrose [O’Donovan], Jordy [Kiely], Gooch